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In a world where a plethora of processes is now being automated, should we compromise great customer service in order to save money?
About a decade or so ago, this would have been considered a moral question as much as it is an ethical one. Would you, as a company, sacrifice customer service in order to strengthen your bottom line? And would you, as a person, continue to patronize an establishment that puts profit first before customer satisfaction and loyalty?
Thankfully, there is a middle ground. In comes managed service providers.
Managed service providers, or MSPs, are companies that offer various types of outsourced services to small and medium-sized companies that are cutting down costs, experiencing rapid expansion, and/or looking to strengthen its IT capabilities. In this article, we will talk about the pros and cons of hiring an IT guy as opposed to hiring an MSP.
Why hire a managed IT service provider?
The best managed service providers are equipped with state-of-the-art equipment to cater to clients’ day-to-day IT support needs. But have you ever asked why companies hire MSPs? Not surprisingly, it depends on a lot of things.
Outsourced IT services are, more often than not, hired by small to medium-sized businesses that are trying to cut costs, experiencing rapid expansion, or bolstering its IT needs. Having an in-house IT team isn’t a barrier for you to consider hiring managed IT services. In fact, they should complement each other.
Think of your in-house IT department as your day-to-day IT support provider while your managed IT service provider can work on more complex IT functions like backup and disaster recovery measures, network management, cybersecurity measures, data management services, as well as server management just to name a few.
What are the pros and cons of hiring an IT guy versus hiring an MSP?
Hiring an IT guy
Pros
• An IT guy will be there for your company during its busy hours.• An IT guy will be able to help you with hardware configuration and setup.
• An IT guy should be able to adequately help your company and your employees with software problems, virus removal, and desktop repair.
Cons
• Depending on experience and specialty, hiring a single IT professional with a salary, health benefits, and other perks may prove to be costly.• A single IT guy in your IT department functioning as IT support, infrastructure planner, as well as network manager, maybe too much work for one person.
• Your in-house IT guy’s skills may only depend on the work that he/she does on a regular basis-- they may not be as quick to adapt to new technologies.
Hiring an MSP
Pros
• Some remote IT support services are available 24/7• Managed services, NYC or any metropolitan city, are accessible with a wide range of services and specialties to choose from.
• Your managed service provider should provide you with an SLA (Service Level Agreement) that will spell out what outcome you want out of your partnership.
• Managed service consultants charge monthly fixed fees for businesses to better manage their budgets.
• Managed service providers have access to the latest technology. It does not matter which industry you’re in as your MSP should be able to support you with workstations, networks, servers, software, and hardware.
• Your managed IT service provider should be able to ensure the most important thing for any business-- continuity. By minimizing the risk of downtime, MSPs should be able to ensure that your system is up and running as much as possible.
• You have access to a team of dedicated IT professionals that do what they do every single day for at least eight to nine hours a day.
Cons
- • When hiring an MSP, it’s imperative to consider its location. Here at ETech 7, we would advise companies to hire MSPs that are either within their area or at least within the same city. A big downside to signing a managed IT services provider is the waiting game for when something goes wrong on-site and companies would have to wait for the MSP to dispatch an IT technician to help sort it out.
- • Service level agreements (SLA) allow MSPs to operate based on the signed contracts. If something is not covered by your contract, then expect to pay additional fees.
Conclusion
The best thing to do is to know your company inside out. Getting the most out of your money depends on how deeply you are invested in its functions, its capabilities, and its needs. It doesn’t matter whether it’s a single IT guy or a whole team of managed service providers; what matters is your needs are adequately met.
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