Getting Started with IT Managed Services: What to Expect 

Are you looking to get started with managed IT services? Choosing an IT Managed Service Provider (MSP) is a great way for businesses to streamline their overall operations and improve its security. 

In this guide, we will answer some key questions regarding the onboarding process, service delivery, communication standards and what you should expect from a partnership with an MSP who will support you with your goals. 

If you are looking at your options, keep reading to learn more about the partnership and process and get the clarity before you choose your provider. 

Table of Contents:

1. Onboarding Process: What Happens After You Sign the Contract 
2. Service Delivery and Ongoing Support: Ensuring Seamless Operations 
3. Strategic IT Planning and Alignment with Business Goals 
4. Communication and Relationship Management: Building a Strong Partnership 
5. Scalability and Future-Proofing Your Business

1. Onboarding Process: What Happens After You Sign the Contract 

The onboarding process helps establish what you should expect from the entire partnership with your IT MSP. Here is what you should expect during this process so that everything can go smoothly. 

• Initial Assessment and Infrastructure Review: At the very beginning, your IT MSP should be trying to go through an audit of your IT environment. This audit will give them an overview of your current IT architecture, identify any weakness or vulnerability and allow them to plan for the next steps. 
• Customized Onboarding Plan:  Next, the MSP will use this assessment to create a tailored onboarding plan for your business. This will include timelines, milestones and deliverables that are all specific to your needs. 
• Setting Expectations:  Your MSP should also lay out their service level agreement (SLA), response times, and key performance indicators to ensure that everyone is on the same page. These various elements help establish clear expectations for performance and responsiveness. 
• Security Implementation:  Finally, your MSP should also be keeping cybersecurity as a top priority. One of the top priorities during the onboarding process is to ensure the safeguarding and handling of valuable business data. 

2. Service Delivery and Ongoing Support: Ensuring Seamless Operations 

Understanding how your chosen IT MSP delivers its services and helps provide you with support is critical for building trust and maintaining a good relationship. Let’s see what you should expect in terms of service delivery and support: 

• 24/7 Monitoring and Support: A top reason for a partnership with an MSP is how it can provide you with 24/7 monitoring, identity threat detection and response to pinpoint and eliminate any threat before it impacts your operations. 
• Proactive Maintenance: Scheduled maintenance, including updates, patches and performance optimization, is part of the proactive maintenance provided by an MSP such as DNSnetworks. This helps ensure that all your systems are operating as they should be. 
• Incident Response: Your IT MSP should also have established clear protocols for addressing and fixing IT issues promptly. This can include having a well-drafted incident response plan designed to reduce any downtime and outages. 
• Documentation and Reporting: Your MSP should also have regular reports on system health and service delivery to ensure you remain well-informed about your IT setup and the performance of the MSP’s overall services. 

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3. Strategic IT Planning and Alignment with Business Goals 

To ensure that your MSP partnership is successful, it must go beyond technical support and be aligned with the overall business objectives. This is achieved with: 

• Technology Roadmaps: IT MSPs will ensure that the roadmap includes a scalable plan for improving infrastructure.  These roadmaps are essential to help you prepare for future growth and technological advancements. 

• Regular Strategy Sessions: You should expect to go through strategic reviews regularly. For example, through a quarterly review, adjust your goals and strategies to ensure that your business needs and technological requirements are met. 

• Budgeting and Cost Management: Predictable IT spending is a cornerstone of IT MSPs. Transparent pricing models and predictable IT spending are crucial for effective budget management. The MSP works with you to ensure cost-effective IT solutions. 

• Emerging Technologies: Staying ahead of emerging technologies is vital for business growth. MSPs identify and recommend new technologies that align with your business objectives. 

4. Communication and Relationship Management: Building a Strong Partnership 

Effective communication is critical for your partnership with an MSP. Take a look at how a managed IT provider such as DNS can help you maintain strong, transparent relations with your customers: 

• Dedicated Account Management: You can expect a dedicated account manager who will be your single point of contact, ensuring consistency and accountability in the partnership. 

• Clear Escalation Paths: Defined escalation paths outline the processes for issue resolution and prioritization, ensuring critical issues are addressed promptly. 

• Feedback Loops: Regular surveys and feedback sessions provide opportunities for continuous improvement based on your business’s evolving needs. 

• Collaboration Tools: Utilizing modern collaboration tools makes communication and updates more efficient, fostering a solid partnership. 

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5. Scalability and Future-Proofing Your Business 

The MSP of your choice should also grow and scale as your business evolves. Understanding how your managed IT service provider plans for the future is important for the long-term goals of your business. Take a look at how we ensure our services scales and evolves as the demands and needs of your business evolves: 

• Flexible Service Plans: The MSP offers flexible service plans that adapt to meet your changing business requirements, ensuring you have the support you need at every growth stage. 
  
• Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity: Planning for unforeseen disruptions is crucial. IT MSPs help develop comprehensive disaster recovery and business continuity plans to ensure your operations can quickly recover from any setbacks.  Learn more about DNS identity threat detection and response.
  
• Compliance Management: Keeping up with industry regulations and standards is a must. Managed IT providers help you meet IT compliance requirements, ensuring your business stays compliant with all relevant regulations. 
  
• Growth Enablement: Leveraging IT to open new opportunities and markets is part of the MSP’s value proposition. They help position your business for growth by aligning IT strategies with your objectives. 

Take The Next Step!  

Partnering with a Managed Service Provider can significantly enhance your IT operations, security, and growth. With 24/7 monitoring, robust cybersecurity, and strategic IT planning, an MSP like DNS will help ensure your business’s seamless performance and future readiness. 

Ready to elevate your IT infrastructure? Partner with us today to harness the full potential of your technology and drive your business forward. Contact us to learn more about how our IT MSP services and solutions can benefit your organization.