Introduction
To start, let’s look towards everybody’s favorite online encyclopedia, Wikipedia, for a definition:
… is the practice of outsourcing the responsibility for maintaining, and anticipating need for, a range of processes and functions, ostensibly for the purpose of improved operations and reduced budgetary expenditures through the reduction of directly-employed staff.
It’s a simple concept that could probably be leveraged in many parts of your business. There are managed services for payroll, accounting, specialized equipment, facilities, and more. They make sense because you’re hiring a subject matter expert that brings expertise from their other clients for your benefit.
Managed services for Information Technology are of course another type that businesses often employ and are arguably the most popular. Why? Well, for many businesses IT is not a component of the operation that they have deep knowledge or that adds revenue, but when used properly IT can certainly help decrease costs and increase the bottom line. When thinking about when and where to use IT Managed Services in your operation there are many possible areas to consider that can yield results.
Types of IT Managed Services
Many businesses get started with Managed Services by outsourcing their servers, desktops, phone systems or help desk. This is a good first step, but some of the other areas can really trim costs and free up your employees to concentrate on their job and not technology shortcomings.
Moving systems from onsite infrastructure to the Cloud is where most businesses are looking to implement managed services today. Email servers, file storage and backups are often systems that get moved to the Cloud first. The next big focus areas for the Cloud are “Line of Business” applications like Accounting/ERP, Supply Chain, Human Resources, Payroll, Point of Sale and Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems. Another popular area is moving industry specific or specialized applications away from legacy systems running on in-house servers. All of these moves have benefits like increased capabilities and interoperability, less ongoing maintenance and support, plus changing what were previously capital expenses to operational expenses with the subscription model employed by most Cloud services.
One managed service area that every business is probably using already but have room for improvement is network management and security. Utilizing Cloud services will require most businesses to upgrade their network infrastructure and with that they should be putting in place increased security, monitoring and management. Networks are complicated and mistakes are easily made that can expose your business to the world at large. Everyday hackers are exploring connected devices across the internet trying to break in and find a way to ruin your day. Finding a managed service provider who specializes in network management and security sets the stage for successfully moving to the Cloud.
What’s Next
Ready to talk about how your business might benefit from Managed Services? Five9 Systems can help and would love to talk to you about how.
Contact Us today for a consultation.
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