Five Advantages Managed IT Brings To Your Business

Texas organizations have seen an increased reliance on modern technology, ranging from adding collaborative features like conferencing, securing remote access, and lowering costs through automation and the cloud. Let’s talk about how we can help further streamline and optimize your existing technology through proper IT management.

How Managed IT Can Benefit Texas Businesses

Managed IT is much more than "tech support" you call to fix paper jams and computer errors. Your managed services provider (MSP) offers a collection of services and solutions designed to ensure the technology your business relies upon is reliable. If you're like most Cedar Park organizations during these trying times, your technology has taken an oversized relevance to your business.

As your technology takes an increased prominence in your business, so do any disruptions. Unfortunately, due to the stress everyone is under, your customers may not be willing or able to wait until you're up and running again. 

Many businesses are hanging on by the thinnest of margins, and even if yours is in a fortunate, comfortable position, downtime is still expensive. Managed IT can provide your business with stable technology that it can rely upon. Some Managed IT services beneficial to your business include:

• Remote Monitoring and Maintenance
• Comprehensive IT Support
• Vendor Management
• Security Solutions
• Help Desk with Experienced Technicians

While many of these services can provide a solution to your technology woes, managed IT shines, and can take your business to the next level when combined into one holistic plan. If you’re not sure if managed IT is the right move for your organization, here are some reasons how managed IT can benefit your business.

Five Ways Managed IT Can Benefit Your Business

• Cost:  One prominent feature of outsourcing your IT is the fixed IT costs it brings with it. The benefit of this is that it helps to control IT expenses. When your business uses the pay-by-the-hour break/fix model to manage its technology, you will ultimately spend more over time. "Break/Fix" is precisely what it sounds like; you wait until a piece of technology breaks and then fix it. While this process seems normal regarding your technology, it takes on a different context regarding your business.
  Let’s say, for example, that your hard drive fails on your home computer. While it is undoubtedly inconvenient, you can start over. If the hard drive fails on your server, it can have devastating consequences for your business. What state would your business be left in if you lost access to your financial records, vendor information, client contact information, and other critical data? 
  Waiting for your technology to break can have severe implications for your business' long-term survival and is what managed IT is designed to prevent. The calculation when determining your business' cost relying on break/fix must be measured not just in the apparent upfront dollar value but also in potential productivity loss. 

• Productivity: Managed IT takes the pressure off your team to police their technology, a job many of them aren’t trained to do. Managed IT allows your team to focus on getting work done and not being sidelined due to technical issues. Issues such as unreliable internet connectivity, large amounts of spam, incompatible software, and hardware all can have a profound effect on your team’s ability to get work done. 
  Managed IT can wrangle all of these different and sometimes competing issues into a cohesive action plan and allow you and your team to focus on your business and not your IT.  

• Trained IT Professionals: Technology is always moving forward, and it can be difficult for your team to keep on top of every new advantage and, most importantly, every new threat to your business. Moreover, even if you and your team have some technical know-how, your time would be better spent on developing new business opportunities. Finally, Managed IT offers access to a wealth of best practices and skilled technicians, without the financial commitment of hiring brand new employees or providing specialized technical training for existing ones.

• It Allows You To Be Competitive: As an SMB (small to medium-sized business), it is logical for you to focus your resources on similar-sized competitors. However, you do so because you feel you are unable to compete against enterprise level organizations. While it is true that larger organizations do have access to more resources, when it comes to technology, managed IT can level the playing field. 
  The advantage managed IT brings to smaller businesses is that it allows them access to the same technology and expertise that enterprise-level organizations have with their  considerably larger budgets. As you can imagine, hiring a person or even a team to maintain and monitor a network 24/7 would be a breeze for a larger organization; however, a small-to-medium sized business would have more difficulty supporting the necessary staff. Managed IT makes this service manageable. Many of our services and offerings stem from enterprise-level technology, such as high-end backup and disaster recovery, cybersecurity protection, and advanced monitoring. We’re able to provide these to smaller organizations who otherwise wouldn’t be able to fit it all into a reasonable budget.

• Remote Monitoring and Maintenance: 24/7 network monitoring is one of the many services offered under a managed IT agreement. A remote maintenance and monitoring service is covered under a flat-rate agreement, making the expense manageable. It should be treated as part of your monthly budget. 
  A remote monitoring service removes the unknown from disrupting your technology and your business. Surprises such as equipment failure, software patches, or cyberattacks can cost your business more than money, but productivity is needed to remain competitive. Remote monitoring allows you to manage your technology allowing for planned upgrades, removing hardware before it fails and preventing issues before they have a chance to disrupt your workflow.

Managed IT is Good for Your Bottom Line

Your business' technology is essential to your organization's survival. If it fails or is unreliable, your business is at risk. The value of investing in managed IT services is to avoid the repetitive pattern of costly downtime due to your technology failing. Yes, you can wait for something to break and then fix it, but more often than not, it will only be a temporary patch. Managed IT is designed to develop an all-encompassing plan to ensure all elements of your business' technology seamlessly work together.

The overall benefit of managed IT is that it is a budget-friendly method to maintain your business' technology. First, managed IT saves you downtime by preventing technology issues from interrupting your team's ability to work. If your team can't work, they aren't generating income. Moreover, since managed IT is billed monthly, you have control over your budget, reducing the stress and panic that comes when your technology fails on a Friday afternoon, and you have to struggle to find someone to fix it.

Capstone’s managed IT solution is an excellent fit for small and medium-sized businesses because it is well-suited for the price point SMBs are comfortable operating within. Call (737) 757-0787 today to learn more about managed IT and how it can benefit your business. Schedule an appointment for an IT consultation today.