According to MarketsAndMarkets research, the global managed IT services market is all set to reach $354.8 billion by 2026. There are plenty of reasons behind the healthy growth in the sector even as other sectors have struggled to keep pace with the market uncertainty accompanying the pandemic period. Recent statistics suggest that IT challenges are actually becoming more acute at organizations with 60% of enterprises reporting that they find the growing demands of IT harder to manage. Also, an overwhelming 90% of the IT enterprises are saying that their cloud skills gaps nearly doubled from 2016 to 2019, in one or more cloud disciplines. Enterprises are under immense pressure to bridge the cloud IT skill gaps and nearly 70% of the enterprises have turned to MSPs such as Managed IT Services Vancouver in their need.Companies have found that using managed IT infrastructure services can lead to a major reduction in server and network downtime by as much as 85 percent in some cases. Companies can also make use of the cost efficiencies of avoiding additional staffing costs in an uncertain market as well as capital outlay for infrastructure upgrades and more. Recent data suggests that companies that use MSP services have experienced a 42% savings in the IT budget. To know more about how MSPs can help bring in cost efficiencies, please contact IT Consulting Vancouver.
Help Desk Support
MSPs are known for providing top-tier IT support and help desk management. Transitioning from an overburdened in-house team can result in significantly faster IT ticket resolution, first call issue resolution and a degree of self-sufficiency in processes that prevent issue recurrence and ultimately lead to less downtime and dips in productivity.
24/7/365 Monitoring
A key feature of MSP services is their ability to offer comprehensive 24/7/365 monitoring for your entire network and endpoints. This kind of round-the-clock monitoring deters hackers to a certain degree as they know that the system is under close scrutiny and surveillance. Monitoring of active and developing cybersecurity threats results in faster issue mitigation and incident resolution. MSPs also take the responsibility for updating your security features such as antivirus software and upgrading your network security configurations, and more.
Comprehensive Risk and Compliance Management
With regulatory frameworks growing in both complexity and stringent standards, companies often need the help of an MSP to understand and adhere to evolving compliance standards. MSPs also take the responsibility to ensure that your IT operations always remain compliant with all industry-specific security requirements and compliance mandates. Outsourced IT services guarantee that your operations run seamlessly, your customer data remains intact in secure storage and never runs afoul of changing compliance and security framework demands.
Data Backup and Recovery
With rising incidents of cyber-attacks and highly advanced attack strategies, companies can risk all if they are not prepared with a bulletproof data backup and recovery service in place. Disasters can happen at any time and part of the job of MSPs is to ensure that your company remains unaffected at the core when emergencies do happen. An MSP Will take the responsibility of managing everything from your data backup schedule and storing data on a separate server to ensuring the integrity of the data, taking care of all server crashes and equipment malfunctions and making sure your services can resume in the shortest possible time in case of natural disasters. Managed service providers like IT security Vancouver can also be instrumental in recovering lost data, resuming normal business operations at the earliest, and even play a critical role in protecting your reputation and reducing downtime.
Get the right services and provider fit for your business and operational needs
The sheer variety of services on offer from MSPs can be mind-boggling at times. But beyond cost efficiency, you also need to select the right services that address your most critical business needs. You need to assess and prioritize your needs whether you need help with your network, cloud, desktop support, or security and choose the right services to meet those needs. You also want to ensure that your provider actually has the right capabilities and specializations to adequately address those needs. If you require niche services or specific capabilities, you would be better off contracting a secondary provider that specializes in those exact areas rather than sticking with the all-purpose MSP who meets your other requirements.
Set clear expectations about service delivery
The best way to avoid confusion and expectation mismatch down the road is to clearly set out your expectations from the get go with the service provider. This means carefully underlining the work that you will do and what you need help with and the responsibilities you expect the MSP to take over completely. This should be negotiated clearly before the MSP starts workIng for you. Agreeing on a detailed set of deliverables, spelling out all your expectations and addressing concerns is the best way to get started on a relationship with your service provider. You also need to establish clear communication channels going forward so there are clear expectations and processes on how requests and emergencies get communicated and problems are resolved.
Set metrics
What gets measured, gets improved on. The simple adage holds true for MSPs as well. You need to have an effective plan in place and detailed metrics to evaluate the performance of your managed services provider. This should be defined before the service provider starts on the contract, and should be communicated to them well in advance. Periodic assessments will let both you and the MSP know which areas of the partnership are going well and identify the ones that need work. Provide the service provider with ample time to make adjustments and improve performance if necessary.
