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With technology getting more complex and subsequently more expensive, businesses are faced with the challenge of procuring and managing IT services, and solving IT problems in the most efficient and beneficial way possible. With this, managed IT services have become a viable and sometime preferable solution over having everything managed in-house. Both solutions have their strengths, but as complexity increases, the argument for managed IT strengthens.
Better Customer Service
No matter the size of a business, customer service is always a challenge for IT functions. Challenges exist in both procuring equipment or application upgrades, and the service the IT staff provides to their clients within the business. With the traditional in-house solution, internal customer service can be prioritized and managed more closely, however internal IT staff may still find itself unable to serve all the needs of the business units within the timeframes required. While an in-house solution may be the right fit for a large business, a small business using managed services for equipment and applications can take advantage of the service provider’s economies of scale and use them as a miniature supply chain. A small to medium business has to plan for anticipated need, or risk not getting equipment or upgrades in a timely manner. The managed service provider will have strong relationships with equipment vendors and can help architect the right solution and the right size of environment for your business applications.
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Greater Knowledge Base
As technology becomes more complex, the challenge is to keep in-house staff up on new information. Employees are an investment and the business should encourage education, but depending on the size of the business, training employees to become experts can be a negative proposition in terms of cost benefit. As noted in CompTIA, the expertise of managed IT services and their focus on IT allows the business customer to focus on their own expertise – the business.
Cost Effective
Finally, perhaps the most important business driver related to IT is managing cost. The advantages of managed services over in-house IT provides the prospect of savings again because the vendor has the economies of scale and can pass those savings on to the business. Actually, the managed IT vendor has inherent efficiencies with remote technology, and the use of experts, in addition to the economy of buying and managing large-scale. The business client can benefit from the provider establishing a fixed price enabling them to properly plan for IT costs.
The solution to dealing with IT problems can be addressed in-house, but managed IT services are becoming more and more valid as a better answer over time.
About the Author: Stephen Craig is a part of an elite team of writers who have contributed to hundreds of blogs and news sites. Follow him @SCraigSEO.
