Managed Services – Nine Key Reasons You Should Consider Them

January 24th, 2012 by BrightCloud

Many large businesses prefer the use of Managed Services to meet their IT needs.

The attraction is long-term cost effectiveness, simple, comprehensive, updated solutions, reliability and stability are just some of the advantages. Managed Services can deliver efficient IT solutions that meet your specific needs.

However many small and medium sized organisations continue to be unconvinced by this solution. But with time and financial resources stretched to breaking point now is the time to be considering your options.

As a business owner or manager if your organisation is facing or considering any of these, then there is strong case for considering an IT managed services solution.

Here are nine business reasons that IT managed services can provide a strategic and cost-effective solution.

1. You want to improve cost management.

• You want to predict your IT budget more accurately
• You need to decide whether to buy or lease your equipment
• You want to be confident that your IT investments are delivering real value
• When you add up the total of IT staff, software, hardware, it is a significant part of your business expenditure.

2. You want to increase productivity and streamline operations.

• You want to allocate your resources to your core competencies rather than IT functions and support
• You want to get your systems and applications to work at their optimum to provide value to your customers and increase margins
• You service your customers with a time sensitive requirement
• You operate in real-time – locally and nationally
• You  need to minimise system issues and resolve problems quickly
• Your IT systems cannot keep up with your business growth
• You need to reference historical client data to drive efficiencies and predictability

 3. You want to deliver excellent customer service.

• You want to respond quickly to customer needs and expectations.
• You need new starters to be trained and operational through a standard and efficient process.
• Your systems are an extension and representation of your company to your customers.
• You automate tasks so you can provide added value to your customers
• You use a variety of channels to interact with your clients.

4. You need to manage risk and protect business continuity.

• Your digital assets include both internal and client sensitive documents and data
• You are required to have secure data, transactions, and communications
• You need a business continuity plan in case of a natural or man-made disaster
• You want to know how quickly you can be operational after such a disaster
• You have a small IT department and need to ensure your systems aren’t compromised if someone leaves or is dismissed
• You want to ensure that your systems are protected from the latest viruses and threats.

 5. You need to change the way you do business.

• Your growth targets mean you need to implement new technologies
• You are experiencing significant growth but don’t want to add to staff numbers
• You want to relocate your existing offices into fewer sites
• You need to upgrade your existing computers and servers but are not sure whether to buy or lease.
• You are merging your operations with another organisation
• You are expanding your business nationally or globally.
• Your mobile workforce needs effective tools to access data and information to increase their effectiveness.

 6. You wish to use IT as a strategic tool.

• You want to respond to changing business conditions
• You need to stay up-to-date with new and evolving technologies
• Your systems and PC’s are getting older, you need to upgrade but are unclear as to the best next steps
• You want access to IT expertise and thought leadership
• You require flexibility to create a competitive advantage

7. You need to deal with increasingly complex IT solutions.

• You have both hardware and software components of IT systems that you want to evolve
• There are limited resources in your IT department and you find yourselves left behind
• You don’t have a capital budget available to reinvest in IT
• You struggle to take advantage of new applications or changes in situations quickly
• You worry and wonder what you should or could be doing with your IT
• Sometimes you find yourselves “lost” with IT

8. You need to maintain compliance.

• Your marketplace is becoming more and more competitive and meeting different regulatory requirements has become a fundamental need
• You need someone that fully understands the requirements of these regulations and also how to comply with them

9. You wish to optimise utilisation of Staff

• You find yourself spending more time managing the IT department than you do on your core business.
• Your staff are over-stretched, stressed and it is affecting their efficiency
• You do not have the time or financial resource to train existing staff to become experts

What to do Next?

So if you want to reduce the cost and increase the performance of your IT infrastructure then let Bright Cloud help manage your IT services. Taking this step adds a vast scope of expertise and efficiency to your organisation – you will tap into the knowledge and expertise of a team of industry experts, without the cost of employing staff.

Whether your business has no dedicated IT resource, or you have a large and busy IT team, you can use us as a cloud service provider to great benefit as a support and escalation team. Bright Cloud will help you by

• Freeing your organisation from routine tasks leaving you and your team to focus on your core business
• Providing a single point of contact for all of your IT needs and issues
• Giving you increased efficiency, with time-consuming but essential IT tasks being taking out your daily to do list
• Delivering flexible options with our tailored services to meet your exact business requirements
• Moving your capital expenditure costs to operational costs

Outsourcing a part, some or all of your IT is one of the most cost-effective ways to control your IT costs, especially if you are upsizing, downsizing, merging or decentralising your business in response to market conditions. Fixed price and a flexible managed service are set according to needs.

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