What Are the Types of IT Managed Services?
There are many types of managed services for those who are looking for managed and outsourced IT. Whether your business wants to outsource all its IT or just some of it, there’s a solution that can be customized for you. These are only broad categories; a good MSP will be able to tailor its offerings for your company’s needs.
Help Desk
Help desk services provide routine, specific troubleshooting tasks around your business. This is ideal for businesses who have their own IT staff, but want to keep their IT staff focused.
Too often, IT employees are unable to focus on revenue-generating or innovation-building activities because they are focused on putting out fires. With a help desk solution, the IT department will be able to focus on its own internal initiatives.
At the same time, this is a fairly minimal type of service, and may not give every company the support that it needs.
Full IT Services
Typically for small businesses that don’t have any type of IT staff, this is one of the most popular types of IT managed services. Everything an internal IT department would do is done through the MSP instead. Full IT services are provided, and often, the services that are provided are indistinguishable from having a full IT department at hand.
In fact, it’s often better, because the organization doesn’t need to pay for full IT services, and because the organization doesn’t have to spend time maintaining the IT department and their knowledge.
IT Consulting
When companies need help on specific projects, they can call an IT consulting company. IT consulting companies augment existing IT departments and sometimes even existing MSP relationships, giving critical knowledge on specialized topics. IT consulting can be used for complex projects that need advice, or very extensive projects such as a deployment of an entirely new infrastructure. Consultation occurs on a discrete level, separating it from other types of managed services, because consulting typically happens once and on-demand rather than consistently.
Cloud Development and Deployment
Cloud technology is becoming important for many businesses, but not every business knows how to transition easily to cloud development and deployment. A managed service that is an expert in cloud development and deployment can help a business utilize this technology. Cloud services can be persistent, or can be in the form of consulting, depending on the organization’s needs.
Often, moving to the cloud can be a challenge, especially for businesses that have worked on-premise for some time. It may be a matter of finding new cloud-based solutions that work well for the business, or a matter of adapting the organization’s older solutions to a cloud environment.
Maintenance
Patching, backing up, and otherwise keeping the lights on; maintenance consists of routine tasks that an IT department may be too strained to complete. When IT departments are too focused on maintenance, they can’t innovate and improve within the business. Managed services can take over any mundane tasks that the business has (like help desk solutions), so internal IT departments can concentrate on other things.
Not only is this a more efficient use of resources, but it can also reduce the chances of an issue occurring with the organization’s technology. With better maintenance, companies will experience fewer security-related events, and will otherwise be able to manage and maintain their productivity and their efficiency much better.
On-Site Talent
For some organizations, the barrier to IT managed services is that they need to have someone on-site. Managed services often provide on-site options, especially for mid-sized and larger enterprises.
On-site talent can provide valuable connections between internal and external IT personnel, as well as ensuring that on-site troubleshooting can be completed by the on-site talent rather than having to be addressed remotely. On-site talent is a little more expensive than remote solutions, but it can also be extremely robust.
On-site talent will still be less expensive than hiring an internal employee, because the on-site talent does not need to be available all the time to the business, and will instead work with multiple businesses at once. This is an excellent way to get the advantages of a highly trained, specialized IT professional without having to pay to internally hire one. Further, the business won’t need to worry about traditional issues of employment, such as benefits, vacation time, and so forth.
What types of managed services is your business looking for? There isn’t always a one-size-fits-all solution, but rather specific problems a business needs to solve. For more information, contact the experts at Red River.
