Managed service providers or MSPs, provide the expertise and skill required to manage and support your infrastructure and desktop computing. This new model brings value to your IT operation by providing such services as monitoring your server and network environments for performance and failure alerts, and responding accordingly, to more comprehensive options such as desktop configuration and service desk support. MSPs can be your IT department for a lot lower cost than hiring in house IT staff.
If you have IT staff onsite, consider using a MSP to perform the routine and mundane tasks such as error log checking, patch updates and preemptive maintenance. This leaves your internal staff time to work with your business folks in bringing IT solutions to business problems. Your in house IT staff know your business, so their true value to you is in supporting your business – not in supporting technology.
There is an increasing trend toward this type of model for SMEs. The goal is to make better use of IT as a strategic business tool while still keeping costs under control. An MSP brings with them high technical skills and expertise but a lower cost and higher productivity than a general purpose IT technician.
Dean Owen
