Louis FrettmanWith the advent of IT Managed Service Provider (ISP) solutions, it has become a lot easier for organizations to avail of IT solutions. The basic function of these services is to provide on demand remote assistance to help the organization in its day to day tasks. As the name suggests, the Managed Service Provider assumes the full 360-degree responsibility for the entire IT functions of the organization, which includes 24X7 remote monitoring, trouble shooting and application support as well. One key differentiating factor of managed IT service providers as opposed to traditional IT solutions is the fact that the managed service provider assuming the full responsibility of offering support services.
In addition to this, with a managed service provider handling the complete round-the-clock assistance, organizations need not invest in the cost-intensive infrastructure that is needed to run an in-house IT team. By leveraging the cloud computing resources, these services can be offered at lower costs, as the infrastructure requirements are minimal. The result is savings in personnel hours as well, as no additional office staff needs to be added to handle the telephonic as well as remote support issues. Thus it becomes more cost-effective to set up a Managed Service Provider solution.
Another significant advantage with the managed service provider solution is the increase in on-demand staffing availability. Many times organizations witness a temporary overload of technicians due to high seasonal activity. With a remote staffing service, such a problem is also avoided. By the use of cloud infrastructure, the service level contracts are self-explanatory, as the service level agreement already assumes the entire scope of responsibilities. Hence no additional staff is required to handle the extra workload of technicians.
Ways Of Reducing Your IT Management Services
On the other hand, it is also possible for a remote monitoring system to malfunction. This can either be due to hardware or software failure. The Managed Service Provider solution addresses this problem by creating a virtual Managed Service Provider site, which contains the exact information regarding the hardware and software setup. In addition to this, automated backup of Managed Service Provider site is also available, which minimizes loss of data. Through remote monitoring, the Managed Service Provider can also ensure end-to-end technical support, which significantly reduces operational costs.
On a broader scale, Managed Service Providers also helps to reduce IT expenses by avoiding the capital investments that are required when setting up new infrastructure. This is because it is possible to rent out the existing infrastructure, which results in increased utilization of resources. In addition to this, leasing the infrastructure allows one to take advantage of current discounts on IT investments. However, it is important to note that leasing the infrastructure is a long-term commitment. Hence a managed service provider must be looking to minimize their operational costs. For this, they may lease the infrastructure for a shorter period of time.
Many Managed Service Providers chooses to use the cloud as a means of delivery. Cloud-based applications allow them to monitor and track all server activity remotely over the internet. They can also perform performance monitoring, quality monitoring and data gathering in real time using an external web-based reporting tool. With the cloud-based monitoring and reporting solutions offered by managed services providers, it is easy to track and analyze the health of the Managed Service Provider’s infrastructure, which allows them to make timely decisions about their infrastructure investments.
Other Benefits of MSP Service Providers
Apart from this, Managed Service Providers can also benefit from improved productivity. Through the cloud based apps, providers can reduce their IT infrastructure costs, which in turn leads to improved profitability. Apart from this, Managed Service Providers can also save a lot of time and money. Remote monitoring allows providers to view data in real-time and take preventive action to avoid issues before they arise. The benefits of remote monitoring are quite obvious and this has led to many companies outsourcing managed services providers in order to enjoy these real time benefits.
While many large corporations outsource their IT to an in-house IT department, Managed Service Providers can benefit from outsourcing as well. By doing this, Managed Service Providers can focus on other core business functions such as sales and marketing, customer support, technical support and even operations. In addition to this, the reduced in-house IT staff thus allows Managed Service Providers to have a more efficient work force. This in turn leads to better customer service, which is something that all Managed Service Providers strives for.