SMEs have aggressively followed technology to stay competitive. In the process, they have invested significant resources in building IT infrastructure and services. Managing these IT services is costly and has become a burden for many enterprises, draining essential resources from strategic planning and delivery. As per a report by Gartner, 70% of IT support services for infrastructure services can be managed from a remote location which can reduce labour costs from 10% to 50%, depending on the delivery location resulting in 5% to 30% overall net savings.

In a rapidly changing technology landscape, managed service providers can help enterprises remain agile, control costs, quickly respond to competitive opportunities and align IT with evolving business objectives. Here are the top five benefits of how outsourcing managed IT services can impact a company’s business goals and the bottom line.

Affordability and Fixed Monthly Cost

Outsourcing IT services to a managed service provider is extremely cost-effective. With managed services, enterprises can reduce operational costs, preserve capital budget and lower their IT operating expenses. Per a Capgemini study, 34% of SMEs in the UK find it challenging to invest in IT as the cost is always high, while 30% of SMEs spend less than 3% of their overall funds on cyber security. So, outsourcing IT support and services to a reputed managed service provider is the best option as MSPs offer comprehensive solutions at a very affordable and predictable monthly cost. Also, MSPs mainly operate on a subscription-based model where enterprises pay annual or monthly fees for services, which allows them to foresee if it is viable to remain within the target budget.

Improved Cyber Security

According to Statista, the cost of cyber-attacks on micro/small enterprises amounted to an average of £894 while for medium-sized enterprises it amounted to an average of £8,180 during the last 12 months. Enterprises have sensitive data and information worth stealing and attackers often take over one system as a platform to launch a cyber-attack on another system to cover their tracks. Per a report by Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, almost half of UK businesses including SMEs (43%) suffered a cyber-attack in 2017-18. Managed service providers (MSP) use remote network monitoring and clean backup protocols to prevent an attack and shorten the recovery time. Reputed MSPs provide cyber security services to help reduce and mitigate various forms of cyber threats by continuously monitoring dark web, offering end-user security awareness training, penetration testing and SIEM, among others.

Access to trained, qualified and certified experts

A painful fact for many small and mid-sized enterprises is the shortage of skilled IT professionals. The UK alone is estimated to have a shortfall of around 100,00 experienced IT security experts by 2022. When recruiting for an in-house IT role, they likely cannot differentiate a good applicant from a bad one and when in the post, it is challenging to assess their productivity due to the complex nature of IT services. But, with a managed service provider, even small enterprises can access highly qualified IT personnel without doing the tedious work of recruiting them. MSPs usually possess deep expertise in the field of IT, therefore giving enterprises the best services.

Disaster Recovery

When everything goes wrong, enterprises need confidence that data is backed up safely and securely.  Disasters may strike in different forms, but whatever event takes a customer’s site down, managed service providers are well-placed to help prepare for emergencies. Whether it’s a physical disaster such as a storm, fire or flood, or a deliberate one, like a ransomware attack, MSP plan carefully to help clients come out shining on the other side.

Per a report by Daisy Group, on average UK's SMEs experience 45 minutes of downtime each week which is approximately £500 per employee, per year, in lost productivity. Also, according to a study by IDC, 40% of small and mid-sized enterprises in the UK do not have a data backup infrastructure in place and if they do then around 50% of the backups are only partially recoverable.

Part of the reason to outsource services to a managed service provider is to prepare for those costly downtimes. An off-site managed service provider can provide remote backup and offer both local and cloud-based backup solutions to support business-critical operations during a disaster.

Access to latest state-of-the-art technology

Reputed Managed Service Providers (MSPs) use the latest technologies and equipment to deliver services. IT services are updated regularly with no additional cost to enterprises. MSPs bring the advantage of quickly implementing new technology into client’s businesses thus eliminating the risk of obsolete IT infrastructure.