5 Reasons Your Small Business Needs to Hire A Managed Service Provider
Every small business owner dreams of scaling up their business. You want to reach more clients, sell more products, and make a healthy bottom line. However, one immediate effect of business growth is the demand for IT services.
As your business grows, you need a more robust IT infrastructure that will ultimately scale with you. At this point, you need a managed service provider to take over. An MSP offers tailored solutions for small businesses to manage services like cloud migration, cyber security, network monitoring, and more.
Here is everything you should know before you hire a managed service provider for your small business.
What Does A Managed Service Provider Do?
Let's begin with some key terms to understand managed services in IT.
- A managed service is any outsourced IT service that you can control remotely. The package includes cloud migration and backup, server management, help desk and ticketing services, software updates, web hosting, network infrastructure, and more.
- A managed service provider (MSP) is a technology company that partners with your business to manage your IT infrastructure. MSPs generally work remotely through automated monitoring and maintenance tools to keep your business running.
- A service level agreement (SLA) is a contract between your company and your chosen MSP. It outlines all the tasks and performance standards for the MSP’s deliverables. The SLA varies for different types of business because IT tasks differ by company size, location, and industry.
You need to hire a managed service provider if:
- You struggle to find the time and resources to work on your IT needs
- You can’t hire an in-house IT team due to budget constraints
- Your industry requires regular compliance checks and updates
- Your business faces numerous cyber-attacks
- You're falling behind on updating your IT tools and apps
5 Reasons to Hire A Managed Service Provider
If your business faces the challenges above, then hiring a managed service provider is your next step. An MSP can bring the following advantages to your small business:
1. Save Time and Money
Imagine the cost of recruiting and paying a full-time IT team for your small business. It simply isn't feasible because of time and budget constraints.
An MSP gives you the ability to have a full-time IT team at your disposal for a fraction of the cost of a single full-time employee. An MSP also resolves your IT issues through automated processes to reduce the downtime within all your IT systems and offers a full team of specialists to have at your disposal for any issues that can’t be solved by automation. The service makes your business more efficient and profitable in the long run.
2. Improved Data Security
If you don’t have proper security measures in place, your small business is vulnerable to data breaches. These include hackers, accidental deletion, power outages, and natural disasters like storms, floods, and earthquakes, which disrupt your IT infrastructure.
When you hire a managed service provider, you can plan for these events ahead of time to recover quickly without losing crucial business and client data. The right MSP also includes security tests, data backups, ransomware, and malware protection to maintain your network and devices.
3. Ready IT Experts
Instead of hiring and training an internal IT team, an MSP brings experts with years of experience to your business. This is especially useful when your business needs to adapt to new or rapidly changing technologies.
An MSP implements new systems or upgrades, educates your team about best practices, and offers personalized advice on improving your business processes.
4. Meet Compliance Regulations
Compliance regulations constantly change, mainly if your business works with government agencies or provides healthcare services. Different territories also have compliance laws which you must abide by if you want to scale your business.
Hire a managed service provider to keep your business up-to-date with all the evolving compliance requirements in your industry.
5. Greater Peace of Mind
When your IT systems are up to date and functioning correctly, you have more resources to focus on your business activities and growth. An MSP handles all your IT needs so you're confident that your data is safe from threats or incidents.
An MSP also offers 24/7 support, unlike an in-house IT staff that requires sick days off or vacation time. Let the MSP handle the IT firefighting tasks while you focus on building and growing your business.
How to Choose the Right Managed Service Provider
A managed service provider sounds like the perfect solution for your small business, but how do you find the right MSP partner? Before you hire a managed service provider, ask them about:
- Disaster or system failure recovery: How will the MSP keep your business going in the event of disruptions?
- IT expertise: What services does the MSP provide? They should have adequate experience and client testimonials about their services, whether in server hosting, cyber security, remote network monitoring, storage, backup, or archiving services.
- On-site and off-site management: How often would the MSP need to work on your business premises versus remotely?
- Process documentation: How will the MSP report on their IT management activities, and how are those documents saved and shared?
Choose CNWR As Your Managed Service Provider
At CNWR, we understand how costly downtime can be for your small business, and our goal is to keep your business running efficiently in a safe digital environment.
Our solutions cover all your IT needs, including 24/7/365 network monitoring, digital security, data backups, help desk support, and more. We work with you to design a customized solution for your unique business that will meet your budget and operational needs.
Small businesses can also enjoy managed services for VoIP systems, software management and upgrades, cloud migration, computer hardware maintenance, cyber insurance, and compliance services.
Ready to get started? Get in touch with CNWR today. Here's how to do it:
- Schedule your 15-minute phone call with our MSP expert,
- Submit your questions about our MSP services and pricing for your business, or
- Call us at (419) 724-2697.
Hire CNWR as your managed service provider today!
