Losing money on expensive IT bills and unexpected downtime? Experts say that your business may benefit from a third-party MSP.
Time is money. That is an indisputable fact in the world of business. And if you run a smaller business, that fact becomes that much more important - even a single hour of downtime can affect your bottom line. So, how do you avoid service disruptions caused by faulty IT technology and slow response times from the manufacturers? Experts say that the answer lies in third-party, fully managed IT services.
First, let’s look at how IT maintenance services offered by independent MSPs differ from your standard choices. Many experts can agree that third-party IT maintenance services present several advantages to businesses over OEM (original equipment manufacturer) support. According to CompTIA Trends, companies that use managed IT services reduce IT costs by approximately 25% while experiencing improved system performance.
One reason for this is because OEM support tends to be less flexible and more costly, as manufacturers will exclusively use their own products for maintenance, which are often only available at higher price points; additionally, OEM response times can be slow, especially for smaller clients, potentially resulting in lengthy downtime during service outages.
By contrast, independent MSPs, such as Utah-based InfoTech Enterprise Solutions, will offer faster and more personalized services along with hardware and software from a variety of vendors - something that can significantly reduce costs for small businesses. Rather than being forced into expensive brand-name products, you can go with an equally effective alternative that’s much cheaper.
Furthermore, third-party companies will not lock businesses into inflexible, long-term contracts, unlike OEMs, allowing you to modify your business’ service requirements as your organization evolves.
“Too many businesses deal with slow response times, recurring tech problems, and surprise IT bills that never seem to end,” says one of InfoTech Enterprise Solutions’ IT experts. “Whether you’re a small business or scaling fast, you need technology that just works without all the stress.”
As mentioned previously, third-party MSPs will offer more personalized support, which means that your team can receive instant, unlimited remote and onsite support for your IT needs. Many companies will complement this 24-hour help desk with 24-hour monitoring, which means their teams will be able to detect any faults in the system before the dreaded downtime actually happens.
Since independent IT teams focus solely on managing your IT needs, they’ll also update infrastructure regularly with software upgrades, ensuring optimal performance on all devices.
A really good company will even offer layered, end-to-end security stacks, which include firewalls, endpoint antivirus, and real-time threat detection - enhancing security against potential cyberattacks. They will also perform daily backups of your data to maximize disaster recovery in the event that the system is compromised.
Of course, you can get more perks from outsourcing your IT needs to a third party. Whether you want them to completely manage your systems or you’re looking for a more collaborative approach, there are many cost-saving options out there that will make your systems run that much more smoothly - so you can stay focused on running your SMB.
