World-class It Managed Service Provider That You Must Have

The Best It Managed Service Provider That You Need

More small and midsize businesses are turning to managed service providers to manage and maintain their network and systems infrastructure. As businesses start to grow, so do their technology needs. Growing businesses often find that they save time and money by contracting with the right Managed Services partner. Managed Services allow you to augment your existing IT staff and infrastructure by partnering with a dedicated IT firm to take care of your network, servers, computers, and all your technology needs. 

This is the perfect solution for companies who need to operate at peak efficiency but do not have the resources to manage a large on-site IT staff. Choosing the right partner for your Managed Services needs is important. Here are 10 Things to look for as you are evaluating a managed services provider:

Revolved around you

Working with a managed service provider should not be about relinquishing control of your IT operations, but delegating expertise of IT operations, technology or hardware that an MSP has access to, but your company may not have readily available.

A world-class MSP will revolve around your business goals and provide strategic plans that cater to your business's technological needs. The focus will be on the customer's performance and growth; not the other way around.

Flexible

Your organization is unique, and you may want to leverage your managed services differently than other businesses in the industry. A world-class MSP should have the flexibility to collaborate with multi-vendor environments or integrate your old systems with new ones according to new updates in pertinent technology.

You may want to have a hybrid environment on-premises with servers and others in the cloud. Your line of the business application may be critical to your business operations. A world-class MSP will offer flexible options to meet your needs.

Process-driven

Have you ever returned to a restaurant for a dish you enjoyed, and the presentation, taste and texture were totally different than what you enjoyed the first time? It shouldn't matter who's behind the kitchen that day. A restaurant should have a process around their kitchen where the customer can have a predictable, quality dish every time around.

A World-class MSP will also have a process around providing managed services to deliver world-class results. Processes are set, defined and refined on a continual basis, and people follow them. 

 

Seek to improve

A World-class MSP will always seek to improve. They have key metrics that are measured and improved upon. A goal of creating a culture of accountability within the team maintains an atmosphere of constant innovation and improvement.

Strong company culture

A world-class MSP has a set of core values that are respected and followed by every team member. They make personnel decisions based on those core values and attain employees that are not only talented and capable but ones who care about the customers and their everyday problems.

Availability

You don't work 24 hours a day, but your computer network needs to, and so does your IT provider. When choosing any managed services offering, you must make sure your provider is available to you 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year. Your business depends on it.

Fast Service and Response Time

Not only does your provider need to be available all the time, but they also need to respond quickly to your needs and problems. Make sure that your IT provider doesn't forward calls to a call centre, but actually responds in a timely manner. Look for guaranteed response time.

Annual IT Budget Planning

A good managed services provider will sit down with you and assist in your technology planning for the future. Look for their advice and expertise to assist you with yearly planning and look for ways for you to save money and improve efficiency on technology that will help your company grow to the next level. Make sure your managed services provider is forward-thinking and looks out for your interests.

Disaster Recovery Planning

If your business is hit with a weather disaster, vandalism, or other outages, are you prepared? A good managed services provider will help you plan for the future, protect your data, and make sure your business can recover from a disruptive event.

Third-party Vendor Partnerships

An advantage of using a managed services provider is that they can handle technology vendors for you, saving you the time of tracking down multiple vendors for service and support. When evaluating a provider, look at who they partner with and make sure they have expertise on the tools you use.

Local On-Site Maintenance and Support

Make sure you choose a vendor that is available for onsite support. Using a local provider is a huge benefit to making sure you have the best service.

Daily Backups and Cloud Services

Using a managed services provider is a great way to ensure your data stays safe and secure. Make sure your provider provides automatic and consistent backups, backed up on a remote server for safety.

Security Testing and Monitoring

A good managed services firm will help protect your network from cyber-criminals and hackers. Make sure that your plan includes regular security testing and monitoring for attacks.

Employee Support

If your employees are fighting with technology, they can't get their jobs done. Make sure your IT managed services provider is available to provide fast answers to technology questions and use remote access to resolve issues quickly.

Proactive Maintenance

At a busy, growing company, often the temptation is to only fix technology when it is not working. A managed services partner will make sure you are pro-actively running the updates you need now to avoid problems later.

Managed Services Help Your Bottom Line

Whether it is improving efficiency by saving time, saving money on problems before they occur, or avoiding costly disasters and repairs, a managed services provider can bring great value to your business and improve your bottom line. Finding a true partner to look out for your technology needs will help your business grow to the next level.

Tips for Choosing the Best IT Managed Service Provider

Nowadays, the incorporation of IT into your workspace is a key element towards the success of any business or enterprise, regardless of its size or sector. More often than not, organizations turn to IT managed service providers to help them in the implementation and management of critical It resources. Here are some useful tips and things to look for in your next It Managed service provider.

Identify Business Requirements

Before starting to look at prices and comparing companies through that sole indicator, it is best to analyze the needs of your company. Most managed IT providers have a selection of services that can benefit your business. These can range from communication tools to help your teams be more productive, to back-end cyber-security technologies and policies to protect your network from cyber-threats. 

Any business needs a good IT service provider to be successful, and implementing some of the technology needs of a business is often not an easy task. Therefore, it's prudent to leave IT management to the hands of true specialists. A managed IT service provider's job is to ensure all of your workspace's technology needs are met.

Find potential partners that align with your requirements.

Once you have identified your business requirements, you can start doing research and analyze the different offers and skills managed services partners have. Although most organizations tend to work with Managed Service providers that have industry-specific knowledge, more important than this is to work with a company that understands the impact of technology in business outcomes as their view of technology will be more holistic providing you with powerful insights into how to optimize your IT investments. 

Evaluate Providers based on key capabilities and expertise

When finding an IT Managed service provider, there are seven key capabilities that will determine their knowledge, experience and give you a better idea of their approach to managing technology environments. 

Experience in the market: In a very competitive market, choosing a seasoned managed IT service provider is the best way to ensure a top of the line service. A proven track record of having attended to diverse cases, with a history of offering efficient technology solutions that have led to the satisfaction of their customers.

Knowledge and Innovation: MSPs (Managed Services Providers) need to be knowledgeable in industry-leading solutions, having partnerships with industry leaders such as Cisco, Microsoft and DellEMc is a good indicator of the level of specialization a partner can have to deploy and manage a high-performing solution. Moreover, look for an MSP who has innovated developing their proprietary solutions based on these technologies. Many times these solutions will be tailored and fully designed for SMBs like yours with a backend of enterprise technologies.

Efficient IT advisory services

An ideal managed IT service provider should make a personalized strategic plan for your company, and then advise you on the best ways to implement technology so you can reduce costs and maximize efficiency, while at the same time getting all your IT needs. Effective assistance is not limited to face-to-face but must also be done remotely. Make sure the IT service provider has experts that offer a personalized consulting service for your business. Finally, the services that work best are those that maintain a balanced cost-benefit relationship.

Offer a range of services. 

An IT service provider with experiences in services like cybersecurity, networking, and systems can offer a comprehensive view of your technology environment. All of these technologies work in tandem towards your business success so finding an IT service provider that understands it that way is essential as you can trust more and more of your infrastructure to them knowing you are in great hands. In this day and age in which cloud technology is becoming more and more prominent, ensuring that the provider offers cloud solutions, as well as full migration, should be a priority.

Cyber-security

A company that offers proper security for your company should be a priority. Items like firewalls are important to prevent something unexpected from happening with your data, as well as from hedging against cyber-attackers. A company that offers credible security services should be necessary in order to protect your data and make sure IT operations in your business run smoothly.

Certified experts

 Not all managed service providers have them. Accreditation of a recognized certification guarantees maturity, experience in the work processes and adds greater value for the clients. The quality of the training of technicians adds to the incorporation of effective solutions that are adjusted to the diverse IT needs a company might have.

Constantly updated

 Ensuring efficient communication and maintaining a good relationship with their clients should be prioritized by your IT managed service provider. Full transparency should be available, as well as support that works for your company's working hours. 

Furthermore, by following these general guidelines towards choosing the best managed IT service provider for your company, your company will be benefited, given that it will ensure the best possible outcome for all your technology needs while at the same time maximizing your return on investment. 

These tips are the result of what we've seen with our customers over the years. They summarized some of the biggest concerns businesses like yours have expressed when hiring Tekscape as their managed service provider. How have we helped?

• • By reducing the complexity of IT deployments, making it easier for our customers to reallocate resources into more business-centric technologies. 

 

• • By increasing the return on investment for various companies and helping increase workforce productivity through collaboration solutions.

 

• • By ensuring smoothly run IT operations for several companies providing 24/7 assistance for any issues that may arise.