IT Services can help your business be robust, secure, and forward looking in a wide range of ways. Colin Blumenthal, Vice President IT Services Europe, Sharp Europe, looks at a range of benefits to switching your IT operations to a Managed IT Service.
IT operations, and the data it helps carry around the business, are the lifeblood of any organisation. Therefore, making sure your company’s IT requirements, and security, meet current and future needs are essential.
For the most part, IT operations in any business tend to evolve rather than appear fully formed. For the small business this often means the most computer-savvy member of staff carrying the responsibility and looking to invest in an actual IT professional once the business starts to grow. In this scenario, issues tend to be solved as and when they occur, and very little time is spent on planning or meeting the future needs of the business.
This is where a dedicated IT Service can help, optimising and protecting the day-to-day operations of the business, while at the same time putting a strategy in place to help support growth and expansion at your own rate.
What is a Managed IT Service?
A managed IT Service is a trusted third-party IT organisation that takes over the responsibility for the infrastructural operations of your business. Also known as a Managed Service Provider (MSP), they oversee all, or a portion, of your business ecosystem for a flat monthly fee. These services can include around-the-clock monitoring, issue resolution, as well as product leasing and replacement.
What’s more, opting for an IT Service that supports Cloud computing will allow the third-party service to go beyond a standard response and fix solution, allowing the business to scale infrastructure and improvements at a faster rate.
When looking for an IT Service provider, there are a host of considerations to consider – here we look at the top five priorities:
Dedicated IT Service #1: Security
As the world becomes ever more connected, keeping your business data, staff, and customers safe, is recognised as a vital part of modern business. Therefore, having a dedicated IT Service provider is vital, as it means they can keep your systems up to date with the latest security technologies.
This take the onus off your in-house IT team to constantly monitor and manage the network, and the devices attached to it, as this role is carried out by IT Services who have the scale and expertise to stay informed and keep your business running smoothly as a result.
Dedicated IT Service #2: Streamline Processes
The most obvious way a business can make the most of IT Services is by streamlining processes. This may be in the form of automating the most repetitive of work tasks, or it may mean bringing in new processes to better manage data, access or even security.
What’s more, by outsourcing your business IT operations you can shift the focus away from simply managing the day-to-day and look to building the future strategy of your organisation. The IT team can be used in a more strategic role, planning, and investing in the future infrastructure of the business, rather than simply running the network.
Dedicated IT Service #3: Predictable Costs
Another clear benefit of switching to a dedicated IT Service contract is that you will have smarter visibility of expenditure. Traditionally, business IT operations rely upon upfront capital expenses (CapEx), but by switching to a regular monthly payment plan, costs can use longer-lead time operational expenses (OpEx), so freeing up costs within the business.
The Service Level Agreement (SLA) will outline the monthly costs, so allowing you to define a service package that uniquely fits the needs of your business. This helps you better track and manage your IT service costs as well as plan for the future. Without a dedicated IT service provider, there is certainly more uncertainty about what you will spend.
Dedicated IT Service #4: Focus on Business Growth
As your business grows, so too do the needs of the staff, your customers, and internal operations. An organisation that isn’t robust enough to handle changes, or secure enough to deal with potential threats, can hamper the growth of the business. A dedicated IT Services package will seamlessly grow with your business, allowing you to switch on new levels of service as and when you need them.
Dedicated IT Service #5: Competitive Edge
Alongside managing the growth of your business infrastructure, making the use of a dedicated IT Service will help give your business a competitive advantage over the competition.
By deploying a strong, robust, and smooth-running IT system, your business can deliver a better customer experience to end users, whether in the form of a more responsive sales team, or simply in the form of a faster website and optimised mobile platform, thereby improving efficiencies.
The Sharp European IT Services division has been established to partner with clients to provide multiple IT and IT related services. If you would like to know more about how we can help support your business growth, get in touch.
