Using a Managed Service Provider in Melbourne can keep your business growing with minimal tech disruptions.
In today’s fast-paced digital world, a typical workday loaded with IT problems can easily take your team off track. When you do your own troubleshooting, it usually results in minimal work being done and it really doesn’t take much to happen until deadlines start getting missed, and the productivity of your staff starts to suffer.
It goes without saying, that with the growth of any local Melbourne-based business comes an increased need for IT. By adding another person in the office, this means there will be a need for another computer, another phone and more demand on the internet. The world of technology has changed the way businesses operate, and there’s no doubt you’re feeling this as well!
Having an IT Managed Services business model can save you a lot of unnecessary hassle. Whether you just have a need for basic business IT support, or are experiencing major issues – having a team of reliable professionals on standby helps give you peace of mind that your business can keep running smoothly.
Businesses of all shapes and sizes in Melbourne, Australia are becoming aware of the advantages of Managed IT Service Providers including efficiency, security and compliance. But, with so many different ways to handle your business IT needs, how do you know which IT Services company is right for you?
It can be overwhelming trying to figure all this out on your own. Engaging with a reliable and local Managed Service Provider in Melbourne’s Eastern suburbs is a great way to start controlling those IT costs, and keep you working on what’s most important – working on your business.
What Is Managed IT Services?
Managed IT Services is ongoing support for your business technology that is provided by a dedicated IT provider. Rather than trying to manage your IT needs in-house and as a part of someone’s role, using a dedicated Managed Service Provider allows you to outsource these requirements to a professional.
Your provider will typically assign you a specialised IT engineer who proactively monitors and maintains your user and device management. This allows your business IT operations to run at peak performance, while you and your staff can focus on your core business operations.
The good news about using a Melbourne-based Managed Service Provider (MSP) is that you are provided with a service level agreement that outlines what is provided and your expected monthly costs. A reputable MSP will show you what outcomes to expect from their service, so there are no nasty surprises.
Using Discover as your Managed Service Provider can provide you with some or all of the following IT Support Services:
- Regular assessment of hardware, so that potential problems are identified before the need to be fixed.
- Management of software installations and updates.
- On-site or remote IT support to address your IT issues quickly with minimal disruption to your staff.
- Network security surveillance, so that identified cyber threats are dealt with quickly without compromising your business compliance requirements.
- Ongoing backup and disaster recovery, so that your business can keep running even when the unexpected happens.
In most cases, IT problems are usually prevented, or rectified before you even knew there was an issue.
Increased Demand for Managed Service Providers in Melbourne
The managed services market shows growth projections of billions of dollars in the coming years due to the promising advantages and evident results of partnering with a Managed IT Services company.
Whether you’re a seasoned IT professional or a tech newbie; as a business owner, offloading technology operations will make your job easier. There are many case studies where small to medium businesses that engage in specialised IT managed service arrangements were able to increase their staff productivity and reduce costs by up to 50%.
Who Should Be Using a Managed Service Provider?
Any business with more than 5-10 pieces of technology will most likely benefit from partnering with a Managed Service Provider. The reason for this is more the more technology there is, the more that can go wrong. When looking at the rate of business growth in Melbourne, it’s important for your Managed Service Provider to provide multiple tiers of services. There shouldn’t really be a ‘one-size-fits-all’ solution when it comes to your tech requirements, as now two businesses are really the same.
As a business owner, you know your core business and the kind of team you need to deliver a quality product or service to your clients. In the same way you may have a bookkeeper or accountant with specialised knowledge to manage your financial matters, you can partner with a reliable Managed Service Provider to take care of your ongoing tech hassles.
Do I need a Managed Service Provider for my Business?
If you’re finding yourself asking this question, then the answer is probably yes! The reason you’re probably asking is because you have a need that keeps coming up, or something that is holding you back in your business operations.
To help better determine if you need to engage with a MSP for your business, try asking the following questions:
- Are your systems running smoothly and efficiently?
- Do your staff feel confident with handling IT issues?
- Are they working effectively, or are cumbersome systems or networks slowing them down?
- Is your hardware out-of-date, or do you have a regular maintenance schedule?
- Are your network devices secure and up to date?
- Do you have an adequate backup and disaster recovery system in place?
- Do your clients feel confident with their personal data housed with you?
Technology should make our lives easier, not harder. To create an efficient working environment, more must be done in less time. Time-consuming tasks such as handling downtime don’t actually add value to your clients, so why should this task sit with your staff? By leaving that part to the experts, your business can now flourish in the areas it needs most.
Advantages of using a specialised Managed Service Provider
Using a Managed Service Provider based in Melbourne can bring a lot to the table. If you find that your business needs any of these, then IT managed services is an option that is worth considering:
Free Up the Workload of in-house IT Teams
If your business is on the bigger scale, you may already have an in-house IT team. However, some projects deserve more time and attention. An out-stretched internal IT team doesn’t need to do everything by themselves. Optimise your business’ IT budget and get more done by complementing your internal staff with a Managed IT Services company.
Cost Effectiveness
Next to revenue, expenses are one of the most important things to manage when running your business. It may seem counterintuitive to spend money with an external party to manage your IT requirements as a way to manage expenses, but an investment in managed services can actually prove to be quite cost effective.
Using a Melbourne IT Services company allows for regular expenses to be planned for and projected. Managed IT services companies don’t typically involve the traditional labour and maintenance costs, and they’re able to source better quality software, hardware and services at the best prices as they have such in depth knowledge of the industry.
IT Operations Efficiency
As well as finances, operation efficiency is key when it comes to running your business! Contrary to what most think, managed IT services isn’t about using technology to replace staff. It’s more about removing the technology headaches, and using technology to enhance capabilities and know-how by offering quick solutions to issues. With the help of advanced technology such as cloud management, data recovery, systems management – managed IT services make the entire IT infrastructure more efficient and allows your team to do what they need to do quicker and easier.
Enhanced Overall Security
Security is an integral part of any business tech set-up. Whether you’re using desktops, laptops, tablets or smartphones – they’ll all be sharing important data which makes the risk of a data breach a more common issue. A managed IT service provider can help address this problem by implementing software to keep your business and client data safe and compliant no matter when or where it’s being accessed.
Common misconceptions of Managed IT Services
As you can see, there are wide range of benefits for businesses of all shapes and sizes to partner with a Managed IT Services company. Discover IT Services has been a leader in the IT Services industry for over two decades. With that much time and experience, we have come across a lot of misconceptions of the Managed IT Services market and wanted to address those as well!
Loss of Control
Most organisations think that offloading some of their operations means that they lose control! This couldn’t be further from the truth. While it’s understandable that most businesses think this may be the case, it isn’t true when using a reputable Melbourne-based Managed Service Provider.
Transparency is one of the core attributes of a good MSP. They let you know what you need to know by completing reports for deliverables, and informing you about actions on your data (such as storage). The bottom line is, YOU are still the one in control of your business, but will have a few less headaches.
Bank-Breaking Costs
An assumption made about working with a Managed Service Provider is that it is too expensive. Whilst there is a monthly cost, what you save on hardware, software and services like phone and internet start to balance it out pretty quickly. As well as this, you won’t have to worry about your team wasting time getting laptops or printers working again meaning you’ll have full utilisation of your staff around the clock with minimal downtime due to broken technology.
In addition to this, a good MSP will assess what hardware and software is actually needed to keep your business running smoothly. That way, you’re not investing in unnecessary equipment. Instead, you are pointed towards long-term cost savings by improving team productivity, avoiding cyber-attacks, and cutting infrastructure costs.
Less Security
Some business owners think that by giving another company access to their network, it will become less secure. Given the nature of the services they provide, Managed Services companies cannot afford to compromise their client’s security. They invest in this because in the IT Services industry, trust plays a very critical role! The truth is, MSPs have the ability to create layers and layers of cyber protection, in some cases even more than what an in-house team can provide.
Just a Basic Monitored Service
Engaging with a Managed Service Provider for your business gives them a 360-degree view of your operations. Any good MSP does more than just remote monitoring.
Monitoring services provided by an MSP are very pro-active, and the benefit of this is problems (or potential threats) are typically identified before they become an issue. This keeps your business protected and running smoothly. These services offered can vary, and you can customise to whatever your business actually needs.
Business is Too Small to use an MSP
This is actually a really common misconception as smaller businesses think they don’t need IT support. But with work-from-home on the rise, and cyber security threats at all-time-highs, the need to engage in an MSP has never been more important. With remote working and online access being a key focus for many businesses in Melbourne, using a Managed Service Provider is now becoming a necessity, rather than the luxury it used to be perceived as.
Too Complex to Understand
One major concern of businesses is that IT engineers speak in tech jargon, which can be confusing, and your staff can’t relate. While that’s sometimes correct, a good MSP wants to connect with you and really understand what your business needs. At Discover, our engineers are friendly and take the time to ensure your staff understand what they need to know from an IT front to allow them to do their job efficiently.
Using a Managed Service Provider in Melbourne
Discover’s Managed IT Services gives you access to our team of professional engineers, based right here in Melbourne. Our select team are professionals with a wide range of expertise including IT Support, Network Security, Data Backup, Cloud Migrations and Transformation and Disaster Recovery. With the latest changes in technology, we always stay up to date, giving you the best value for your business whilst removing all the headaches.
Addressing IT issues 24/7 is more efficient than relying 100% on your own employees. Rest easy knowing that your team will have the help they need when they need it most so you can avoid unnecessary interruptions because of technology breaking.
Get in touch with us now to see how we can help you and your team can stay focused on what you need to do to get the job done for your clients.