Before entering into a managed services agreement, your service provider should take the time to get to know your business. They should assess your equipment and software applications, becoming acquainted with what you have in terms of IT and how you are using your IT to deliver services to your customers. They should also determine what condition your servers and desktops are in, consider the apps you are using, and get a feel for what services you use the most. They should discuss with you what you like the least and the most about your current IT infrastructure.
We’ve been talking about how a managed services plan can help a company operate on a more predictable budget. A remediation project may be necessary prior to entering into such a managed service agreement. Some infrastructures are healthier than others, and if you are using an old server or hardware and software that are no longer under warranty, those pieces may need to be brought up to speed. A managed service plan is not a magic wand that will solve your IT problems without some preliminary efforts, and your service provider should be able to help you develop a plan to bring your infrastructure up to speed.
Better Cost Control through Managed IT
As business owners, you have to deal with a variety of fixed costs that are associated with doing business, including payroll processing costs, building costs, utilities and taxes. And while those costs may fluctuate, they are largely predictable. Your IT costs, on the other hand, are often variable. You cannot predict when a server is going to fail or when software will stop being supported, and you cannot always predict when your network is going to go down. Subsequently, budgeting IT costs can be difficult. Managed services can solve this dilemma.
A managed service plan makes IT support a monthly predictable cost. For the typical small or medium business, managed services turns IT into a utility making the cost as invisible as possible. Since the support costs are fixed, your managed service team will do everything in their power to keep your IT up and running – and you won’t resist the effort over worry about an hourly, unpredictable cost. With agents installed on client computers and robust disaster recovery systems in place, the managed service plan becomes a win-win situation. You want your IT to be up, and your managed service provider wants your IT to be up; otherwise, managing IT can become costly for both parties.
thinkCSC offers a variety of Managed IT plans to suit businesses of any size. Contact us for more information about how we can help you better manage your IT costs and pay for uptime instead of downtime.
