What Should a Managed Services Provider be Doing for You?

We use a team of experts.

Many organizations do not have the resources to staff an entire IT department. When this is the case, it is common for a company to give information technology tasks as extra work for employees who have other responsibilities within the organization. When this happens, it is common to see errors and increased network down time because these employees have other work to do and are not network experts. The result here is that the business assumes network, data, and communication risk. Employees that do not specialize in the needed tasks are more likely to make errors and experience frustration that IT work is taking them away from primary job tasks.

When companies are capable of hiring IT staff, they tend to start small. The result is that few people have many tasks. Even with a small organization, IT staff can become overwhelmed by the wide variety of expertise needed to maintain all facets of electronic business communication.

A managed services provider like Advanced Business Networks brings a team of experts to provide the preventative maintenance, and fast troubleshooting. At ABN, we provide security and consistency in the day to day operation of your business network so that your IT staff can focus on strategic issues.

Low cost

There are two factors in cost reduction that a Managed Services Provider (MSP) brings to the table. The first is the cost of upkeep on the network itself. A typical MSP will scale cost with the size and capability needed by the organization. This allows a business to grow and maintain consistency and predictability in their IT expenses. When these tasks are performed internally by a company’s staff, there are large cost spikes that occur when new staff is needed as the company matures. Full time employees and the process of hiring is expensive, and an MSP allows a business to outsource and only pay for the services needed.

The other side of cost reduction comes from efficiency and network up time. An MSP will facilitate maximum network uptime, reducing operations costs suffered when networks go down. MSPs perform ongoing maintenance as well as offer 24 hour troubleshooting that is very difficult to accomplish on a budget with internal staff.

Proactive Preventative Maintenance

The well-known break-fix approach to IT stems from a reactive mindset. This is highly inefficient as network problems and downtime increases dramatically compared to a proactive approach.

MSPs, take a more proactive stance on IT issues. With a team of outside experts, your business can benefit from preventative maintenance and best practices resulting in maximized network uptime. While you are busy at work, a team of experts like those at ABN monitor your network, make sure all firmware and software is up to date, make recommendations on hardware updates and provide installation expertise, and even train your team on best practices for network efficiency and up time.