Many organization have in-house IT staff that run the day-to-day operations of their networks and infrastructure. From helping employees with printer problems, to keeping the network up and running, these staff members have a complex list of responsibilities within the organization and are often vital to the organization's success.
You may think that by having an on-staff IT manager/director or team you do not need any additional outside support. However, adding in managed IT services to your in-house IT team, can add value in many ways to your organization. Below we've detailed some of the ways that adding in managed IT services can benefit your IT team as well as your organization overall.
Complex problems require complex and diverse skill sets.
Your in house IT staff is, no doubt, sufficient and skilled. If this wasn't the case, you wouldn't have hired them to run a very important part of your business. With that in mind, outsourcing certain aspects of your IT needs only further strengthens your team. Your in house IT staff are most likely busy and bogged down with the day to day work of keeping your users working and your IT services up and running. In case of emergency, having an entire team of backup IT staff, that you get by adding a managed services provider, to help in a time of need is imperative to keeping your network stable and running properly.
While your in-house staff is great at running certain aspects of your IT department, your network and infrastructure is most likely very complex and having extra hands on deck can only benefit the overall operation. You may think that you staff can handle anything that comes their way, but there are occasions where a problem may arise, and your staff may need a larger team to brainstorm and come up with solutions. The unique benefits of using managed IT services, means that you get to bring an entire IT team of varying experience and expertise into your toolbox to help in high pressured situations. With an area as important as IT, you want to make sure you have a well-oiled machine ready to go in case something major happens.
Allow your IT director/manager to be point person
You may have a director of IT on staff but do not have the funding or opportunity to staff an entire IT department. By bringing on a managed services team you can appoint your head of IT as the main point person for your managed services team. This allows your organization to have the many benefits of an entire skilled IT team without the overhead of having an entire team on your staff. Your on staff IT manager or director will be in charge of making sure your managed IT services provider is up to date on your needs and directs your IT services provider on how they can help your organizations specific IT goals.
Support so your IT staff doesn't feel overwhelmed
If you're like many companies, you have a small 1-2 person IT staff in-house and you believe they are up to any task that's thrown their way. While they are capable and a strong asset to your team, you may be underestimating the ability of 1 or 2 people to keep a network running and to be able to fix any problems that may arise.
Adding in the support of a managed IT service provider allows your in-house IT staff to feel confident having an entire team as backup and support and allows them to deal with the day to day operations of your network and IT needs while knowing that they have backup to handle the projects that they simply don't have the time to deal with themselves.
It is never good to have staff that feel overwhelmed.
By adding a team of IT managed services, you can rest assured that your in house IT staff will feel valued and capable of handling all aspects of their jobs. We encourage you to sit down with your on-staff IT team and ask them the capabilities of your current network, how quickly they could turn around a solution if your network were to go down, and how long your business could operate with your network down. From this meeting we suggest you bring in an IT managed services company to fill in the gaps found.
Allowing time off
With an area as vital to your business as your network and infrastructure, allowing time off for employees whose job it is to keep your network running can be difficult. Studies have shown that allowing proper time-off it vital to job performance and satisfaction. To balance the constant pulls of running an IT department, having managed services as backup and support allows your in house IT staff to have time off and to know that everything will continue to run smoothly and problems will be addressed quickly and efficiently while they are away. An IT managed service company provides peace of mind for your IT staff and your entire organization.