For start ups, small and medium sized businesses, the benefits of IT managed services can be huge.

IT managed services providers, like our team here at Dogsbody, have the ability and skills to grow with your business. This means you don’t have to go through the pain of recruiting, setting up and maintaining an in-house team which would need to cover every eventuality, niche, new technology and idea.

Choosing a managed service provider (MSP) is time consuming and stressful. Establishing trust is a huge part of this process, which can’t happen overnight. In most cases you will be handing over the keys to your kingdom to a 3rd party, which is a scary thought.

“Your choice of MSP needs to become an extension to your business – a long term partner not simply a provider.”

– Dan Benton, founder Dogsbody

So, if you’re prepared to make that leap of faith, what are some of the benefits of IT managed services?

Benefit #1: Cost savings and stability

Consider first of all, the costs of recruiting a number of different full time specialists into your business.  Then consider the cost of running that team… not just their salary but training, holidays, pensions and sick leave. Then consider the cost of hardware and software for that team member (and keeping it up to date).

Many people think of outsourcing as expensive, because they see the monthly costs and occasional large invoice, however this is a fraction of the price of hiring directly.

With IT managed services, you’re ‘borrowing’ an on-demand, experienced team (in our case Linux sysadmins), who do their job for multiple customers every day.

Instantly, you can remove the worries of having cover for holidays and sickness with no organisation required on your behalf.

24/7 services means you also don’t have to worry about the cost and time of on-call rotas or importantly, being disturbed in the middle of the night.

An IT Managed service provider usually offer plans or packages which have a fixed monthly cost (we do) and this means you know what you are paying and can budget accordingly.

Benefit #2: Expertise across platforms

Working for multiple customers, managed service providers like Dogsbody, have the advantage of knowing what to look out for.

We look for the pitfalls …

We see trending issues across multiple customers/platforms with similar set ups …

And we keep up to date with the latest news on vulnerabilities, new technologies, features, security and latest regulations.

Technology moves fast.

When a large project looms, resources can be scaled to accommodate. Support or maintenance contracts can be increased or decreased (if allowed) depending on requirements.

Any good managed service provider will also monitor more than you could probably imagined could be monitored.

Proactive monitoring means potential issues can be caught and mitigated before they become real issues. Problems can also be highlighted and identified impartially, which means your managed service provider can advise on the best ways to increase your overall operational efficiency. They should be doing this proactively. If they’re not, you may want to talk to us!

Benefit #3: Freeing your valuable staff

Companies often try to save money by carrying out expert tasks internally.

Do you get Sue the website developer to maintain the servers your business critical website resides on?

This is fine until something big comes up, which can take Sue and her team away from their ‘day job’. Worse still, Sue’s team may end up attempting to fix issues they may have little knowledge of. Dogsbody often has contacts from companies with server emergencies and they need expert help to resolve a situation. It’s one of the most common ways our long term relationships start.

As an example, server maintenance isn’t a revenue earner for most businesses, but is essential to reduce the risk of data breaches or having old vulnerabilities being attacked. Having your server(s) offline and losing revenue through lost sales, compensation, legal action or financial penalties is one of the most stressful things any business owner can endure.

Having servers and infrastructure managed correctly, have huge benefits to a business, including improved uptime, protection against threats and ensuring compliance with the likes of PCI or GDPR.

A clear benefit of IT managed services is that Sue and her team have time to focus on their role, generating revenue, and driving your business forward.

Benefit #4: Managed service providers do just one thing well

One of the biggest benefits of IT managed services is specialism.

Managed services providers do what they do well. After all, it’s their business.

“Dogsbody often turns down lucrative projects if it’s not our core expertise. We hope your MSP would do the same.”

– Dan Benton, founder Dogsbody

Our niche is Linux, we don’t do Microsoft, we don’t do Apple, we don’t manage printers. This means we don’t dilute our skills trying to support everyone and everything.

Being a specialist, not a generalist means you know you’re dealing with the best in the business, which we know builds trust.

Benefit #5: A technology partner can grow with your business

Growing your business takes time, planning, patience and of course money. An MSP can provide a firm long term foundation on which the business can then grow.

No company knows definitively what they will need in 2, 3 or 4 years time, especially when it comes to technology. We have helped our customers build various iterations of their technology stacks as they have grown, giving them access to expertise they didn’t even realise was a requirement when they started working with us.

When a large project looms, resources can be easily scaled to accommodate. Support or maintenance contracts can be increased or decreased (if allowed) depending on requirements, so the cost of scaling up may be nearly negligible.

Outsourcing your IT to a proficient managed service provider will always help you to build a stronger foundation for the future.

Agree with those benefits of IT managed services?

If you like what you see and want to put us to the test?  get in touch

Our specialism is Linux Managed Services but we’re happy to point you in the right direction if you’ve other requests too.