There are countless ways to help a business grow. Expanding outwards to new sites, and creating exciting new products are just a couple of popular methods. But what about facilitating growth through IT?
Most businesses find that IT systems play a crucial part in how well they function. The issue is, there are often high costs associated with making the right choice in terms of upgrading your IT. One of the much less costly options, however, is working with a Managed Service Provider – an MSP.
Don’t worry if you’re unsure how an MSP can help a business, or even if you aren’t sure what an MSP is – we’ve put together this handy article to assist your understanding.
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Managed Service Providers – a simple explanation
Imagine being able to hire an IT team that comes pre-prepared with experienced professionals – this is essentially what an MSP is. They can deal with all the simple tasks handled by your average in-house IT team, as well as the more complex ones – the difference is, an MSP won’t be on your payroll, or operating from your business’ premises.
You’d be forgiven for assuming that keeping all your workers in-house would be the simpler, neater option, but starting to work with an MSP can be surprisingly simple. This is due to how they operate; MSPs have to hire energetic and experienced individuals in order to keep up with the large number of businesses they work with at once. MSPs are simple to get started with simply because they’re so used to working with other businesses.
This business model also allows MSPs to work for fairly cheap rates and keep service fees down, as well as being able to pay their staff appropriately. The large amount of know-how and experience which you may have assumed would be costly is made much cheaper through hiring an MSP.
MSPs will help you save money
There are so many things that can ramp up the cost of running a business – recruiting staff is just one of them. Taking into account the resources lost to hire staff, as well as training them and paying all their wages – especially if you’re going to be hiring a fair few people – businesses can end up paying hundreds if not thousands on recruitment.
All of these expenses can be avoided if you were to work with an MSP. Managed Service Providers will take care of the recruitment process so you don’t have to worry about it. Just think what you could do with the money that’d be saved – as we mentioned earlier, there are numerous worthwhile routes to take when growing a business. Why not put some extra money into product development, marketing, or hiring staff for other areas of your business? Hiring an MSP is a fantastic way of saving money which can then be used to help your business in other ways.
Can an MSP really help you grow?
Another great thing about MSPs is that they aren’t just a team of experienced workers you hire to take care of the daily IT tasks your business faces. The right MSP will also be able to boost your business’ growth through their knowledge and experience with dealing with the latest networking technology.
Your chosen MSP will probably end up with a brilliant understanding of how exactly your business functions, and what exactly it could use to be even better, the longer you work together. This is fortunate, as since they tend to support many companies at once, their IT and networking knowledge has to be on the cutting edge – they can use this insight to help push your business even further.
A great MSP will be able to give you insight and answers to all your networking questions. For instance, if you’re unsure of whether to increase your network’s performance with MPLS, or go down the SD WAN route, they’ll be able to tell you what’s right for you. Many MSPs will offer advice and consultancy as part of your services, but not all of them will – so make sure you know what you’re getting. It’ll likely cost you slightly extra, but being able to pick the brains of people with the most up to date knowledge of IT will be invaluable.
MSPs – how to find the right one
As we keep bringing up, there are so many ways to facilitate growth in a business. You’re probably well aware that when it comes right down to it, what you need to grow a business, at the most basic level, is knowledge, and money. When you work with an MSP, you can gain access to the most cutting edge knowledge, while saving your money at the same time. In order to receive everything you want from an MSP, you have to make sure you’re working with the right one for your business.
Finding the best MSP for you can be easier said than done. Taking to the internet for a simple search will probably just result in you being bombarded with paid advertisements as opposed to coming across the perfect MSP. You need to look deeper, and be prepared to ask a few important questions to any potential MSP you come across.
It can be a great start to find out whether your chosen MSP has experience working with businesses that are similar to yours – whether that’s the same size, same point in their development, or the same industry.
Another great thing to ask an MSP is to see how their plans for future growth stack up against your own – the right MSP should be able to grow with you, and not be left in the dust when your growth hits its stride.
Ultimately one of the most important boxes for an MSP to check is that they have a decent understanding of your business and yourself – that includes future plans, goals for growth, and also how you intend to accomplish these goals. If your chosen MSP has a good idea of all these things, they should be a great asset when it comes to helping your business grow!
