No business can afford to have their IT systems go down, but many businesses can’t afford the time or the money to dedicate a full IT team, or even a single person, to look after their networks, upgrade software, look after cyber security, and do all the other tasks needed to keep things up and running smoothly.
You’re either left with crossing your fingers and hoping nothing goes wrong or getting the most IT savvy person in your business to do their best and look after things, taking time away from what they should be doing.
Neither is an appealing option if you don’t have the budget to hire a professional, but there is an alternative.
What is a managed service provider (MSP)?
A managed service provider is an outside service provider that offers IT services, such as network management, leased lines, VoIP, cyber security, and more, giving businesses the IT support they need, without having to pay one or more full-time salaries.
Your MSP might source and install hardware on your behalf, help you migrate to the Cloud, or install your new VoIP phone system with a leased line to give you fast and reliable, no contention ratio broadband.
You might hire them to simply cover evenings and weekends or holiday cover when your own IT people aren’t available, or your MSP may be your entire IT team.
Security and safeguarding
From the UK government’s Cyber Security Breaches Survey 2021, “Four in ten businesses (39%) and a quarter of charities (26%) report having cyber security breaches or attacks in the last 12 months.” https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/cyber-security-breaches-survey-2021/cyber-security-breaches-survey-2021
Added to what’s become a regular onslaught of cyber-attacks against businesses is the increase in remote working due to the pandemic. While that’s a good thing, in that it brings added flexibility for employees and employers alike, it does increase the demand on IT departments and increase the risks of a cyber-attack. Home networks and laptops aren’t as secure as a proper in-house business IT system, or as easily managed.
With so much happening on the cyber security side of things, it’s unreasonable to expect any business to manage their systems without IT support of some sort, and that’s where an MSP can be an excellent solution.
Your MSP will have the resources to constantly monitor and upgrade your systems, check for malware and viruses, and provide the secure, regular backups you need if something goes wrong and you need a quick restore to get your business back up and running again quickly.
Cost-effective IT support and services
When you hire a full-time IT person to work in your business, you’re not only paying a salary, but you also have to pay National Insurance, provide a pension, and maternity/paternity benefits, among other things. You need to spend time on recruiting the right person and on training them, and all of these things cost money and time.
Then they want holidays and evenings and weekends off and your system isn’t covered when they aren’t there.
With an MSP, on the other hand, you only pay for what you use. You’ll have a Service Level Agreement (SLA) that sets out their responsibilities and what you can expect from them. You don’t need to pay for a full-time salary plus benefits, and you can get cover for outside hours, holidays, and sickness whenever you need to.
That leaves your systems covered and protected by IT professionals for far less than you’d pay for a full-time employee.
Identify ways to improve processes
A professional MSP will have different employees who are experts in their field so you don’t have to be.
They’ll be able to look at your current systems and recommend upgrades and improvements that make a big difference to how efficiently your network, and therefore your business, runs.
With the right MSP, you can also rely on them to work with you to improve your IT processes. You’ll be able to rely on someone who knows exactly how to get the most out of your systems and processes, and what to put in place to improve them.
Instead of ad hoc processes that don’t refer to each other or create a complete set of smooth-running processes, you can have full IT systems processes that cover everything from how to update your software, when it should be done and who by, to what happens if your business is hacked. With a full suite of procedures and processes set up, there’s no need to scramble and try to figure out what to do. You already know. All you have to do is look up the right process and follow it. Job done.
That’s the difference a good MSP can make to your business.