IT is the ultimate behind the scenes – and doors – department in most companies. It’s a world populated by technical experts whose most important job is to resurrect data from the blue screen of death and provide support for the essential activities that technology makes possible for everyone in the company. IT keeps things running, secure and productive – but that’s really only half of what its role really should be. To treat IT as a technical support team is to ignore the importance it should be playing as a consultant and strategic guide for smart investments in the rapidly changing technologies that can make or break future success.
In many organizations, IT is limited to its support role by necessity, if not by design. Its experts are too busy propping up legacy technology to even consider how new tools could improve business outcomes. The unhappy result? Business decisions are made without insight and guidance from the people best-positioned to champion and implement next-generation technologies that can benefit their organization.
That’s beginning to change, in a significant way. Forward-thinking businesses are leveraging managed IT services as part of a conscious strategy to compete effectively in today’s markets, according to a new white paper from Frost & Sullivan. By outsourcing some or all of their support and maintenance tasks, companies are freeing up their IT personnel so that they can apply their expertise to strategic initiatives, explore new technologies and focus on improving business outcomes.
Frost & Sullivan has identified six business and technology functions that can be improved with managed IT services. Each one is a pain point, time suck and limiting factor for IT staff that keeps them in the back room and out of strategic discussions.
Infrastructure and Application Lifecycle Management
Automated processes and management tools delivered by managed IT service providers can ensure that an organization’s operating systems and business software are always up to date, apply patches during off hours to minimize productivity downtime, and provide proactive and continuous monitoring of all networked devices.
Data Protection
This is more than moving data to the safety of cloud-based backup sites. Managed backup service providers can often also function as an organization’s failover site in the event of a disaster or disruption in business continuity.
Security
Hiring and retaining IT security staff has become a challenge for even large companies. The situation is particularly acute for small and midsized businesses, where budget concerns often lead to the hiring of IT generalists. Managed security services allow companies to leverage highly-skilled security experts to protect their data, applications and networks.
24/7 Operations
Managed IT services offer 24/7 monitoring, event notifications and break/fix resolutions. For businesses where the work never stops, IT support can be augmented to match.
New Technology Implementations
As new technologies emerge, IT personnel may not be ready to evaluate, deploy or support them. Managed IT providers like TPx, with dedicated teams of continuously trained experts, are well-positioned to quickly adopt and implement these new technologies. At the same time, the managed service provider can also collaborate with internal IT staff to determine a long-term management strategy for the new technology.
Small IT Staffing
Many SMBs have small IT departments. In some cases, employees perform IT functions as a secondary responsibility. In these companies, managed IT services can serve as the business’s core IT organization, providing a full scope of IT solutions while freeing up employees to focus on other initiatives. Managed services also help small businesses achieve technology parity with larger competitors.
Today, organizations of all sizes are deeply dependent on technology, putting a tremendous burden on their IT teams to support, maintain and protect their technology assets. As a leading managed services carrier, TPx can ease that burden so that IT personnel can focus on initiatives that improve business workflow, employee productivity and customer experiences, as well as drive future growth. To learn more about how we can help, simply ask your TPx representative for a managed IT services tour, or if you prefer, schedule a demo.
About the Author
Matt Mair is a Senior Product Marketing Manager for Managed Services. His role includes marketing and communications for TPx’s suite of managed IT offerings including Managed SD-WAN, LAN Monitoring, Office 365, Workstation and Servers Management, Colocation and Server Backup solutions. Matt holds an MBA from Michigan State University’s Broad School of Business and resides in Los Angeles.