Your headache or theirs?
Hear that sound? Feel the rumble? There is a geologic shift taking place under the feet of small and medium-sized companies and chances are you don’t know it, yet. The ruckus is managed services. Their promise is to liberate you from the awful side of computer ownership.
“Awful? Define that, please.” Fair enough.
aw•ful [aw-fuhl] – adjective If you don’t have an IT Department chances are a smooth running, trouble-free network will be a temporary condition. 2) When something breaks someone has to fix it. 3) And, pay for it. 4) And, if that something gets in the way of running your business, you sleep less and the bottom line gets trashed. 5) If you do have an IT Department, you waste an expensive and valuable asset chasing around mundane tasks.
Managed services are provided by outside IT Services companies, such as Roan Solutions, Inc.. These firms offer many kinds of services, including remotely monitoring maintaining and managing your network and computers. How many of you own insurance of some flavor? Managed services too are designed to mitigate risk.
There was a time when handing off an internal function to someone else was the exclusive luxury of large companies. Today, plenty of small businesses have discovered that this same technique is just the answer to drive down the cost of their digital tools and keep them focused on their core competencies, whether they have an IT Department or not.
Often, managed services focus on prevention and, when necessary, a fast remedy. The purpose of some services, such as the ones we offer at Roan Solutions, anticipate, detect and fix problems, before the inevitable occurs. Managed services can also be committed to the day-to-day maintenance that’s absolutely necessary and too often ignored.
For those with an IT Department in a managed services environment, it means you can keep your technical staff committed to more problematic issues and allow the routine tasks to be managed more cost effectively by someone else. For those without an IT Department it ensures your resources are pointed toward your business plan, rather than the computer that’s gummed up the works.
You have plenty of options from which you can choose those services that are most appropriate for you. Among them are managed voice network services, data network services, converged/IP data services, email/messaging, web hosting, content delivery, security and storage, backup/recovery/business continuity, application, managed desktop, LAN and help-desk management services.
There are several reasons why a managed services solution makes sense for many.
First and foremost, the technical sophistication required by an internal IT staff person to manage a network will increase your costs. Unless, you can hire highly experienced technology staff and afford to keep them current with the latest training, you run the risk of making your data network—a critical business asset—vulnerable to security threats.
Consider the fact that computer viruses and software bugs number in the thousands each year, making it almost a full-time job just to stay current with what patches are required. That doesn’t include the actual time it might take to implement the fix or patch the problem.
Could you benefit from managed services? How would you know? If so, how do you choose your provider?
To get answers to these question and any others you may have regarding managed services, contact Roan Solutions, Inc. today!
Reprinted with permission from DLP Technologies
