Defining What a Managed Service is?
The more we look for a managed service, the more we get confused. So, to simplify it, let’s start with simple definitions to understand managed technology services.
According to Wikipedia:
“Managed services are the practice of outsourcing day-to-day management responsibilities and functions as a strategic method for improving operations and cutting expenses. This can include outsourcing databases, production support, and lifecycle build/maintenance activities.”
In a more straightforward definition, Techopedia says:
“A managed service provider (MSP) is a type of IT Service Company that provides database, server, network, and specialized applications to end users and organizations.”
Let’s dig into a bit of detail
IT and technology have become necessary for every person and, most importantly, businesses, from managing minor things like computers and passwords to managing complex things like networks and security – where small and medium businesses (SMBs) require assistance.
However, there is a limit in some cases where businesses don’t have an in-house team and time to handle these IT tasks. It is when a company develops a need for managed IT, or you can say managed technology services.
The main goal of the managed services is to help businesses focus on their primary business tasks instead of struggling around with the IT hustle. Because otherwise, the managers and focal person would be occupied and distracted with managing technology.
So, a managed technology serves as an external or third-party IT department for your company. It solves this problem of handling server breakdowns, for example, and allows you to put more effort into growing your business and clientele.
A managed service provider achieves clients’ technology goals by working remotely and staying available for the client when and where required in terms of hardware, software, cloud, infrastructure, or security purposes.
Some Instances that Call for a Managed Service Provider
To identify what scenarios create the space for a Managed technology service provider to hop in – let’s look at the following instances:
- When a company notices its resources are lacking the required knowledge to maintain the IT quality
- When a business identifies the goals were not achieved due to poor service and support
- When there occur service outages and downtimes
- When the company sees an overspend of budget on maintaining and improving the performance
- When a company suffers at the hand of data loss and security issues
How a Managed Service Model Works
Typically, in a managed service setting, there are mainly two parties involved, i.e., a third-party contractor (you can call it a customer) and a managed service provider. A managed service provider offers a clear set of technology services to its customers as the MSP (not the customer) decides as per the analysis of the requirements and needs of a specific customer.
An IT service provider handles the task by taking responsibility for the implementation of the service and any hardware involved, against which the customer pays a monthly fee. The types of services expand to a wide range; however, the main objective remains the same, i.e., to lift the load of IT maintenance off the customer’s shoulders.
A managed service provider offers active support at customers’ offices, in MSP’s own hosting (data center), or any third-party data center.
To summarize, managed service providers deliver IT services at an economically low cost compared to the price a client would have to spend if they handled these tasks independently. Moreover, handing over the IT services to a managed service provider would have the benefit of higher quality, flexibility, and robustness – considering the fact that SMBs or smaller enterprises would not be able to justify the hiring of the professionals and implementation of the tech services in a way an MSP can – as they are not familiar with the technologies, processes, and equipment required for these IT tasks like an expert manager technology service provider.
How Much Does a Managed Technology Service Cost?
Customers specifically pay for the services an MSP handles, which can be modified per the changes in customers’ requirements. These services might include remote monitoring, IT management, help desk solutions, etc. Moreover, the managed service providers provide a SaaS-based solution at an economical cost which won’t be achievable with in-house resources. These payments primarily work on a monthly subscription basis.
Not to forget, engaging the MSPs doesn’t remove the inclusion of the local IT officials. Instead, those official IT persons become the points of contact who interact with the managed service providers and keep track of the progress regarding regular feedback and reporting.
What is the difference between traditional outsourcing services and managed services?
An outsourcing system differs from a managed service provider because employees are hired according to the required number to complete the job in an IT outsourcing setting. Whereas, the managed service provider is targeting the results. This means an MSP would be expected to meet the metrics regardless of the details like which type of staff, process, or system is used.
Moreover, unlike the consultancy services focused on a project-based approach, an MSP works on an ongoing subscription.
Why Not Have a Look at the History Before Giving a Closure to the Blog
At the start, there were limited computers, hence, less work to break-fix the technical issues. However, as the manufacturing and clientele increased – handling these issues through a break-fix model became costly, time-consuming, and resource-demanding. Thereby, in the early 2000s, managed IT services emerged to deal with this bottleneck.
The maintenance and upgrading were done regularly to avoid facing problems from happening. Internet capacity became strong; cloud computing became an option for remote handling of issues. So did the managed IT services efficiency increase. And it became easier to take more clients on a large scale.
That is how we have evolved over the years, and SMBs are enjoying the perks of Managed technology/ IT services.
We are a click away from catering to your needs and requirements if you are interested in benefiting from these services.