Are Managed IT Services Worth Their Price?

managed it services worth

As you’re looking for the best way to spend your money, technology will inevitably come under scrutiny.

And on some level, it makes sense.

Think of the price tags of some of the hardware for your IT environment, and you’ll wonder if there are more palatable options for your budget.

Yes, technology costs money, but when it’s correctly implemented and maintained, it should help your business make money.

So instead of focusing on spending fewer dollars on IT, consider how you can make the most of the money you’re allocating to technology.

As a technology services provider, The KR Group has seen many businesses spend copious amounts of money on IT when they don’t have a clearly defined strategy. And on the flip-side, we’ve seen companies forgo spending money on IT when they should and lose their competitive advantage.

Both of these situations make business owners question the value technology brings to their organizations.

How do you avoid this – or get out of this cycle if you’re stuck in it?

Managed IT services are one of the most cost-effective ways to maintain your IT environment if you’re a small or medium-sized business.

Here are some examples of how working with a managed IT services provider (MSP) makes the most of the money you spend on technology:

  1. Managed IT services fees are predictable.
  2. Managed services are a proactive approach.
  3. You’re more likely to avoid a breach and its expenses.
  4. Projects won’t take up all your resources.
  5. You can complete projects faster.
  6. MSP engineers have experience that pays off.

Additionally, a managed IT services contract costs less than a whole IT department, and there are many benefits to choosing this option, including redundancy, skills, and advanced knowledge.

 

Managed IT Services Are Predictable

Predictability doesn’t necessarily reduce or negate any costs. However, it’s an important consideration when you’re thinking about IT costs.

Managed IT services offer a predictable monthly fee and are straightforward to incorporate into your company’s budget.

Your managed IT service provider (MSP) also can help you plan and budget for regular upgrades or refreshes, which allows you to stay on top of maintaining your IT environment.

Of course, there will always be surprises in IT, and not even your MSP can predict the future. However, your MSP can minimize those costs by providing support and redundancy.

 

Managed IT Services Are Proactive

When you sign up for managed IT services, you’re moving to a proactive approach to maintaining your IT environment.

What does this mean? managed it services worth

Instead of waiting for something to break, your MSP will work with you to create a replacement plan for your equipment to keep your infrastructure running efficiently.

This allows you to budget better for upcoming IT costs.

While refreshes and upgrades have an associated cost, you’ll save money in the long run by avoiding fees to fix aging, breaking equipment.

Additionally, you’ll have time to find the right device instead of being in a position where you need to implement equipment that you can get fast because something is broken.

 

Avoiding a Breach and Its Expenses

A conversation about managed services and related cost savings must talk about cybersecurity-associated benefits because if you’re a business and access the internet for anything, you’re at risk of a cyberattack. managed it services worth

As hackers evolve their methods, your cybersecurity solutions must keep up to protect your IT environment. It’s no longer sufficient to have only a firewall and antivirus.

Your MSP will help you implement several back-tested and effective security solutions. For example, The KR Group includes a DNS filter, a firewall, next-generation antivirus, endpoint security, anti-spam, remote monitoring and maintenance (RMM) platform, Datto backup, and Microsoft or third-party caches.

These measures reduce the number of opportunities a hacker has to exploit your IT environment and, if necessary, recover your critical data.

Many MSPs, including The KR Group, have a cybersecurity team that works closely with the managed services team.  So, in addition to a robust security platform, you’ll receive a security audit at the beginning of your contract and know about the latest security threats.

This value is out of reach for a one- or two-person IT department.

And, from a cost-savings perspective, avoiding a breach means you don’t have to account for the cost of remediation, recovery, fines, or lost customers. 

 

More Resources Available for Projects

If you’re currently handling your company’s IT problems, it’s robbing you of time you could be spending making more money. And as the adage goes, time is money.

Even if you opt for an internal IT department, you’ll have limited resources based on your budget. In most cases, small and medium-sized businesses can only afford one or two IT employees.

managed it services worthThese staff members will have more than a full plate keeping up with help desk requests, regular maintenance, and general monitoring.

When you need to implement a new solution – a server replacement, new phone system deployment, cloud migration, etc. – your IT person or team is pulled away from their daily duties.

And there’s a cost associated while issues sit on the backburner for a while because your IT department is spending all their time on a project.

Maybe Susie’s email stops working through the desktop application, so she has to log in online. The workaround means she gets one less email out every day that may have closed a deal.

Or perhaps, there’s a networking issue that slows down how quickly designers can send over information for production. After a few days, you’re several hours behind on orders.

Still, implementing new solutions via your internal IT department is crucial because updated technology can help save your users time and consequently increase revenue, even if it temporarily takes your tech team from the daily problem solving and management of technology.

At this point, you’re likely wondering if there is any win-win scenario for keeping up with regular IT needs and dedicating resources for additional projects. And there is: managed IT services.

Your MSP has more resources than what you can hire at your current size. As a result, they can dedicate an engineer to regular maintenance and additional engineers to projects outside the scope of your contract.

 

Finish Projects Sooner

Managed IT services not only effectively allocate resources for projects but also help you finish projects sooner.

managed it services worthEven with an internal IT team, you’ll need to pay for an external IT team on projects so you don’t sacrifice attention to your general IT needs,

If you don’t have an established relationship with an MSP, you’ll have to look for an IT consultant and bring them up to speed on your existing technology and goals with a new implementation. This is known as the discovery phase, which contributes to the total time (and cost) of a project.

When you’ve already partnered with an MSP, they’re regularly working with your IT environment. So, they already know the ins and outs of your technology and how it could impact the project.

As a result, you’ll have a much shorter discovery phase — and in some cases none — which costs you less for labor.

 

 

Experience Pays Off

During any project or maintenance task, your engineer brings a wealth of experience from working with other clients. As with previous knowledge of your IT environment, partnering with an MSP team with experience reduces costs related to time. managed it services worth

Since MSPs have multiple clients, they’ve likely worked in an environment like yours and implemented the technology you want.

Compared to doing the project on your own or assigning it to your small IT department, an MSP can rely on experience with the technology and efficiently set up the new solution of your choice.

If you do the project on your own, you’re not guaranteed a successful implementation. In the worst-case scenario, you could still need to work with a technology services provider. Except now, you’re paying double – once for your attempt and again for the consultant to fix it.

Even if you decided to work with an external IT consultant from the beginning for a project, an MSP still has an advantage because they have experience with your technology needs.

 

What’s the Value of Managed IT Services? 

There will always be costs associated with having technology that works well and meets your needs. Instead of asking how much you’ll spend, try to shift to thinking about what you get in return.

Here are some questions to ask yourself to evaluate if your IT solution is worth its price:

  • Do you have adequate resources for projects, or are you paying to bring in additional external resources?
  • How does the length of a project affect company productivity and profitability?
  • Are you paying for someone to get up to speed on your IT environment?
  • Can you anticipate and budget for upcoming expenses or are you frequently caught off guard?
  • Do your IT expenses cover cybersecurity protection or recovery?

With managed IT services, a contract answers the above questions with a cost-effective solution.

And it’s just the beginning of what an MSP can do for your business’s IT environment. To learn what else managed IT services offer, read our ultimate guide and better everything an MSP can do.

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