As much as an in-house IT team is nice, we’re at a point in time now where it’s worth looking at the team and making changes.
Technology has reached a point now where it’s undergone so much innovation that the traditional methods of break/fix IT isn’t cutting it any longer. And what’s worse is that a lot of internal IT services are struggling to keep up with all the innovation and industry changes.
All you need to do to see that is look at how companies respond to cyberattacks. In so many situations, organizations find the IT department to be consistently reactive to all of the problems rather than proactive. Furthermore, their systems struggle to keep up with demands that come from growing a business as well.
I’m sure you have your reasons to sticking with an in-house team and scoffing at outsourcing support to third-parties. However the landscape of IT structures have shifted and now might be a good time to reconsider your stance.
In the end, innovation and change have happened so many times that MSPs are the future. And here is why.
MSPs – An Overview
Before delving into the reasons, it’s key to know what an MSP is. It’s short for managed services model. The managed services refers to the business practice of outsourcing various business responsibilities over to third parties. IT and cybersecurity is one thing but there’s also business administration duties and management too.
As you can tell already it’s not just specific to IT since managed services can be applied for anything from marketing to call centers and supply chain management. All of that being said, IT services are the most common at this point.
And the demand for these services is prominent as well. The market for managed services in 2019 was valued at $185.98 billion. And by 2025, it’s projected to reach $356.24 billion.
This increase is predicted because small and medium sized businesses are starting to realize they need better technology. They realize that working with the latest technology gives them a competitive edge in their respective markets and can even sustain their growth.
The only issue is those businesses lack the resources and money to train and maintain an in-house IT team and so rely on MSPs to cover their needs.
Beyond that, MSPs, provide a tonne of other benefits to businesses.
1. Lets You Focus On Core Objectives
As any business grows and changes, so too will the needs for your departments. That’ll become especially true with IT. Sure, at the beginning the IT team could handle a higher workload for a while, however people will eventually experience burnout or simply be overwhelmed and unable to meet the needs of the business.
It becomes a mess gradually as you either will need to hire more people or start to train existing employees to handle additional responsibilities. All of this provides an unnecessary distraction from company objectives.
MSPs shine in this area as not only are these teams already large, it covers the IT needs so your business can focus on more important things.
2. They’re Up To Speed With Everything
When new innovation or technology unfolds, this means that your IT team has to learn about an entirely new system. And if your team is far behind in industry latest, they may lack the knowledge or experience to solve new problems that emerge.
One of the key advantages with hiring MSPs is that you’re getting an entire team and you’re not paying per person. You’re paying a flat rate. But on top of that, since MSPs rely on people hiring them, they need to stay sharp on the industry that they are in.
This means you won’t have to worry as much about training more people or verifying if they are knowledgable about latest trends in their industry.
3. Your Costs Will Drop
Looking at things from a cost perspective, you’ll know that MSPs will drop costs considerably. Again, many businesses will charge a flat rate for their services and that’s significant since it encompasses all kinds of things.
For you, going with an MSP means you’re cutting out a lot of labor costs. You’ll also cut out costs of hiring and training staff too. Also, MSPs offer a hybrid model where their resources are onshore and offshore. These can lower the average effective rate while also widen your resources.
The other key aspect is that you’ll also have a team tailored to your needs. As such, you won’t have to worry about unexpected service costs.
4. You Can Scale Up Or Down
Your business is going to evolve over time and so will your technology needs as well. As a result, you’ll be in a position where you’ll need to either scale up or down in order to accommodate those needs. While some systems are adaptable, some will require additional assistance with these changes.
For MSPs though, they can respond in real time without causing systems to crash or be turned off.
5. Get Support Whenever
Another problem is when you have employees managing IT, a lot of them aren’t working over the weekend or are available late at night if you run into issues. This can become a bigger issue in the event that changes or fixes need to be done immediately and can’t wait until Monday or the next day.
With MSPs, you never have to run into this problem. Many offer 24/7 flexibility, on-call options, and support over the weekend. The only catch is some will have a costed option to weekend support.
When looking for MSPs, you want to ensure they support multiple time zones and can offer that 24/7 support if needed. That way you can the service you need whenever.
6. You Avoid System Downtime
As mentioned above, a lot of in-house IT staff are reactive with their solutions rather than proactive. As such, if there is a bug, a glitch, or any other problem with something, the IT department has to shut down the whole system to do maintenance.
In the case of a business website, that can mean losing out on customers who visit your site during that time while IT is identifying issues, diagnosing the problem and troubleshooting it.
Network downtime is terrible for businesses as research shows that these alone cost businesses upwards of $5,600 every minute – that’s $336k per hour.
With MSPs, they’ve taken proactive approaches to maintenance. They are constantly monitoring, managing and addressing issues before they even become a problem in the first place. As such, downtimes will become a thing of the past.
And in the event that problems do rise to the surface, MSPs have backup and disaster recovery services that ensure the system comes back swiftly.
7. A Reliable Point Of Contact
When hiring in-house IT support, you’ll find yourself rotating through a lot of people. With IT being so technical and wide in specialization, you can be hard pressed to find someone local that fits your needs.
As a result, it’s very difficult to build a relationship if your team is constantly changing for various reasons.
With an MSP, you don’t have to worry about this. With many MSPs, they provide a single point of contact, called a customer success manager (CSM). That CSM will serve as a reliable point of contact who acts as the middleman between you and the team that’s covering your needs.
And in the event that your CSM isn’t available, these businesses establish escalation paths so there will be a backup contact ready to step in for any reason.
8. Support And Compliance For Security
Businesses handle a lot of data and with data, there are a lot of rules and industry standards that are in place about how everything is stored. When dealing with any software platform, it’s usually up to the business itself to know how to deal with storage of that data. That problem gets fixed easily with an MSP in place.
Though in this instance, while MSPs can’t handle corporate compliance needs on your behalf, they can work closely together with legal teams to figure out what they should be aware of. This way they can take extra precautions to ensure that their system complies with those standards.
MSP Can Change Your Business
The market for MSPs is massive and competitive so it’s key to do your research into MSPs and their services. While these services make your life so much easier, you want to be sure the partnership satisfies all of your company needs and that the features and services will elevate your business too.
About MSP Corp
MSP Corp understands you’ve worked hard to build your business and you want to protect it. With a mission to be a world-class business partner for MSP owners across Canada, we actively seek to acquire and partner with owners looking to secure the value of the business they have built and provide a seamless exit process that ensures business continuity and employee and client stability.
Contact us today to learn more about selling your business and maximizing its value.