The True Value of a Managed Services Provider

by ZAG Team | May 23, 2022 | Managed Services

Many companies see their Managed Services Provider (MSP) as a simple Help Desk that can be called when a system goes down or an issue occurs. However, having an effective MSP Partner brings real value to your organization through preventative and predictive maintenance.

Evaluating the value of an MSP

The value of an MSP is often discussed in terms of cost-cutting, but is your company cutting costs by paying less for managed IT services or are you lowering costs with scheduled tasks and fine-tuning?

There are several questions you should consider answers to when evaluating an MSP, including:

Is the provider more about break/fix services, or are they true IT consulting experts?
Is this MSP experienced enough to adapt to new market trends and deliver the best technologies for our type of business?
Does the MSP work as a partner to us instead of a maintenance provider?
Will the Managed Service fix our current IT infrastructure challenges and optimize our environment for growth?
Can the MSP help us with a digital transformation that fits our business model and needs?
Will we be able to assess the cost of the Managed Service in terms of efficiency and innovation?

Is your MSP a partner versus a provider?

If you’ve never worked with a true Managed Services Partner, you may be wondering how an MSP can provide value to your organization outside of typical IT support. What if your MSP could prevent incidents from happening in the first place?

If your MSP is only working for you when you make a call, they work at a reactive capacity. Your business needs a partner that manages your devices before something goes wrong. A good MSP should provide:

Monitoring – observation of workstation health with alerts and antivirus
Automation – updates for Operating System (OS), anti-virus, server OS, and third-party applications
Centralization – single location to monitor servers, network devices, and backups with alerting
End-User Support – remote and on-site support for your critical IT issues

These services allow your organization to lower the cost of service and save time by maximizing performance and stability through network monitoring and preemptive maintenance. Moreover, you can cut costs without sacrificing the level of support your business needs to run successfully.

Using these guidelines can give you a solid understanding of what Managed Services Providers can do for your business and your bottom line. You should consider them when evaluating your current or potential MSP.