What Is Co-Managed IT? Is It Right For You?
Co-Managed IT? – Is it the ultimate solution to IT problems of the 21st century?
In the technology-driven world of today, the importance of IT is no secret. Although there is a lot of innovation-driven technology, there certainly has not been much innovation in handling our day-to-day IT needs in business. Most businesses have become dogma to the traditional ways of managing IT. It is either an internal dedicated IT specialist or team or an externally outsourced provider. In some odd cases, there are instances where the businesses have nothing in place. Contrary to traditional methods, we are presenting the fourth approach to handling IT. This approach is known as Co-Managed IT.
This method is advantageous since it can give you the best of both worlds: an internal onsite-site IT manager AND an external IT services provider. This hybrid functionality offers the flexibility that is perfect for meeting the diverse needs of any business. This method is ideal for companies that mean serious IT business. It is not as cost-effective as some of the traditional options, but it does add another level of efficiency and reliability to the business. It is, however, cost-effective to an entire IT team and can prove to be more comprehensive than relying on a service provider alone.
This flexibility allows for efficiently managed IT, network stability, and security. You won’t have to lose your sanity while dealing with on-site issues since your dedicated IT manager will understand the nuances of your business and its specific needs.
If you plan to scale fast and grow, this job may become overwhelming rather quickly. This is where the advantages of an off-site expert can be felt. An external IT firm will have the firepower to solve all the issues your IT manager could not. When a problem can’t be solved, there is a whole team of IT staff to ensure that it does.
These are no ordinary people but experts in IT who understand all the tricks of the trade anywhere from system management to government policies. Although they may not be familiar with your specific business, nothing beats experience in the real world, and that too across a wide range of issues in the industry. Moreover, your team can easily provide the context of the problem.
Co-Managed – The all-in-one
You’ll have someone on-site who can work on the daily inner workings of your business. Your internal IT manager will be reliable most of the time but will not disappoint you even when they get stuck. In fact, your IT manager will have access to an impeccable knowledge and experience base to make sure the job gets done no matter what. But that’s not all!
You’ll significantly improve your employee retention. Co-managed IT can transform your company’s culture. Rather than relying on your all-stop shop, a single-person IT team that can quickly become overwhelmed and overworked, consider letting the IT experts take that load off your employees. Instead of leaving the door open for overworked and overworked employees to go, change the culture!
If the on-site IT is ill-equipped, lacks the knowledge, tools, and resources to deal with a big crisis (e.g., malware or storage failure), it is a disaster just waiting to happen. This is undue stress on employees that will likely result in burnout. While they may succeed, they’ll probably not be pleased about the experience due to the lack of much-needed support. This will most likely lead them to look for new opportunities elsewhere, which will leave you hanging.
This whole situation can be avoided with co-managed IT with numerous other benefits of this hybrid model.
No waiting around:
Let’s be honest, service providers aren’t always the quickest. With this approach, you will always have someone on-site to resolve issues immediately and, at the same time, bring in expert help as required.
Focus on the bigger picture:
Being hands-on with IT is great, but is your time being spent efficiently? Your on-site IT manager can handle IT, while you can focus on tasks to drive business growth.
No more regulation fuss:
With all the regulations, navigating the bureaucracy and various policies has become quite challenging, especially with the rapid and unannounced changes in policy and regulations. The right IT team will stay on top of all the paperwork and regulations needed. You certainly will not need to go digging to find answers. They will be informed of all that’s happening in IT and adjust business practices as necessary.
Less Hiring More Saving:
You won’t need to hire more people to handle your IT needs. When even one person has access to all the tools and resources needed to address complex IT issues, they can become as efficient, if not better, than a few. They will have the support structure in place to handle complex IT issues with relative ease.
Health Matters:
When your IT individual knows that they are not alone and that your company and resources are standing by for support, they will be a lot happier. They won’t stress to the point of burnout. On the other hand, they will know that whenever they are down and unable to solve an issue, help is available. The overall job satisfaction will increase, leading to better employee retention and overall organizational stability, significantly impacting your bottom line.
If co-managed IT was not on the horizon for you, now it should be. Innovation and implementation of new ideas are the driving force of business success in the 21st century, especially with IT. You may find that this hybrid approach gives you the best of both worlds: both internal and external IT support as needed. Indeed, flexibility and innovation are critical, especially when dealing with the magnitude of cybersecurity issues today. It is a time when a lot of teams work remotely, but so do cybercriminals. It may only take one ransomware attack or crisis to see everything crumbling down before your eyes. To avoid such a crisis, more help is always needed. As digital nomads, we need to be ready for any cybercriminal that beholds us, especially in business, where the consequences are much too high.
AlphaClick offers managed IT services to all types of businesses in Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane.
