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Using Managed IT Services to Centralize and Streamline Your Business Technology Needs

IT has become such an integral part of modern business that managing your organization’s technology needs is a full-time job!

Managing IT systems and networks takes time, effort, and investment. On top of that, you need staff to manage and maintain these varied systems — many of which take considerable effort to simply work in coordination with each other.

It’s often hard to shake the feeling that resources could be put to better use in direct support of business needs. That’s where managed IT services come in.

Managed IT services give organizations an effective way to streamline and centralize their IT needs. From network and data security to systems integration and device management, managed IT services provide customizable service packages that help simplify IT investment to get your technology working for you again.

No One-Size-Fits-All Approaches

Think about your business’ technology needs for a moment. How have you gone about investing in your IT solutions and architecture?

There’s an odd disconnect that happens as a business or organization grows and develops. Despite all the factors and elements that make an organization unique, we all tend to look outwards for examples of how to tackle challenges or how to grow. This is totally understandable, but the issue here is that there are no more one-size-fits-all approaches to your business’ IT needs.

Managed IT services take the solutions you need and places them in a convenient service package. Instead of paying for disparate individual IT solutions and figuring out a way to integrate their services, a managed service provider (MSP) handles all the technical details while monitoring and maintaining your systems based on the mandate you’ve provided.

What Services Do You Need?

Because of the customizable nature managed IT services, there’s no real limit to what can be included.

Network Security

Security risks are, by far, one of the biggest concerns facing company IT systems. Security is a significant undertaking for any organization, and it’s not always clear what the best approach is or how best to implement effective security measures.

Once your organization has a corporate network up and running, keeping it secure requires ongoing monitoring and additional technology investment. You may even need to implement company-wide device management systems.

Network security is not simple and outsourcing to an MSP can help alleviate the burden on your organization.

Data Security

Closely related to network security, data security involves the technologies needed to protect your organization’s data from destruction, modification, or disclosure.

You’ve likely heard of several high-profile data breaches over the years. Exploits, accidents, and failures are big concerns, especially if your organization collects and stores sensitive user data like credit card information.

Ensuring your organization stays compliant with data security standards is absolutely vital. Managed IT services can help streamline and simplify this concern for your organization with best practices for maintaining secure data and secure networks.

Disaster Recovery

What happens when things go wrong? Hardware failure, theft, software issues, and even physical damage or destruction of your IT systems is a risk. Your business needs a disaster recovery plan—no small task!

Disaster recovery frequently focuses on redundant systems and backups to ensure business continuity when things go wrong. It’s yet another big job for any organization, which makes it an ideal fit for managed services.

Cloud Support

Cloud-based backups and solutions have been tremendously effective and useful for helping businesses and organizations augment their IT needs. Still, there are limitations—for example, Office 365 doesn’t provide backups for your data.

In situations such as these, third-party support—via an MSP and managed IT services package—is necessary to bridge the gaps between cloud systems and your IT infrastructure.

Technology Management

The advent of BYOD (bring your own device) policies for businesses and organizations has helped offset some IT investment costs. Unfortunately, others have increased. Simply put, even with users bringing their own technology, there’s still a need for consistent IT management.

Network security is an absolute must, which is why so many organizations are investing in robust device and technology management services. By controlling, segmenting, and monitoring what employees can and cannot access, you can exert greater control over your data and help ensure consistent security while limiting the damage of human error.

Streamlining Costs for Businesses

Managed IT services effectively outsource your technology needs to a team of experts. They then provide the support your organization needs. Best of all, because these services are provided based on a predetermined scope and mandate, you’re able to streamline your costs into a single line item.

But unlike traditional outsourcing or subscription-based solutions, an MSP effectively augments your existing IT department. For example, IDS Systems’ ServiceGuard™ is a month-to-month service with a scope determined by your needs and covers everything from IT system management to network firewalls.

Managed IT Services: A Perfect Fit

It can’t be stressed enough: managed IT services focus on providing custom solutions to your unique challenges. It’s easy to lose track of the big picture and get lost in the details.

Managed IT services are an ideal solution if your organization isn’t sure of how to best tackle its technology challenges and needs. These services allow you to augment and enhance your existing IT department (if not outright acting as your IT department) to effectively navigate the IT landscape.

But, more importantly, managed IT services provide your organization the peace of mind it needs to focus on its core business and operations.

Focus on what matters—let us take care of the rest.