Selecting a managed service provider for your business can seem like a tedious task. Some vendors may only exist to serve a particular function such as disaster recovery while other managed services may offer a more all-inclusive package that helps cover maintenance, service requests and the general health of your services.
When you set out to find your next managed service provider, you’ll likely become overwhelmed with the sheer amount of information, tech jargon and potential changes that you will have to make to your technical infrastructure to accompany growth and new technology.
To help demystify the process of selecting a managed IT service provider, we’ve created a top 5 Q&A document to help your organization know what to expect along it’s journey to selecting a managed service provider. Below each question, we’ve included what we think would be the best answers to these questions.
Let’s take a look at the most popular questions surrounding managed IT services:
Aren’t Managed Services Expensive?
In the past, this could be considered true. However, many managed IT services have come down considerably in price. Particularly backup services, because the price of backup technology has declined over the past few years.
This presents a distinct advantage to the managed services consumer as the prices of critical IT services have dropped tremendously over the past few years. This factor alone means that businesses should reconsider using managed services for their day to day IT tasks.
Can You Mix and Match IT Managed Services?
Of course! When you hire a managed service provider to take care of all of your IT equipment, it’s likely that you can bundle your services together and save. Some infrastructure may only need to be on a break-fix contract while other core services may require an hourly or monthly fee.
In fact, managed services are often flexible in the ways that they can bill you. Some businesses elect to have a break-fix contract on items like hardware, where other businesses would prefer on-demand access to help desk support services for application support.
How Quickly Could Managed Services Be Implemented?
If your business simply requires a managed help desk or network administration, these services can be implimented as soon as you’d like.
Other projects that require IT consultation may take more time. Immediate break-fix items such as desktop PCs, laptops, tablets or servers can be serviced as soon as you call your MSP and ask them for help.
With managed services, the ball is largely in your court. You move as quickly or expeditiously as you choose.
What Are Some Things I Should Ask an MSP?
When you go thru the process of selecting an MSP, it’s likely that you’ll bring in several different candidates and explain to them your needs. They will likely commence a Q&A session in which you will be able to ask a few questions. You should ask every prospective managed service provider the following:
- How many engineers are on your staff?
- How many help desk staff members are on-call?
- Do you provide endpoint monitoring services?
- Can you describe your Service Level Agreements? (SLAs)
Could My Company Actually Save Money with a Managed IT Service?
In the past, buying a managed service meant that you were probably paying more than you would with an onsite IT employee. With the introduction of remote IT services, managed services became more competitive and many businesses are seeing the upside to handing off their infrastructure management to a team of trusted professionals.
We encourage you to do the math to find the true cost of managed IT services. Simply estimate what it would cost hire additional IT staff members versus handing off the entire project to a managed service. Be sure to ask your managed service provider for a proposal and let them know what you are trying to accomplish. You’ll likely find that the price of managed services could be advantageous to your bottom line.
Why Partner with Wolf?
From our local office in Greenville, SC, Wolf Technology Group offers an expert tech support team at your fingertips. With our affordable managed IT support plans, you can have access to an entire IT department for less than the cost of one full-time employee!
When you outsource to Wolf, you can enjoy:
- A customized network environment with exactly the capabilities you need and superior uptime
- Scalable IT solutions that can grow with your business
- State-of-the-art systems to protect and encrypt your data, which can secure everything from employee computers to email servers to mobile devices
- Peace of mind: if disaster does strike, our team can have your business back up and running within a matter of hours
Don’t leave the success of your company’s technology environment up to chance. Call the Southeast’s IT experts at (833) 482-6435 or click below to schedule a consultation.
