What Does Managed IT Services Mean?

What is included in managed services?

Managed IT services will vary depending on the needs of individual businesses, but most will revolve around the following services:

• Connectivity
• Monitoring the network
• Security 
• Creating virtual platforms or virtualization
• Disaster recovery

Other services may include providing a help desk and technical support as well as communications services like VOIP or videoconferencing or even installing software and backing up files.

Why use managed IT services

Whether you have a small business or large business, you might want to think about incorporating managed IT services. You may be asking, “What are the benefits of managed services?” Here are several factors to consider when deciding whether a managed IT service is right for your business.

Managed IT services pros and cons

Pros

• Cost savings: In-house or outsourced on-demand IT professionals usually cost much more than managed services
• East-to-predict budgeting: Managed services set a standard monthly fee.
• Full expertise: You’ll have access to a variety of IT professionals for any service or circumstance.
• Skilled technicians: Managed services tend to have highly-qualified personnel with a great deal of experience.

Cons

• Potential downtime: If technicians aren’t available for troubleshooting, you may have periods of downtime.
• Security risks: You have to make sure you can fully trust the managed service as they will be managing your security and possess large amounts of information and data about your company.
• Objectives misaligned: You have to make sure the IT company has the same objectives as your company.
• Limits in flexibility: You may be required to use the IT company’s proprietary software.

Managed services vs outsourcing

Managed IT services are much different than on-demand outsourced services. On-demand services are just that: When you need to have software upgraded, for instance, or there’s a problem in the network, the outsourced services will fix the problem or provide the upgrade, and you will be billed for those services only. You will be billed for each service requested. The outsource service does not manage the service beyond that. A managed service will keep track of everything and just charge a monthly rate no matter how many times you request service. 

What is a managed services model?

A managed services model is another term for managed IT services. Under this model all technology decisions are outsourced to the IT company, as long as those decisions fit within the parameters the business set. With other outsourcing models some technology decisions are kept in-house while others are farmed out. For instance, if your company uses a service cloud based Software as a Service some aspects of this service such as functionality will be managed in-house. With managed services, all aspects of the service are managed outside of the company.

How do you manage managed services?

Managed IT services must, of course, be managed themselves for everything to function correctly. One key to managing the managed service is to have a standardized ticket process. Don’t develop a different service process for each customer. A varied ticket service process will only create delays in service. Also, all team members should be held accountable to the customers they serve. They should be able to respond promptly to their clients and work closely with them until problems are resolved. Make sure you are doing more than keeping in touch with customers via phone or email. Have a “customer responded” metric in place that flag tickets and can only be cleared manually. It’s also good, if possible, to require service technicians to respond to all customer tickets before the end of work shifts.