To get a better understanding of what an MSP does, in this article we are going to discuss:
– What an MSP (Managed Service Provider) is,
– What parts of your business MSPs can help you with,
– What the benefits of an MSP are, and
– What to pay attention to when hiring an MSP.
Starting, let’s define what an MSP is.
What is an MSP (Managed Service Provider)?
An MSP, or else a Managed Service Provider is an outsourced IT affiliate contracted to remotely deliver IT services, such as network, application, device and security support.
An MSP team assumes full responsibility for the services provided, selecting what kind of technologies adjust to the client’s needs.
An MSP may benefit both small or medium-sized enterprises with limited in-house IT human resources and larger enterprises that need additional support to their in-house IT staff.
Having seen briefly what an MSP is, let’s proceed to what parts of your business MSPs can help you with.
What Parts of Your Business Can MSPs Help You With?
To begin with, an IT MSP can take charge of your IT strategy by designing a programme of necessary software and hardware updates according to your company’s needs.
This programme may include remote system management options, data back-up keeping, and regular system report filing.
Additionally, MSPs can offer 24/7 IT support in case of irregularities caused by malware attacks, user error, device malfunction, natural disasters, etc.
Last but not least, an MSP team may prove itself useful especially in the cloud migration of your operations. In particular, it can provide cloud services with which your business’s workload, archive and servers will be transferred to the cloud and become more easily manageable.
In any case, there are also other ways MSPs can function within your company according to your preferences.
However, all kinds of an MSP’s functions bring more or less the same benefits for a company’s everyday operations – which we will be mentioning right below.
What are the Benefits of an MSP?
Although the benefits of an MSP are many, we will be focusing on some key advantages an MSP holds for your business.
Benefit #1: Fills in for in-house IT shortages
Firstly, an MSP can fill in for your in-house IT shortages.
As we mentioned before, some enterprises bear very limited in-house IT capabilities. In this case, an IT MSP may stand as a substitute to an in-house IT team fully covering the IT needs of the company.
On the other hand, even when there is an already existent in-house IT team, enterprises may turn to an MSP in order to boost their operations when necessary.
Benefit #2: Offers scalability
The above functionality of an MSP may also facilitate scalability.
The availability of an IT MSP team whenever needed allows each business to ensure the regular continuation of its IT operations even under the demanding circumstances of a scaling up stage.
Benefit #3: Provides more IT expertise
At the same time, an IT MSP team can guarantee a higher level of IT expertise.
An MSP company specializing exclusively in MSP services is more willing to invest in an extended group of qualified employees in order to attract more clients.
Therefore, collaborating with an MSP company automatically “equips” you with an expertised team that can live up to a wider range of your needs.
Benefit #4: It’s cost-effective
Trusting an external MSP may simultaneously help reduce the costs allocated to internal IT human resources.
This kind of partnership allows you to make use of MSP services on a non-regular or project-based basis.
As a result, the payments provided to the MSP cover solely the timeframe or project for which the services were provided, making MSP costs lower than the ones you would normally have if you hired a full-time in-house IT team.
Benefit #5: Offers more attention and focus
Last but not least, partnering with an IT MSP allows more attention and focus to be put into the company’s core activities.
Outsourcing the management of your IT services helps you save resources and time that can later be allocated to boost the activities of your core departments.
If after all the above benefits you are considering outsourcing your IT to an MSP, below we will be mentioning some details you may need to pay attention to when hiring an MSP.
What to Pay Attention to When Hiring an MSP
To begin with, a key characteristic of an IT MSP you should be paying attention to is expertise.
Regardless of the range of services an MSP can provide, these services must include the solutions aligning with your present needs or future projections.
Simultaneously, the solutions offered must seem as cost-efficient for your company.
To specify, the MSP should provide a variety of solution packages that will allow you to make the combination of services and costs that suit your financial capabilities.
Additionally, another factor you should consider could be MSP’s reputability.
Reputability can be ascertained by the overview of the MSP’s clients. If you notice a variety of clients that have trusted the specific MSP or that the clients’ characteristics resemble the ones your own company has, it is more likely that the above MSP can live up to your needs and expectations.
Lastly, a trait you should seek when hiring an MSP is a result-driven approach.
The MSP must not only be able to provide technical IT services when needed, but also showcase the readiness to build a whole IT strategy in order to promote your business’s daily operations and overall outcomes.
Now Over to You
To sum up, external IT MSPs are able to support various operations of your company bringing larger significant benefits.
That’s why, in Orthology we have adjusted our services in order to build a strong outsourced IT team that can provide the optimal IT support according to your needs.
Therefore, if you wish to learn more about the services we can provide as an outsourced IT MSP, don’t hesitate to contact us to get all the information you may require!
