As a small business owner, your workforce needs to be limited but well-managed. And for their operations to be efficient, your workers need technology that is well-maintained and always functional.
For this very reason, many small businesses hire a dedicated full-time IT manager, but that is not always the best pathway, and it also is a costly option.
The alternative that is now gaining more popularity is managed service providers (MSPs).
For context, MSPs are a team of specialized professionals who provide managed IT services for small businesses.
The services under this domain support all your technological needs by providing the required IT support that may include setup, configuration, installation, and monitoring of your company's networks.
Once you decide to go for managed IT services, you'll enjoy the expertise, industry knowledge, and dedication of an entire IT department solely focused on improving your business's core competencies.
In this post, we take a deep dive into the key advantages of managed IT services for small businesses. Let’s begin!
In the simplest of words, Managed IT services are essential for small businesses to handle complex internal IT procedures.
In small businesses, the number of staff members is small. In fact, according to Forbes, only 16% of the small businesses in the US had 1 to 19 employees.
Given the small team and small revenue factors, a small business generally would require more resources to keep a big internal IT team.
Therefore, managed IT services are a better alternative — in most cases, better than the original option itself.
A managed IT service is a complete business model where the managed service provider (MSP) is responsible for providing all the necessary personnel, hardware, and software for their client's IT needs.
They are important because they help keep the business’s IT operations up and running and help respond to any IT emergencies, disasters, or problems 24/7.
The primary advantage of managed IT services for small businesses is that they are cost-efficient.
When investing in your business's IT needs, predicting expenses is difficult as your business grows with time.
Outsourcing IT services can result in these costs being consolidated into a single monthly budget.
The managed IT service providers usually work on fixed monthly rates, therefore, you won't have to worry about additional costs in case of maintenance, repairs, or sudden hardware breakdowns.
It’s cliche but true: Technology can never be blindly trusted.
In case of any IT failure, the Managed Service Providers are available 24/7.
The in-house IT support provides limited availability during holidays or sickness, which may interrupt productivity and operations.
However, this is different with managed IT services since they are available to provide extensive service hours to ensure that businesses have access to quick issue resolution.
Top-tier MSPs strive to resolve most of the issues as quickly as possible, depending on the issue's complexity.
Most times, an in-house IT professional would lack the necessary resources required for proper monitoring systems because the tools and technology needed at the professional’s end would also be the business’s expense.
However, Managed IT services provide proactive monitoring with their tools and tech to identify and address potential issues before they become significant issues.
MSPs ensure that your IT infrastructure operates at its best through regular system maintenance and performance optimization.
Downtime is the period during which the business' IT systems are offline due to network outages or technical glitches.
According to Gartner, on average, a single minute of downtime can cause a business a loss of around 5600 USD.
Downtime can also cause damage to your business reputation and result in significant revenue loss.
To combat this, Managed IT services for small businesses provide various beneficial services that proactively reduce network downtime.
These beneficial services include IT monitoring, conducting continuous maintenance tasks, disaster recovery planning, rapid disaster response, robust security measures, performance optimization, etc.
Managed IT services provide an extensive range of cybersecurity services that help improve security and compliance.
Small businesses are quite vulnerable to cyber threats, and you may end up losing valuable data, damaging your business' reputation, facing legal liabilities, losing customer trust, etc. due to cyber attacks.
Therefore, taking robust cyber security measures, and having an effective cyber security team working at all times, is essential.
MSPs are usually familiar with PCI (Payment Card Industry) compliance and implement all security strategies to ensure your business is up-to-date with all security standards.
They also improve cyber security by monitoring, managing, and maintaining your network, devices, data, and systems.
Managed IT services provide more scalability compared to in-house IT teams.
As a business grows, IT needs increase, and managed IT services provide the scalability and flexibility to accommodate this growth effortlessly.
With the help of managed services, you can add and remove services as per your business demands.
The Managed Service Providers have the required resources to scale quickly and efficiently to support your business's growth trajectory.
When you outsource your IT tasks to Managed Service Providers, you gain access to a team of IT professionals with specialized expertise and diverse knowledge of the latest technologies.
Managed IT services for small businesses help improve productivity by giving access to the latest technology and tools without having to invest in hiring and training an in-house IT team.
With managed IT services, you can stay up-to-date with all the industry advancements and implement cutting-edge solutions with access to diverse expertise.
Cloud technology is an increasingly popular tech among small businesses because of all the benefits it offers to streamline operations.
MSPs are known for providing various advantages to cloud computing services as well, which is why more and more businesses are turning towards managed IT services as opposed to hiring full-time IT managers.
MSPs have knowledgeable cloud experts, which allows them to ease the complexity of cloud computing for you, and they also reduce security risks by implementing cloud data backups.
The process scalability is also consistently improvised by having the infrastructure and cloud compatibility aligned.
Managed IT services also optimize the infrastructure costs through checks and balances.
Also, they follow proven cloud migration strategies in order to streamline on-premises and off-premises cloud migrations.
The last thing any small business owner would want for themselves is another task on their to-do lists, and maintaining and managing a long list for each IT-related equipment vendor every month does just that.
Fortunately, managed IT services cater to this issue as well by handling all the hardware and software vendors so that you don’t have to engage in complicated or technical conversations.
Also, with their conversational skills, the MSPs can get you the best rate for equipment in the market.
For the continuous operation of a small business, the small businesses must be protected against any kind of data loss.
While the in-house IT support team may have the necessary systems, they usually need more bandwidth to ensure regular backups.
Managed IT services prioritize disaster recovery planning and data backup.
They can design and implement a robust data backup strategy that is specifically designed according to your business needs.
By outsourcing this task to an MSP, you can mitigate potential data losses effectively and keep your organization’s data safe.
When you go for managed IT services, you are outsourcing your business's IT management and support to a third-party provider known as a Managed Service Provider (MSP).
These MSPs are responsible for helping your business by monitoring, maintaining, and improving your company's IT structure.
With the help they provide, you are free to focus mainly on your business's core competencies.
There are multiple advantages of outsourcing managed IT services, including instant access to a team of experts who stay up-to-date with the industry's latest trends and technologies.
You also save plenty of money in the long run as you don’t need separate office space, salaries, extra equipment, etc.
MSPs also continue to adapt to various IT changes all the time and ensure scalability to keep up with your business demands.
Moreover, you get a swift response time and guaranteed issue resolution before the issue results in extensive damage, which results in a significant reduction in downtime.
Outsourcing these services also means that you get time to focus on growing your operations, innovating, and serving your customers better.
Additionally, there is constant continuous monitoring of all your IT networks to ensure smooth and efficient operation.
Managed services allow organizations to focus on their primary objectives, like customer satisfaction, optimize operating costs, get access to the skills they need, and avoid downtime.
With managed services, you get 24/7 security and compliance alongside reliable IT services.
Overall, managed IT services for small businesses provide excellent benefits, including expert support, enhanced cyber security, cost optimization, and increased productivity.
With the help of managed IT services, businesses can reduce IT operating costs, minimize downtime, and ensure that current and future IT needs are regularly met.
Simply put, managed services make it easier for small businesses to expand, update, and employ the latest technologies.
At CyberLynx, we have saved hundreds of small business owners from tech-induced headaches through our top-notch managed IT services.
Our team of experts provides rapid support to our clients and ensures that you never have to waste any time on IT.
Additionally, we ensure that our clients have a personalized and dedicated team that knows them and their business well.
Want to learn more? Contact us at 202-996-6600 or email us at info@cyberlynx.com.