Large organizations aren’t the only ones who need technology to compete in their respective markets. Companies of all sizes prioritize operational efficiency to hit short- and long-term goals but not all of them are equally equipped to sustain it like an enterprise-level organization.

No matter what size your company may be, you’re going to have short- and long-term plans to maximize efficiency, reduce overhead and limit costs. Sometimes that may look like purchasing cost-effective hardware today, so you can invest in better software tomorrow or reducing overhead by operating with a slim staff so you can maintain healthy network management.

What all of these tactics have in common is that they’re part of a greater strategy to help grow your business. Ultimately, they’re all investments and the key to investing is strategy and planning.

One extremely valuable investment you can make is to partner with a Managed Service Providers (MSP) to provide your outsourced, day-to-day IT management, monitoring and support. MSPs provide a cost-effective method for improving business operations and productivity allowing you to focus your time and resources on activities that make your company profitable.

Let’s explore how you can strategize for long-term financial savings with a Managed Services Provider.

Profitable Investments + Predictable Spending

Effective financial oversight requires taking a hard look at investments in technology to improve productivity and enhance your business. In many ways, managed IT services help ensure the right people and the right resources are being allocated in an ideal way to directly benefit your organization. 

Common services an MSP will provide include improving customer satisfaction, investing in new resources, optimizing the use of existing resources and redefining your organizational agility through housekeeping and cutting out the slack. And overall, when you partner with an MSP, they’re working to make sure your organization is operating on all cylinders.

According to an IBM white paper, unplanned downtime costs organizations $58,118 for every 100 users. In this study, the average employee was losing 12.4 hours a year due to server downtime and 6.2 hours a year for network downtime. For any CFO or Financial Manager, these numbers are a nightmare.  

At the beginning of your partnership, an MSP will also help you offset initial costs by helping you prioritize technology needs and create a plan for purchasing them. And because you'll be paying a fixed monthly fee with your IT partner, you'll eliminate exorbitant upfront costs of hardware purchases and software downloads. You’ll also get a regular software updates, which keeps your team and your technology secure and up-to-date.

Outsourcing means your fixed IT costs will be converted to variable costs allowing you to budget effectively and allot resources efficiently. In other words, you’ll only pay for what you use when you need it. Pair the service and monitoring with a reoccurring contract and you have a cut-and-dry monthly expense you can plan and prepare for in your quarterly or annual expenses.

Access to IT Expertise

IT problems disrupt productivity and stall projects. And time spent struggling to solve IT problems is money down the drain. When you use a managed IT service, you won't have employees waiting for someone to figure out their technical problem and get them up and running. Instead, you'll be able to immediately access an expert who can solve your problem and get your business back on track, oftentimes within minutes.

Beyond the expertise IT experts bring to troubleshooting, there’s no accounting for the relief you feel when a professional is able to assess and mitigate an issue for you. But more so than the joy of delegating difficult tasks, IT experts have connections that can help your business as well.

An MSP can deal with vendors on your behalf, which means issues are escalated and resolved promptly. They will serve as your main point of contact for third parties, deal with problems and track process with the appropriate vendor through to resolution.

Having a single trusted IT partner streamlines operation and avoids burdening an employee with tasks that could be better dealt with by a subject matter expert.

Strategize Long-Term

The icing on the MSP cake is their ability to work with your organization for the long-term.

What starts with infrastructure updates, then turns into ongoing support and maintenance quickly becomes a partnership that can help your business achieve milestones you didn’t think were possible. When you’re mapping out your one, three or five year plans, your MSP will be able to work with you to tell you what is possible, what’s practical and even to promote new ideas to help you reach those goals faster.

With the help of proactive planning and guidance services, you don’t have to worry about your IT interfering with your company’s plans and goals; instead you’ll be able to focus on the future.

Ascend pairs each of our clients with a virtual Chief Information Officer, or a vCIO. Their role is to serve as your dedicated IT advocate, managing everything from negotiating contracts to planning developments while also taking into account your larger organizational vision to help you grow on all fronts.