Does Your SME Need IT Managed Services?

As owners of resource-tight small-medium enterprises (SMEs) or businesses (SMBs), running your company on lean operations is almost always a given. With many aspects of your business requiring capital to function well and drive growth, investing limited funds in supportive functions like IT will typically be pushed to the bottom of your list of priorities. However, as digital platforms and tools play an increasingly vital role in the market and business landscape, it may be time to consider engaging IT managed services not just for when issues arise, but also before they occur.

What is IT Managed Services?

IT managed services are information technology functions outsourced to a third-party service provider. The provider takes responsibility for monitoring, maintaining, and supporting your business’s technology systems to ensure that everything runs smoothly, and your data is always safeguarded.

Benefits of IT Managed Services for SMEs

For SMBs and SMEs with an IT department, you may wonder if it is necessary to engage the services of an external vendor when you already have an internal team to handle this function. While it is true that your IT staff can be tasked with managing your company’s IT systems, working with an IT managed services provider is advantageous for your firm in several other ways.

1. Access Specialised Expertise While Ensuring Cost-effectiveness

It is no secret that technology has constantly been growing exponentially. Based on figures quoted on Zippia, computational speed and power have been doubling every one and a half to two years since the 1960s and 70s. This creates new challenges with each advancement, spawning a need for companies to invest in upskilling their IT staff or to recruit new talent to ensure that they have the ability to navigate the ever-changing IT scene effectively.

Such investments and recruitments may not be feasible for resource-scarce SMEs due to the associated costs and opportunity cost on productivity while team members are away for training. However, by engaging an IT managed services provider, SMEs can always be supported by an IT team equipped with the latest skills, knowledge, and experience. Not only do such services meet the company’s needs quickly and efficiently, but they also cost comparatively less than the amount required to train employees, hire new talent, and pay for bigger premises for an expanding team. Thus, IT managed services offer SMBs a more cost-effective solution for their IT needs.

2. IT Managed Services is Scalable

Investing in IT infrastructure, while essential, can be a costly affair that can easily become unmanageable as your SME grows and requires your IT systems to be scaled up accordingly. Compounding the issue is the speed at which technology evolves, which increases the frequency at which IT infrastructure needs to be upgraded to keep pace with the market.

However, with outsourced IT managed services, these expenses can be consolidated into a fixed monthly fee that covers your diverse IT needs, including hardware maintenance and repair. Under this model, costs can be anticipated easily, eliminating unpleasant surprise expenses when unexpected system breakdown occurs in your firm. In this way, managed service providers increase the ease for SMBs to budget for their needs and afford companies the flexibility to scale quickly to support their evolving needs at an affordable price.

3. IT Managed Services Minimises Downtime

In the unfortunate event that an IT issue arises in your SME, having the support of an IT managed services provider allows you to tap into their experience and skills to resolve your problems quickly, minimising any downtime. Based on the Uptime Institute’s 2022 Outage Analysis Report, more than 60% of system outages were found to cost companies over US$100,000. As such, minimising downtime helps your SMB to avoid incurring significant losses that can deal a solid blow to your operations.

At the same time, as experts who are always abreast of the latest IT developments, you can be confident that any IT  solutions and technology implemented in your SME will be based on the latest industry best practices. Thus, working with an IT managed services provider also enables your business to benefit from optimised systems that reduce downtime and maximise work efficiency.

4. IT Managed Services Help SMEs to Adopt a Preventive Approach

According to the Security Magazine, SMEs and SMBs are popular targets for cyberattacks and account for 43% of the total cases. By working with an IT managed service provider whose team is proficient in the latest industry know-how, you are well-positioned to foresee potential IT issues. This enables you to establish the necessary security infrastructure to prevent problems proactively before they arise, allowing your company to benefit from improved security.

Support Your SME with Reliable IT Managed Services

With the increasing sophistication of cybercriminals and intensifying market competition, ensuring IT security and reliability have become more important than ever to give SMEs the edge they need to stay ahead. As a leading IT managed services provider, EZSVS can offer your SME the expert support and technical assistance required to meet your unique needs and manage your IT operations seamlessly at competitive prices.

We understand how important it is to keep things running smoothly so you can stay competitive. That is why we work tirelessly to ensure that all IT incidents are communicated and addressed expeditiously. By minimising disruptions, we enable your SME to focus on what matters most—your core business. With a singular focus on ensuring your success and growth, our services are designed with scalability in mind so that you can easily handle any future changes or additions. With EZSVS, you can trust our experienced professionals to help you manage and keep your critical technologies up-to-date so that your IT systems will run efficiently, no matter what challenges may arise down the road. Reach out to us today to get reliable IT managed services that take your SME to the next level.