When you were starting your business, having an in-house IT person or a small team may have been enough. But as your company grows, your tech demands increase. As you deal with more devices, more users, and more complexity, you may feel like your internal IT is firefighting instead of planning. That’s when the idea of co-managed IT begins to make sense for a small or mid-sized business (SMB) like yours.
What is co-managed IT?
Simply put, co-managed IT is when you have your own IT staff, but you also partner with an external managed services provider (MSP) that supports and enhances your in-house IT. You just choose certain tasks to outsource to the MSP.
You can have your internal team manage the day-to-day issues and stay on top of your IT strategy, while your MSP takes over monitoring, cybersecurity, and other overflow support. Think of it as a hybrid arrangement: your team remains the frontliners, but with back-end support from IT specialists equipped with the necessary tools and expertise.
Key advantages for SMBs
Here are the benefits of going with the co-managed model:
- Access to greater expertise and technology: An MSP can provide the expertise and advanced tools your business needs to operate efficiently.
- Cost efficiency and scalability: When you need to scale up, you don’t have to hire another employee and increase your overhead. Your MSP can provide additional support as needed.
- Focus on strategic work: Let your MSP handle the routine IT tasks so your IT staff can focus on strategies for moving the business forward.
- Improved security and monitoring: Cybersecurity and compliance demands can be too much to handle for small businesses and start-ups. A co-managed partner can fill that gap.
- Maintaining institutional knowledge: You don’t lose your in-house team and the business-specific context they have; you just augment them.
When should you consider co-managed IT?
You might consider co-managed IT when:
- Your internal IT team is undermanned and cannot cope with the workload.
- Your IT team members lack the skills in areas (such as advanced cybersecurity, compliance, cloud migration, etc.) that require IT experts.
- You’re looking to grow or change rapidly (new locations, remote workforce, big digital projects), but hiring full-time isn’t practical yet.
- You want to maintain control of your IT direction and culture but need backup, capacity, and specialist support.
- You want a model that offers flexibility, where you keep your internal team but ramp up external support only as needed.
In contrast, if your business lacks any internal IT team or you prefer to hand everything over, a fully managed model might be better. But for many SMBs with some internal capability, co-managed IT is a practical middle ground.
Best practices to make it work
If you want to get the most out of co-managed IT, then you should:
- Clearly define what your team and what your MSP will handle. Setting boundaries will help avoid friction.
- Set shared goals and metrics. You and your MSP should agree on what areas to improve, and then track your progress.
- Change the mindset of your IT team. They should see the MSP as a partner, not as their replacement or their underlings.
- Choose an MSP that complements and adjusts to your structure. They should help your IT team perform instead of completely taking over.
- Review your partnership periodically. This allows them to accommodate the changes in your business needs.
Your next steps
Does your IT team need help dealing with backlog or coping with changes? The best strategy for you may be co-managed IT. You get the control and familiarity of having an internal team, plus the manpower and expertise of an experienced partner.
Why not reach out to us at SpectrumWise? We can assess your current setup, pinpoint the gaps, and explain in detail how a co-managed partnership will benefit your SMB. Contact us today.