Growing businesses face a number of challenges when trying to scale their operations. In fact, scalability is one of the primary bottlenecks that companies will have to overcome, and it is often an ongoing effort that can determine whether or not the company succeeds.
In order to scale successfully, business owners and leaders need to find solutions that address their growing needs while also striking a delicate balance between cost effectiveness and performance.
It’s simply not feasible for most businesses to hire a new person, pay for new equipment, and buy new software every time a new requirement for growth presents itself. This is why many businesses choose to outsource certain aspects of their business to third parties who are already established and equipped to handle specific tasks.
Traditionally, this method was most commonly used to meet a company’s needs for accounting, customer service, and human resources, but in recent years, outsourcing IT and cyber security is becoming an increasingly common practice.
When a business outsources its IT needs, they gain the knowledge, experience, and infrastructure of an entire IT department without needing to hire and train additional employees, allowing businesses to cross several things off their lists with a single solution.
In today’s article, we will be exploring the benefits of managed IT services, as well as how you can seamlessly incorporate managed IT services into your daily operations to help you scale your growing business. After reading this article, you should have a better idea of what you can expect when hiring a third-party IT company to handle your digital infrastructure.
Why Choose Managed IT Services?
Managed IT services can play a critical role in securing and streamlining your online and in-network operations, but your unique needs will depend on the size and scope of your business. This is why managed IT services is a practical and scalable solution, since it can be customized for your specific needs, no matter what you do or how you do it.
Here are some of the reasons why managed IT services might be right for you.
Scalability
Although we already mentioned this in passing, we want to reiterate this point and look at it in some more detail to highlight its importance. When talking about this point, it is important to note the differences between growing and scaling your business.
When your business grows, your revenue increases as more and more people buy your products, but this also results in busier employees and a need for better resource management. In order to keep up with the demands of your growing business, you may need to hire more employees, acquire more assets to handle your operations, and expand your physical footprint, but these efforts will be for not if you don’t have an adaptable plan for managing these changes.
This is where scalability comes into play. Having a scalable business plan means that you have access to the necessary resources to make your human capital and infrastructure continue to run smoothly as they increase in size, but this must be accomplished without over-extending your budget and putting your company in a weaker financial position. When you have scalable operations, your infrastructure will grow alongside you organically, eliminating the need to create and maintain a larger infrastructure that you can grow into.
Managed IT services are a perfect solution for overseeing your company’s digital assets without creating an entire IT department from scratch. When you keep your IT efforts in-house, you will not only need to hire new, well-paid employees, but you will also have to acquire the physical resources needed for these employees to carry out their jobs, such as computers, software, desks, chairs, and a work space.
Although professional managed IT services are not cheap, they are much more budget-friendly than the alternative. Rather than paying for all of the things we mentioned before, you will have one monthly bill to cover all of your IT needs. And as you continue to grow, you can simply change your service level agreement with your managed IT services partner.
Increased Security
Cyber security is a growing concern for businesses, and statistics show that many companies who fall victim to cyber attacks are unable to recover. According to a study conducted by the US National Cyber Security Alliance, more than half of the businesses that experience a successful cyber attack are forced to shut down within six months.
When a business suffers an attack, honesty is the best policy to reestablish trust with customers and partners, but this causes irreparable damage to a company’s reputation and public perception more often than not.
Furthermore, cyber attacks are becoming increasingly sophisticated and diverse, especially through the use of AI and machine learning. As technology advances, malicious actors are able to improve the means through which they are able to gain access to a network and steal or corrupt sensitive data.
Working with a managed IT services provider will give you access to a large team of seasoned IT security experts. Through a combination of their insight and the security measures they have at their disposal, these experts will equip your system with all of the latest security measures to protect your infrastructure and data.
It is impossible to completely prevent attacks from occurring, but having a managed IT services provider in your corner can mitigate many of the risks involved with running crucial aspects of your business online.
Managed IT services will not only install security measures onto the devices in your network and cloud environment, but they will also continuously monitor activities on these devices to identify malicious activity and prevent it from propagating throughout your system.
Improved Efficiency
As you probably already know, computers and other devices can get bogged down when they are used to process and store large amounts of data, and businesses are certainly not immune to this. Since employees and business owners use their computers day in and day out, excessive amounts of unnecessary data can be stored on these devices, ultimately resulting in slower speeds, longer loading times, and system crashes.
A managed IT services provider can configure your devices and install software to ensure that they run smoothly and efficiently. Managed IT service providers use advanced techniques for trimming the fat from the devices that populate your network, allowing the available processing power to be allocated to critical functions.
Easy Communication
When you partner with a managed IT services provider, you will have 24/7 access to the organization responsible for overseeing your network, and you can talk to them as much or as little as you need to.
Additionally, all of your communications will go through a single point of contact, which reduces the amount of redundancy in your relationship. Since everything will go through one person, you won’t need to explain yourself to a new representative every time you call. You will have one dedicated expert who knows your business and IT needs in and out.
In addition to ongoing support, your managed IT services provider will get to know your specific needs and make customized recommendations based on your IT setup. After creating a plan to address all of your vulnerabilities and improve your operations, your account manager will walk you through the entire process of implementing your new IT solution. This is the best time to ask any questions and raise concerns to avoid future misunderstandings.
Also, if a security issue arises that you need to be aware of, your managed IT services provider will notify you immediately through whichever medium works best for you.
One-Stop Solution
No matter what your unique IT needs are, your managed IT services provider has a solution that will cover your entire system. Managed IT services will have the knowledge and tools to adapt to your network and operations, allowing you to continue your everyday activities while they manage everything in the background.
Managed IT services providers tend to work with companies that are located in the same general geographical area, which allows them to make onsite visits as well. Onsite visits will sometimes be necessary for IT to address hardware issues, install new devices, and configure some types of network settings.
Managed IT Services
In addition to being aware of the benefits of managed IT services, it’s also important to be aware of the services they offer.
Network Provisioning and Virtualization
Network provisioning is the process of setting up a network and configuring it to allow access for the necessary users and devices. This will typically need to be performed onsite by an experienced IT professional who can install and configure everything correctly. This process can include running the necessary connection cables, setting up routers and switches, installing security software, connecting the network to the server, and anything else that goes into establishing the physical infrastructure of the network.
In addition to provisioning, managed IT services can also provide virtualization services to bring additional software and hardware resources to a virtual environment.
Web Hosting
Hosting your company’s website through your managed IT services provider rather than through a commercial hosting service will ensure a more dedicated level of service, as well as more advanced security measures.
In case you are not familiar with the term “hosting” or what it actually means, a host is simply the server or computer that houses your website. All of the traffic going to or from your website will be processed by the host computer, which makes it one of the most critical elements of a website.
Although commercial hosting providers usually provide solid “uptimes,” there are several drawbacks that come with choosing cheap hosting providers over more individualized solutions. For example, the server where your site is hosted through a commercial hosting platform will also have thousands of other websites that are sharing the same resources. This can present problems such as slower loading times and increased security risks.
Another downside of hosting your website with a large commercial provider is that they have millions of customers. This will often translate into lower prices, but those cheap prices can come at a premium. When you call to speak with someone about your service, you will likely end up speaking with someone in another country who knows nothing about you, your website, or your business.
On the other hand, when you host your website with managed IT services, you will be working with a company who knows you and your brand by name. Also, since your managed IT services already have access to your network and are aware of your ongoing needs, they will be able to find quicker and more efficient solutions for any issues that come up regarding your website.
Network Testing and Monitoring Facilities
When we talk about network testing and monitoring in the realm of cyber security, we are referring to the process of testing your network for vulnerabilities and monitoring it for intrusions. This is a continuous process that is made possible through the use of advanced automated software.
By using this software and programming it to meet your specific needs, managed IT services can contain and neutralize most security threats before they become an issue. Automated security software provides several benefits, but one of the most important of these is the fact that they can respond to threats automatically. This gives IT more time to investigate the attack while also ensuring the attack is unable to spread.
Managed IT services can also deploy specialized security software for database management. This will ensure that sensitive information regarding your customers and internal operations will remain confidential and secure.
Buzz Cybersecurity Is in Your Corner
When you work with Buzz Cybersecurity, you won’t be thought of or treated as a customer – but rather as a partner.
Buzz Cybersecurity is a growing managed IT services provider in Southern California, and we service businesses all over Orange County, CA and the surrounding areas.
Buzz is ready to take on all of your IT and cybersecurity needs, whether it’s setting up a network from scratch or installing an advanced security strategy across your entire system.
Also, if you know you need IT but aren’t very computer savvy, we’re happy to meet with you in person to create a customized approach for your business. Click here to give us a call or send us a message!