Outsourced IT management services are becoming more and more popular amongst companies of all types and sizes, thanks to technological advancements allowing remote support. This has led to IT being viewed as another ‘utility’ for many businesses, similar to purchasing electricity or hiring off-site expertise in a field not directly related to the business. In this blog, Platform 24 will explore the factors involved in deciding whether your company is a good candidate for managed IT services and what sort of support best suits your needs.
Consider your reasons for needing IT support
The cost of dedicated IT staff – the biggest costs associated with running an IT department will be influenced by whether or not you have IT-specific personnel and own your IT hardware/software resources. If you want or need to own your IT assets, managed IT services can address the cost of staffing – this is especially helpful if you run a small business, as finding and keeping employee/s with the right IT skills can be difficult and expensive.
Supplementing/backing up for your current skills – companies of all sizes can use IT managed services because they need the redundancy or as a supplement to their internal IT department. For small businesses, this comes in handy when your onsite IT professional takes sick leave or goes on holiday. Larger companies can benefit from outsourcing portions of their IT management to cover areas in which their own staff lack expertise.
Not wanting to host IT equipment – if you no longer want to buy new IT equipment or spend the time and money on updating it, then why not rent hardware and software resources from a third party? This transforms IT into an operational expense, eliminates the capital expenditures of buying new equipment, and removes the hassle of maintaining it. This also provides an offsite location for backups in the case of data disaster.
In summary, the best candidates for managed IT services are:
- small businesses in general;
- any sized company that wishes to supplement their own staff either for redundancy or skillset reasons, and;
- any company that wishes to rent their IT assets along with the services to manage them from a hosting provider instead of having to own and maintain their own.
If you would like more information on managed IT services or want help deciding what level of support would suit your business, Platform 24 is here to help. Contact us online or call 1300 602 480 and we’ll take care of all your managed IT needs.
