More than ever before, small and medium-sized businesses are recognizing their need for a managed service provider for critical IT functions, particularly email hosting, storage, backup and recovery, and network monitoring. A flat-rate Managed Services plan can also help you budget your IT expenses with a predictable, recurring monthly cost.

Here are some reasons why Managed Services makes sense for so many companies.

Improved Efficiencies: Templeton can help improve business efficiency by ensuring that your systems stay up and running. Not having to worry about keeping the IT systems functioning, you can channel your resources toward your core competencies that drive revenue growth. More uptime translates to topline growth.

Scalability: Another advantage of managed IT services is scalability. Small and medium-sized businesses often grow faster than larger companies and require the flexibility to scale as they expand. Managed service providers make scaling their IT infrastructure up or down a breeze. We manage IT using the latest tools and technologies and leverage cloud services to expand capacity as needed.

Reduced Stress: IT infrastructure management involves executing a number of technical tasks. It can include endpoint management (desktops, laptops, servers), network management, compliance, help desk, repairs, routine maintenance, etc. Businesses would have to expend considerable resources to manage all of this themselves.

These days, it’s not only large companies that need technology to compete in their respective markets. Reliance on IT is growing, but are the efforts to increase IT support within small businesses moving at the same rate? To keep companies from being overwhelmed due to limits on IT resources, managed service providers, or MSPs, have entered to identify threats and fix potential problems as warning signs arise.

Essentially, managed IT services involve delegating IT tasks and operations to a third-party provider who is responsible for around-the-clock monitoring, management and repair. There is a good chance this approach to technical support differs greatly from what you’re used to if all you have ever considered in the past is a traditional break/fix solution. Here’s a closer look at those differences.

A Shift in Mentality Regarding Technical Support Services

Before managed services entered the market, there was only one way to deal with technical difficulties. At the time, if a server or desktop quit operating effectively, the only approach would be calling a professional, trying to explain the problem and scrambling to come up with a solution in record time. While this standard was acceptable at one point, now, it is not enough.

With the technological developments of the 21st century, waiting for problems to arise and systems to fail before taking action is no longer a viable option. Our increasing dependence on automated systems and digital databases means technology outages can have a profoundly negative impact on business operations. If a network goes down or an email server is inaccessible for substantial periods of time, the loss in productivity and revenue could be devastating.

Due to these higher stakes, the need for security and adequate support to prevent system failure and to catch potential issues before they happen is critical. That is a gap managed IT services have come into the industry to fill.