Futureproofing Your Business with an IT Managed Services Provider
Businesses are always looking for new and better ways to remain competitive and streamline their operations. This is true now more than ever due to rapid technological advances and shifts in consumer preferences. A great way to optimize your business processes is to outsource your IT department by working with a managed IT services provider.
Let’s explore how an IT managed services provider (IT MSP) can help you scale your business, deploy the latest technologies, and build a sustainable IT strategy. We will also briefly touch on the future of IT managed services and their evolving role.
Table of Contents:
1-How IT Managed Services Can Help Scale Your Business
Scalability of Managed IT Services:
By working with a managed IT services partner, you immediately gain access to scalable IT solutions that can help propel your business’s growth. The flexibility of IT resources is great for companies looking for a cost-effective solution to their IT management as it allows you to only pay for the resources you need.
Here’s how IT MSPs help your business grow:
- Flexible Solutions: Managed IT services offer scalable solutions that grow with your business. As your company expands, MSPs provide the flexibility to add or reduce services based on your needs.
- Cost-Effective: This adaptability ensures you only pay for what you use, making it a cost-effective approach to IT management.
Cost Savings, Enhanced Productivity, and Efficiency:
\Outsourcing your IT needs to an IT MSP can help you significantly save on IT expenses such as overhead, training, and salary that come with running an in-house team of technology experts. IT Managed service providers also give you access to a team of experts who have specialized experience in optimizing your business IT operations.
Simply put, outsourcing your IT management means:
- Reduced Overhead Costs: By outsourcing IT management, businesses can significantly reduce overhead costs associated with hiring and training in-house IT staff.
- Enhanced Productivity: MSPs leverage their expertise to enhance productivity through optimized workflows and proactive maintenance, minimizing downtime, and maximizing operational efficiency.
Success Stories or Case Studies:
Take a look at some of our customer success stories to learn how they benefitted from a partnership with a managed IT services provider:
Zibi: Zibi is a modern development and sustainable community project actively under construction. It is currently in its final development phase, and DNS has helped them set up and optimize 206 residential units with their building’s Wi-Fi network.
MSI: We provided MSI with a custom IT solution that fostered our partnership for over 15 years. They formed a partnership with us that allowed them to scale and maintain their growth.
ICSS: DNS provided ICSS (Innovative Community Support Services) with fully managed IT, remote and on-site support, networking, IT budgeting, and managed infrastructure services. Our full support enabled them to focus on their critical community services.
Check out our customer success stories by looking at our managed IT services case studies!
2-Preparing for Emerging Technologies with the Help of an MSP
How MSPs Stay Ahead of Technological Trends:
As solutions integrators, IT MSPs are committed to staying current with the latest technological advancements, actively training employees, improving knowledge of implementing new cutting-edge solutions, and earning certifications such as ISO 27001, ISO 9001, and Controlled Goods Program.
An IT MSP’s approach to continuous improvement and upskilling of employees allows you to take advantage of the latest tech without incurring the costs of ongoing training and maintaining certified standards. Businesses also gain notable insights from IT consultations with their technology partner.
Benefits of Having a Proactive IT Partner:
IT MSPs are proactive and excel at anticipating potential IT issues before they cause significant problems. This preparedness allows them to provide a variety of benefits to their clients including:
- Get strategic advice
- Boost innovation
- Anticipate IT issues before they arise
- Supercharge your competitiveness
Examples of Emerging Technologies (AI, IoT, Blockchain) and Their Impact on Businesses:
Emerging technologies such as Artificial Intelligence (AI), the Internet of Things (IoT), and blockchain are revolutionizing business operations. AI enhances data analytics, IoT streamlines supply chain management, and blockchain secures transactions.
Here are a few examples of businesses who benefitted greatly from AI, IoT and blockchain
Netflix uses AI to personalize the customer experience and improve its overall margins. Many retailers also use IoT for inventory management and improving engagement with their customers. Blockchain has become mainstream and more widely accepted as a safe way to process transactions.
To learn more about how AI and other emerging technologies can improve your business, visit our Artificial Intelligence page or reach out to our digital transformation experts.
3-Sustainability and IT Managed Services: Building a Green IT Strategy
Importance of Sustainability in IT:
Sustainability is one of the key factors in corporate social responsibility strategies for many companies. IT departments play an active role in reducing environmental impacts by ensuring energy efficient processes and resource management. Eco-friendly IT solutions will benefit both the environment and your brand’s reputation.
What this means, according to The University of Waterloo:
- Energy-Efficient Practices: IT departments can reduce the environmental impact by using technology to mitigate excess energy/resource consumption.
- Demand for Eco-Friendly Solutions: Highlight the growing demand for eco-friendly IT solutions and the benefits they bring to both the environment and business reputation.
How MSPs Can Help Create and Implement Green IT Strategies:
IT Managed service providers should design and implement sustainable and eco-friendly IT solutions and strategies. From optimizing the use of data centers to improving energy efficiency and implementing smart solutions that allow you to reduce hardware usage, IT MSPs have the expertise to optimize your IT operations and help meet your sustainability goals.
Sustainability-oriented MSPs will help you:
- Optimize Data Centers: Optimize data centers for energy efficiency.
- Implement Virtual Solutions: Implement virtual solutions to reduce hardware usage.
- Promote Renewable Energy: Promote the use of renewable energy sources.
Benefits of Sustainable IT Practices (Cost Savings, Brand Reputation, Compliance):
The benefits of sustainable IT practices should not be overlooked. These include:
- Cost Savings: Achieve cost savings by reducing energy consumption and operational costs.
- Brand Reputation: Improve brand perception by showing a commitment to sustainability, which will help attract eco-conscious customers and partners.
- Compliance: Helps businesses meet technology related compliance regulations and avoid paying penalties and damaging your reputation.
To learn more about how to make your IT environment more sustainable, get in touch with us for a consultation!
4-The Future of IT Managed Services: Predictions for the Next Decade
Trends Shaping the Future of IT Managed Services:
The future of IT will depend on the evolution of key trends such as heavy reliance on certain cloud service partners or the growing shift to a cybersecurity-oriented IT strategy. This includes things like:
- Increased reliance on cloud computing
- A growing interest in edge computing
- Growing importance on cybersecurity
- And much more.
Regardless of the key trends, an essential step for managing IT involves ensuring you lock your doors. By locking your doors, we mean secure your confidential business data!
Get in touch with our cybersecurity professionals to secure the future of your business.
What’s next?
Predicting what’s next is not easy within the technology industry due to its rapid advancements. Innovation is accelerating as AI and automation become more widely adopted by the business community.
Consumers and businesses are rapidly adopting IoTs for their homes and operations. Cybersecurity will be a critical focus area in the future, as any device connecting to a network will be a possible entry point for a potential hacker.
Regardless of how innovation influences trends, we expect that technology will be used to further increase productivity, improve security, enhance connectivity, and create new service opportunities.
What we can expect:
- Rise in adoption of IoT technology
- Increased emphasis on cybersecurity
- Acceleration of digital transformation
- Adoption of 5G networks
- Edge computing and other alternatives to cloud computing
- Rise in business use cases of virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR)
- Mainstream adoption of cryptocurrencies and blockchains
The Evolving Role of MSPs in Business Strategy:
From the point of view of the IT industry, cybersecurity will continue to be top of mind when it comes to managing technology infrastructure. Remote work is here to stay and MSPs must be able to support remote and hybrid teams. Furthermore, AI, automation, and machine learning (ML) integrations are gaining momentum for future planning as business operations and technology further intertwine. Businesses will seek out help from a technology partner who can leverage AI and ML tools to improve efficiency and productivity while anticipating future issues before they arise through predictive analytics. The evolution of MSP roles for your business is constantly changing but one thing remains the same: their commitment to help make technology work for you instead of against you.
To get a better understanding, check out our blog post about the role of Managed IT services.
Are you ready to stay ahead of the technological revolution?
Get in touch for a free consultation—take the first step to carry your business to the next level.