Developing A Business Case for IT Management Services

Developing A Business Case for IT Management Services

Managed service providers make many promises about the potential benefits that they will provide an existing business that agrees to undergo an IT Managed Service Structure (MSS). However, all companies are different, and what works for one might fail for another. Experience is the key to knowing what it takes for success.

With Atlantic-IT, we bring years of success and a deep understanding of every managed service aspect to the table. In this article, we outline three examples of managed services that have proven beneficial for many businesses.

Eliminating IT Complications

Complications are messy – especially IT complications. However, every company has its fair share and a bevy of reasons that cause the aggravations. Determining the underlying cause such as lack of in-house IT staff, issues with the internet connection, or outdated equipment is the key to eliminating the problem.

Example One: Lack of Experienced IT Staff 

Let’s look at one possible scenario: you lack sufficient IT staff.

If you employ less than 100 people and, according to your current budget, you can afford one or two in-house IT techs. However, you checked with your current employees to find out if any of them were ‘tech-savvy.’  Luckily (or so you think), you have found two that seem to have some IT skills, so you have let them slide into the role of in-house IT and you have managed to save money by not hiring new help. This might work for a while, but as your company grows, maybe those you saddled with the IT tasks can no longer keep up, and complications occur.

• Complication One: Your staff is only experienced in a single specific task. They appear to lack the knowledge to keep up with the ever-changing and growing technology field, so updates have fallen behind.
• Complication Two: The staff has not kept up with necessary training, so they are no making critical mistakes that lead to substantial downtime and IT issues.
• Complication Three: You have been forced to bring in contractors to tackle emergencies and solve errors, but they are unfamiliar with your system, and the process has become awfully expensive and complicated.

Once you reach this stage, you are probably hiring numerous IT professionals that have become extremely expensive, and they may not be up to the task of handling the problem. It would be best to have a skilled MSP who can quickly manage your IT infrastructure on a contract. At Atlantic-IT.net, we will take a close look at your company and start to immediately tackle the necessary steps needed to get your IT back on track.

You might think that hiring IT personnel would make better sense, and this might work if your IT needs only low-grade help with very few major initiatives. However, if things are more complicated than MSP is exceptionally cost-efficient and a better way to go.

Example Two: IT Management 

Have you been offloading routine daily IT management tasks?

Perhaps you have activities like user help desk, patches, moves, adds, and changes that do not need highly skilled IT management but are daily tasks that need to be carried out. Sadly, the tasks are not being managed frequently or correctly. Instead, your growth starts to halt, and your devices, network, and security are thrown into utter chaos.

Maybe your staff is managing two modes of IT delivery: stability and agility. Instead, bring in MSP assistance to divide things up so that daily tasks are never ignored.

• Delivery One: this is traditional and emphasizes safety along with accuracy.
• Delivery Two: Considered exploratory and nonlinear, which emphasizes agility and speed.

Instead of hiring skilled IT, you give the daily task of Delivery One to your MSP, and your in-house IT can tackle Delivery Two, which focuses on business-enabling along with the revenue-driving digital transformation.

Example Three: Private Clouds and New Applications 

Business sometimes starts to migrate to public clouds because they are more convenient, and they do not want to invest in secure cloud infrastructure.

If your business has over 100 employees, then you might want to think about a transition to secure private cloud infrastructure so your data is protected. Upper management wants to continue outsourcing to public clouds because they think it is convenient and working simply fine, so why change it?

Yes, it might be cheaper to go with public clouds. Still, there is more to managed cloud infrastructure such as OS databases, including other platforms that require the support of your company’s computing environment.  Cloud applications also provide significant flexibility and unlimited scalability. Employees can quickly access IT environments while communicating and collaborating from anywhere on any device.

Customers must also test cloud purchases with a small group before moving ahead with any full licensing. We always bring this up because it is common for some clients to purchase more licenses than they need, and then they end up never being used. Outsourcing cloud function to an MSP becomes cost-effective because you can set the budgetary limits while giving users access to an experienced IT help desk and a part of any managed subscription service.

Cloud software remains an evolutionary cycle with all applications continuously updating using patching and other features. Therefore, constant access to appropriate software versioning is a necessity that cannot be overlooked. At Atlantic-IT, we are here to meet all of your company’s MSP needs.