Why You Need an MSP in 2022

Managed Service Providers or MSP's, are they a necessity in today's world, or just another service to add to your list?

If the latest patch update is causing you a headache, or if the thought of the impending onboarding of new starters is leaving you sobbing into your cornflakes you're probably muttering to yourself about needing a Managed Service Provider. 

Now you've established that you need a fresh coffee, some less soggy cereal and an MSP, it's time to make a decision, our handy guide below has been designed to help you do just that.

So why do you need a managed service provider?

You may already have an in-house IT team, but chances are as your business continues to grow, the strain on resources to manage your infrastructure is also growing. Sometimes it’s the day-to-day operations that take up the most time, and this is where an MSP can help. Outsourcing the mundane tasks, or even larger projects such as system migrations, free’s up your skilled team to focus on the more important aspects of their roles. 

When you started your business maybe it was just five of you in a small hotdesking office. But now, as your business continues to grow and your employees have become hundreds or even thousands even just the basic onboarding process has become an IT logistical nightmare that leaves you clutching your coffee in anxiety. 

Or perhaps you've got a brand-new system and you don't have the time to spend the next six months training your team on how to use it when you could have this managed from day one by someone familiar with the system in its entirety. 

These are just some of the many reasons for an MSP. But no doubt you're still going to have to justify the need to the rest of the business, after all, they're not the ones who are dealing with the headache of managing the system.

Making the business case for an MSP

Sometimes it's hard to explain your struggles to the wider business, after all, you're in charge of IT so surely it's you who should manage it all?

Your job as an IT manager is to manage your MSP, freeing up your time to support the business through the use of IT, adoption of new technology and applications all of which add value to the business by making it a more efficient and streamlined operation.

Choosing to fully outsource your IT means that you have the peace of mind that your infrastructure needs are in safe hands, your MSP will communicate with you the applications that may be of benefit to your business and how these will fit into your wider strategy, allowing you to understand the potential impact.

What is included in managed IT services? 

Managed services usually incorporate as much or as little support as you need, making it a perfectly scalable solution that adapts and changes to the needs of your business. This also makes it extremely cost-effective, something which is always a consideration for any organisation.

Managed IT is scalable to suit your needs, whether it's 24/7 monitoring and management or reactive support when you need it most. Your MSP will adapt to your individual needs.

There's no need to choose from a couple of basic options now you can very much choose the services which best suit you and the needs of your businesses, adding and removing them as your needs change.

Typical services MSPs provide include:

• Ad-hoc IT support
• 24/7 IT support
• Network infrastructure management
• Network infrastructure monitoring
• Cyber threat prevention
• Cloud services management
• Collaboration administration
• Planned maintenance and upgrades
• Cloud hosting
• Storage and backups
• Patching
• Provisioning

Now you have an overview of what managed services are and the reasons for using them let's look at what an MSP does.

What does a managed service provider do?

In short, a Managed Service Provider will take over the running of any services you need them to, freeing up your time for where it's needed most. It might be simple daily tasks or larger projects on an ad hoc basis, whatever best fits your business needs. 

One of the most common requests for internal IT teams is adding or changing permissions, moving users and managing the onboarding process of new starters. Whilst none of these are overly complex processes, the sheer volume of them can be hard to manage, particularly when there are more important tasks vying for your time.

Removing these routine tasks from your remit free's up your time which could be better spent making improvements to the efficiency and productivity of the business. An MSP will work alongside you to establish an onboarding process to make sure all new starters are fully set up on the day they start.

Of course, it might be the complete opposite. Your team may work like a well-oiled machine when it comes to the onboarding process but would benefit from the skills and knowledge an MSP can bring when it comes to running larger projects, particularly where systems or solutions are new and internal knowledge and confidence in them may be lacking.

When new technology is introduced, it’s often more efficient and cost-effective to outsource to a team with experience implementing it, it also mitigates the risk, should something go wrong your MSP will be responsible for fixing this, removing a considerable amount of stress.

What are the benefits of managed IT services?

The benefits of managed IT services are numerous both to the business, its employees and your customers alike.

They help you go from being overwhelmed to under control and allow your team the breathing space to focus on where they are needed most.

• Reduction in capital outlay and a predictable monthly bill
• Futureproof services
• Automatic upgrades
• Resilient infrastructure
• Centralisation of IT management
• High-level and low-level reporting
• Real-time monitoring
• Pooled expertise
• Disaster recovery

Arguably, however, peace of mind is the biggest benefit. You can rest easy knowing that your IT is in capable hands.

Whether you need someone to look after the more menial tasks or outsource some work to allow your organisation to grow. Managed IT provides a raft of benefits to your organisation and with the flexibility to build a solution as unique as your organisation, you can choose how it best supports you.

Again, this flexibility to change your needs over time is one of the biggest benefits of an MSP.

What about remote IT support?

If you don't feel you need a fully managed service then remote IT support might be perfect for you. Costs are normally on a per-user structure with some flexibility around hardware, software and SLA's. As a reactive rather than proactive solution it tends to be cheaper than fully managed services.

As with most as-a-Service offerings, understanding the needs of your business and providing the best solutions to fit these is key. Solutions that are as unique as your business can be built providing you with support where you need it most.

Remote IT support is there to help you when things go wrong such as system failures, access problems and security issues, helping you deal with issues when they arise.

Whichever option you decide upon for your business managed services really can help your business do more and support your continued growth.

Why Wavenet?

Your business should have the very best in IT services in order to excel.

Outdated systems outdate your operations. Faze out old infrastructure and roll in the new with a telecoms company that can help you be brilliant.

Wavenet delivers all aspects of IT services from maintenance and computer hardware, to email, data and network security.

Plus, thanks to our state-of-the-art data centres, we provide a range of cloud-based services for businesses wishing to remove the hassle and risk of having IT infrastructure maintained on-site.

Provide your business with flexibility and market-leading solutions with Wavenet.