Many companies, especially small- and medium-sized businesses (SMBs), have realized that partnering with a managed IT services provider (MSP) raised their business to the next level. An MSP serves as an outsourced IT department that helps companies focus on growth, address pain points, and scales to meet new challenges and opportunities. However, partnering with an MSP shouldn’t be done haphazardly. For example, your current setup may not require it, making the extra cost unnecessary. To know if your business is ready, here are some signs to watch out for.
Stunted infrastructure or business growth
Technology is a business asset. Using it effectively helps your company achieve better results. You know that your technology is out for the count when it fails to streamline processes, facilitate better collaboration and communication, and reduce costs.
Scaling the business will oftentimes require considerable technology investment and expertise. If you lack one or both, then you need to partner with an MSP. Just as with upgrading, MSPs can help you scale by replacing exorbitant capital expenses with an affordable pay-as-you-go monthly subscription service.
Furthermore with its expert industry knowledge, an MSP will help you plan for opportunities with better cost efficiency. An MSP can forecast critical IT costs and help you plan for them.
Regular tech problems
Your business may be struggling with minor technology problems on a regular basis. They may be small inconveniences now, but in the long run, the time and resources needed to address them add up to a huge cost. The fact that your own staff has to deal with this on a regular basis means that you are not getting to the heart of the problem.
Don’t wait until they have become full-blown problems that seriously halt productivity or damage systems. An MSP’s team of experts is fully dedicated to keeping your technology running smoothly. They specialize in providing round-the-clock proactive monitoring and maintenance and preventive measures so that issues are addressed before they turn into crippling downtime
Operational deficiencies and missed opportunities
One of the outstanding benefits of an MSP is IT consulting. With its expertise, an MSP can reveal overlooked or hidden technology bottlenecks or obstacles in your business processes. Its team of industry experts can give you a clear picture of your business’s technology backbone to identify performance gaps and opportunities for optimization.
Fundamental to today’s businesses is understanding how technology works to support their operations and services. MSPs can give your boardroom a better understanding of how current IT assets are integral to business functions and processes. This can strategically help you make the most of existing technologies and see the value of upgrading.
If your business can’t invest in better technology due to high costs, an MSP can fill in the gaps and provide those upgrades at a low and predictable monthly rate, inclusive of implementation and maintenance.
Overwhelmed but underused IT talent
Is your IT personnel too preoccupied with repairs or break/fix issues of your technology assets? Are they overworked with tasks that keep them from their primary duties?
An MSP not only eliminates capital investment needed for a healthy IT infrastructure, it frees your highly skilled IT professionals so they can focus on the bigger picture —
projects that propel your core business.
Additionally, an MSP has experts on network security, data recovery, data backup, and IT support, all of whom can comprise your very own IT department or augment the one you already have. With an MSP, projects are done promptly and your team doesn’t burn out trying to figure something out from scratch.
Data breaches and other deadly security threats
In recent years, small-and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) have been the focus of cyberattacks including data breaches and ransomware. According to a study by the Ponemon Insitute, only 28% of SMBs have competent cybersecurity, while 58% have experienced a data breach in the past year. SMBs spent an average of $1.43 million to address the damage, while disrupted operations cost an average of $1.56 million.
Because SMBs are a prime target and they lack the budget to invest in cybersecurity, it’s time to protect yours by partnering with an MSP. An MSP makes perfect sense with its capabilities to bolster an SMBs defenses with multi-layered security, which includes a wide variety of end-point security solutions, security awareness, data storage solutions, active monitoring, encryption, email protection, cloud-based security solutions, and more, all at a fixed monthly fee.
With 18 years of experience, Spectrumwise has helped business overcome these challenges and gain a competitive advantage. Discover for yourself what our business technology services can do for your company. Contact us today.
