The sales pitches you’ve heard about managed IT services so far may not have actually explained what makes them so worthwhile—how can you tell if they’re the right choice for your business?
If you’re going to evaluate the real value of managed IT services, then you need to see past the marketing fluff. A lot of IT companies will make different claims, about how managed IT services will “revolutionize your business” or “make your profits soar”.
While these may be true in some indirect, exaggerated way, they’re not really useful ideas. Understanding the value of managed services starts with understanding what they are…
管理资讯科技服务101
If you want to understand managed IT services and what makes them worthwhile, you just have to understand how they’re different when compared to the way IT support used to work.
Not too long ago, all IT support was essentially reactive. These services were either called “hourly” support, 或者是" break/fix ", 但这是一个行业术语.
无论哪种情况, the way these services worked was that you brought in your hardware, or called a technician to visit you on site after something went wrong. 即使在最好的情况下, you still had to deal with the downtime that occurred while you waited for your broken IT to get fixed.
Managed IT services address this core issue—instead of waiting for something to go wrong and then stepping in to correct it, an IT company that provides managed IT services takes on all the responsibilities of a traditional in-house IT department. This means working to prevent issues from happening in the first place.
为什么使用托管服务?
- Let us do the routine (read: mundane) tasks that are too important for your actual employees. Let them focus on what matters most to your business. 剩下的我们会处理的.
- Stop worrying about software updates, patches and 安全 fixes. 这就是我们在这里的目的.
- Hate trying to make sense of multiple vendor contracts and ongoing relationships? Perfect—we’ll take care of that, too, so that everything “just works” the way it’s supposed to.
The Top 3 Advantages Offered By 托管IT服务
消除基于it的延迟
停机对业务不利. 不管你同意与否, 这是事实——就在几年前, small businesses with up to 50 million in annual revenue reported that just a 一小时的停机时间让他们损失了8600美元.
Businesses now heavily depend on their technology. That increased reliance on mission-critical applications and 24/7 access to data, 使高可用性成为IT的首要任务. Managed IT services companies will help ensure that uptime, 安全, 权力, 并且满足冗余要求.
减少资本开支
Traditionally, IT expenses get categorized as capital expenses or CapEx. 使用托管服务, you can move away from a CapEx model to operational expenses or OpEx model, as you are paying month by month and seeing the return right away. Your costs for these services are considered monthly operating expenses like the electric or water bill.
获得专业知识
Keeping an IT environment running smoothly does require constant attention and the availability of highly-skilled staff. 通过利用托管服务, you can eliminate the burden of finding and retaining talent with all of the necessary skills.
3 Potential Challenges With 托管IT服务
Regardless of how much better managed IT services are when compared to hourly IT support, they still have their own share of challenges. That’s why it’s important to understand what they are and to do what you can to overcome them as efficiently as possible.
Optimizing your managed IT services is a matter of finding the right company to work with, 确保他们恪尽职守.
知识和能力差距
Whereas many IT companies will promote their managed services as comprehensive, 情况可能并非总是如此. Especially when the client operates in a highly specialized industry, the IT company may not be familiar with their line of business apps.
It may come down to a single type of software or particular technical need, but it’s the difference between totally managed IT, 几乎管理好了IT.
隐藏的费用
As in any business relationship, a key downside to look out for is the possibility of hidden fees. Be sure to carefully look over the contract and SLA to make sure you’re aware of additional fees that may come with onsite support, 支持工时上限, 等.
可用性
当他们想让你签字的时候, an IT company may say anything and everything you want to hear. Furthermore, they will likely be very easy to get a hold of. 但是签了字之后呢? How can you know for sure that they will answer the phone when you need them?
That’s why it’s smart to inquire about their response times, 帮助台模型, 以及其他支持保证.
托管IT服务适合你吗?
Which type of service is right for you depends on what you need out of your technology in terms of uptime and efficiency, 你的技术预算是什么样的, and how technology issues could potentially impact things like 安全 and compliance.
最后, managed IT services are valuable not because they fix your IT problems, 而是, stop the problems from occurring in the first place. A combination of expertise, experience and attentive support (就像雷亚提出的那样) keeps your IT systems in optimal condition.
By 杰夫·拉普，MSCE 紧密(办公室)