You’ve chosen a managed service provider, you’ve given the right amount of control to them. What happens next… Is this an irreversible decision?
The answer seems scary but is clearly no. Let me tell you why…
- You retain ownership of all your assets.
- A managed service provider’s best practices will put you in a better situation that will make it easier to reverse course or change to a different support provider to take over your environment.
- Flexibility will be built into the terms of the contract you sign. If you’re not getting what you expect it’s likely your managed service provider will feel the same way and let you go your merry way.
- The managed services (managed firewall or back up for example) you signed up for will provide a simple upgrade path where the financial risk is on your provider not on you.
- You’ll practically eliminate expensive repairs and data recovery costs. By detecting and preventing network disasters before they happen, a good managed service provider will save you thousands of dollars in repairs and downtime. This may make it feel like an irreversible decision.
- You’ll receive faster support while lowering your IT repair costs. Thanks to remote monitoring software, your technician will be able to access and repair most technical problems right over the Internet. No more waiting around for an engineer to show up or paying for trip fees. This may make it feel like an irreversible decision.
- You’ll experience faster performance, fewer problems, and practically zero downtime. The regular, preventative maintenance offered through a managed service provider will make sure your computers stay in top shape for maximum speed, performance, and reliability. This may make it feel like an irreversible decision.
- You’ll get top level IT support without the costs and overhead of hiring a full-time IT manager. A junior technician can easily cost your company $50,000 a year in salary, taxes, and insurance, and a senior technician can cost twice that amount. Under a managed service plan, you get to share a team of engineers with other businesses to greatly reduce your costs without sacrificing experience or quality of work. This may make it feel like an irreversible decision.
- You will receive better service because your managed service provider’s technicians will become more familiar with your hardware, software, settings, and history, and therefore provide much faster service than a technician who is not familiar and has to spend time “feeling around” your network. This may make it feel like an irreversible decision.
- You can budget for IT support just like rent or insurance. If your IT support bill varies from month to month a plan with a managed service provider will help even it out and make budgeting much easier. Make sure the plan you sign up for is all-inclusive with no hidden charges, caveats, or fees. This may make it feel like an irreversible decision.
- You will safeguard your data. The data on the hard disk is always more important than the hardware that houses it. If you rely on your computer systems for daily operations it’s time to get serious about protecting your critical, irreplaceable digital information. A good managed service provider will greatly reduce your chances of losing critical company data, files, and information. This may make it feel like an irreversible decision.
- You’ll feel as though you have your own in-house IT department without the costs. This may make it feel like an irreversible decision.
- You’ll gain incredible peace of mind. As a business owner, you already have enough to worry about. The last thing you need is a computer crisis. Having a managed service provider in place takes that worry off your plate. This also may make it feel like an irreversible decision.
OK, maybe I was wrong… you’re going to love it so much it will be an irreversible decision!
