Top 10 Questions About Managed IT Services

Choosing the right Managed Service Provider to partner with supports your staff with essential functions to help your business grow.

Top 10 Questions About Managed IT Services 

Choosing a Managed Service Provider (MSP) is a strategic and economical way for a small to midsize business to instantly boost their infrastructure, allowing operations to run efficiently and securely — without compromising the ability to scale, remain agile and increase revenue.

Here are 10 of the top questions that often come up when business owners are considering an MSP like Nettology.

1) What is a Managed Service Provider?

A Managed Service Providers (MSP) is an increasingly popular solution to improving operational efficiencies through the strategic outsourcing of mission-critical functions such as:

• Emergency IT support
• Office 365 migrations
• AWS & Azure migrations
• Network Setup & Office Relocation Services
• Firewall Upgrades
• On-site Server Upgrades & Replacements
• Data Migration & Server Back Up
• Ransomware Protection & Cybersecurity Assessment

2) What services does a Managed Service Provider offer?

An MSP is your partner for all things related to your IT environment. An MSP can support your small to midsize business with a wide range of services and have the ability to work with your IT director, support your existing team, or serve as a completely outsourced solution for your network needs.

3) How much does a Managed Service Provider Cost?

When it comes to creating and maintaining your business’ IT infrastructure, an MSP lowers the total cost of ownership. An MSP allows companies to access top IT talent at a fraction of the cost and serves as a dedicated third party capable of providing oversight for networks, applications, infrastructure, end-user systems, and security via a subscription model. Monthly subscriptions help fix capital costs for financial planning while maximizing value.

4)  What are the benefits of a Managed Service Provider

Move your workload to the cloud. When you move your operations to the cloud, it directly impacts your budgeting, flexibility, and availability, heightens security in your IT environment and provides around-the-clock monitoring for your business. ​​

Decreased total cost of ownership for operations and enhanced expertise and support are driving reasons businesses move to the cloud. Sharing a network of servers instead of buying and maintaining your own, and instead relying on an outsourced IT staff and data facility, dramatically decreases capital burdens and operating expenses.

5) Will an MSP replace my in-house IT team?

An MSP can work independently or with your in-house IT team to provide direct, dedicated support for your business. The ability to ‘grow your team’ without the overhead of hiring new personnel paired with the flexibility to increase support based on need helps to control costs. Additionally, IT helpdesk outsourcing makes it easy to respond to support demand and scale as needed, giving your customers the tools they need for real-time solutions.

6) Does my MSP need to be local to my organization?

Proximity is relative. A quality, reliable MSP can provide full-service, managed IT support and solutions for companies of any size and industry, plus oversight of your entire network from any location.

7) Who is responsible for managing my data and software?

As custodians of your IT environment, your MSP will add redundancies, enhanced protections, and monitor your network to eliminate downtimes and prevent outages, while providing routine software updates and maintenance to keep your operations running smoothly and continuously.

8) How does an MSP handle disaster recovery?

If your company experiences a disruption, an MSP can provide data recovery to help you recover from IT disasters, accidents and corruption. In the event your company hasn’t been set up with a backup or ransomware protection, an MSP can handle the implementation of a solution like Datto and serve as emergency support for your IT environment.

9) Is an MSP scalable when my business grows?

An MSP is a growth solution to create enhanced operational efficiencies that are cost-effective. A team of IT professionals will be able to provide individualized consulting to create solutions that empower your business.

If you’ve ever seen a company outperform their competition, scale rapidly, or remain agile through market disruptions—such as the Covid-19 pandemic—you may not know they have a robust and high-functioning MSP supporting their operations.

10) Why is it so important to have an MSP?

An MSP is your trusted partner in business, allowing your operations to expand and upgrade without significant investments in infrastructure or personnel while providing:

• Increased cost savings
• Flexibility in your IT environment
• Secure data
• Compliance with state and federal regulations

If you are ready to experience growth and stability and improve core competencies, an MSP might be right for you.

Ready to talk about managed IT services for your business? Nettology is here to help — schedule a consultation with one of our IT experts!