Businesses partner with managed service providers to leverage technology in a more efficient, more cost-effective way.
Businesses have been reliant on technology for many years now, but it has now reached a point where how well a business leverages technology determines its success. This is why managed services are such a popular solution now – because not all businesses have the time and resources to develop a cutting-edge technology strategy themselves. We spoke with a London-based managed service provider, TechQuarters, who told us that many of their clients seek managed services as a way of cutting their IT costs. But how exactly does this work?
Having provided managed IT support Law Firms, and numerous other types of organizations, have relied on for over a decade, TechQuarters described to us some of the key ways that working with a managed service provider can help businesses cut their costs.
Reduce (Or Eliminate) Infrastructure
Many managed IT service providers work with technology vendors – most commonly, cloud providers. For example, TechQuarters is a Microsoft Partner and can provide their clients with Microsoft Cloud Solutions. This can be a good opportunity for businesses to streamline their infrastructure. For example, they might be able to replace hardware with newer, more compact solutions; or they could get rid of infrastructure hardware altogether by migrating to the cloud.
Reduced Downtime
Managed IT service providers help businesses get a handle on their IT infrastructure so that it runs more efficiently and, most importantly, more consistently. From their experience providing IT support Legal firms rely on, TechQuarters knows that businesses lose a lot of money due to IT downtime – whether that’s with costly IT repair or replacement, or simply due to staff losing hours in their day. Managed service providers can help businesses with this, by implementing proactive measures to minimize downtime.
Preferential Rates for Technology
Managed service providers often help their clients procure technology via their partnerships with other vendors – as we mentioned with TechQuarters in the previous point. The other benefit to this is that this usually comes at a better price point than if a business were to procure technology directly from vendors. This is precisely how the Microsoft Partner Network operates, for instance; most Microsoft licensing is sourced through partners due to this price incentive.
100% Utilized Infrastructure
As we mentioned earlier, managed service providers often help their clients move to the cloud, which has a major benefit when it comes to IT budgets. According to TechQuarters – whose work providing IT support North London businesses rely on has frequently involved cloud migrating and consultancy work – Cloud infrastructure is highly scalable. The scalability of the cloud means that, instead of businesses purchasing enough infrastructure to account for growth, they pay for exactly what they are using. Scaling up usage with cloud service is easy, so businesses can rest assured that they’re utilizing 100% of the resources they are paying for.
Simplify Budget Forecasting
Accounting for IT expenditures can be a headache for many businesses. Between unforeseen IT issues, replacing legacy infrastructure, investing in IT staff training, and countless other expenses, IT is taking up more and more of the average business’ budget. However, with managed IT services, businesses get a lot of these things as a fraction of the cost – due to the cloud being more cost-effective, and the economy of scale meaning that MSPs can offer services cheaper relative to if a business kept the same service in-house. It is also worth remembering that because MSPs take full responsibility for a business’ IT, all IT expenses can be consolidated into a single service bill.
