We could yak on all day about how managed IT services give awesome businesses like yours a ton of benefits, e.g., you don’t have to shell out the dosh to hire your own staff, you have access to a breadth of expertise, yadda yadda yadda. But, we’re focusing on our clients’ favorite managed IT services benefits – the stuff we get pretty feedback about – so get ready for some homegrown client feels about the benefits of managed IT services.
Our clients’ favorite thing about managed IT services? They can finally relax because we do the worrying for them
1. Peace of Mind
Yep, you thought we’d start with some geeky tech splurt about super-innovatory gubbins that cut all the edges, but, nope, peace of mind is premium. Managed IT service benefits allow you to unclench your jaw and reduce your blood pressure for three reasons.
Cleans Up the Gross
Managed IT services provide benefits like a metaphorical spring clean – take out the trash, wipe down the walls, fix all the things, etc. Non-metaphorically, you’re looking at tasks like:
- Reviewing IT infrastructure and topology for potential vulnerabilities and threats as well as how well it works together.
- Bringing a disorganized fleet of devices and other endpoints into ordered control through mobile device management, creating an up-to-date IT asset register. Yum!
- Checking for outdated operating systems and software and updating them with the latest security patches.
- Reviewing and fixing access control, e.g., by implementing strong identity management practices such as multi-factor authentication, password management, and role-based provisioning.
- Configuring security controls correctly.
- Encrypting everything that can’t run away.
24/7 Monitoring
Managed IT service benefits include a proactively monitored IT ecosystem, not just to make sure nothing nasty happens, but also to keep it running to your operating standards of uptime, speed, and other performance measures. This involves creating alerts and notifications on unusual activity or critical events and responding to them quickly as well as monitoring for trends or patterns that impact your infrastructure’s effectiveness. Nice!
Predictable Costs
Managed IT services usually come with a clear pricing structure and flexibility. For instance, MDM might be priced by device or user per month and scale up or down depending on your headcount. Because these costs are forecastable, with no hidden nasty surprises, budgeting no longer means you breaking out in a rash.
With your infrastructure cleaned up, managed, and monitored comes blessed peace of mind, which means more than just better quality zzz’s at night. It frees up your headspace to focus on the fun business stuff like strategy and customer service.
2. Things Work
Another benefit of managed IT services is that things actually work. And that means optimized infrastructure with no unexpected downtime. Your team can rely on your IT infrastructure because:
- Downtime for necessities like upgrades, patching, or maintenance is planned ahead of time.
- Software is continually updated, so you have fewer glitches and bugs.
- You’re protected against cyberattacks such as ransomware and other nasties.
- The IT aspects of operational activities like recruitment are already check-listed, which means superfast and super-effective onboarding.
3. Device Flexibility
We’re not talking about bendy smartphones, we are talking about platform diversity. In the bad old days, managed service providers batted for Team Apple or Team Other One, but not both. And this was no good to real-world businesses that use the right platform for the right role. Offer your designers anything but a Mac and you’ll have your teeth handed back to you on a plate. Luckily, evolution happened and this means that now you can lure in new hires with their choice of device, create a BYOD culture, or dish out the right device for the right job. Decently managed IT services will have the capacity and capability to manage all the platforms under a single pane of glass.
Business Focus
Managed IT services should be all about you. We’ve heard that some managed IT providers cram their clients into a one-size-fits-all framework that is not client-shaped. Nope. Just no. Grown-up managed IT is all about serving clients’ business needs, their way. And that means:
- Understanding their business. For instance, to serve startups properly, you gotta understand startup funding and the kinds of IT services startups need at each stage of their funding rollercoaster.
- Understanding business working models. Hybrid work is now the norm and you’ll need proactive managed IT that’ll serve this way of working.
- Having a help desk that actually helps. Good help desks are peopled by geeks that speak human and actually like helping. Bad helpdesks, not so much.
- Understanding compliance frameworks and how achieving compliance works. If you’re heading off into the wilds of SOC 2, SEC, HIPAA, PCI DSS, and the rest, your managed IT service should be able to understand what’s needed, how much of the framework you’ve already achieved, and work with your compliance auditory to close up the gaps.
There Are Loads More Managed IT Services Benefits, But We’re Tired
So, we’ve lobbed a selection of our clients’ favorite benefits of managed IT services at you, hopefully without too much sales cringe. If you’re even a teeny bit managed-IT-services-curious, we would be almost too excited to hear from you, so give us a call. We don’t bite much.
Ignition is Silicon Valley’s best (and friendliest) IT security, compliance, and support team. Contact us now – chatting about IT support and cybersecurity is our favorite thing to do!