Whether you are a business executive or a competent IT pro, managed services can ease your job by helping you to concentrate on important tasks. Key benefits of managed IT include the expertise of the whole IT team, commitment, and industry knowledge that are aimed at your core business.
All these advantages help you focus on the core competencies of your business, whereas a managed IT service provider can assist you with complex and time-consuming tasks such as:
Cloud computing
Datacenter solutions
End-user support
Cyber security, asset management, and computer systems
Disaster recovery planning
It seems like a lot is taken off your plate, right? Believe it or not, you could get all these and more with the right IT service provider. Continue reading to learn more about its benefits and what you need to know before hiring one.
Managed IT services: What to consider before hiring one
If this is your first time hiring or outsourcing IT support in Canada, for instance, you might be wondering about costs, security, convenience, and many other relevant aspects. If so, you’re not alone, and it’s perfectly understandable to feel hesitant about it. After all, having access to competitive IT support can significantly influence your business’s growth.
So, what must you know before hiring IT experts to help you take care of your business? See the quick list below to get a better idea:
Experience and expertise: Look for IT support with experience in your industry or have worked with businesses of similar size and complexity. They must have expertise in the specific technologies and systems your company uses.
Scope of services: Determine if they provide the services you need, such as help desk support, network management, cybersecurity, and cloud services. Understand the terms of their SLAs, including response times, resolution times, and uptime guarantees.
Costs: Understand their pricing model and what is included in their fees. Consider both upfront costs and long-term expenses. Evaluate if the cost aligns with the value and level of service provided.
Scalability and flexibility: Consider if they can scale their services to meet your company’s growth. Look for flexibility in their service offerings, allowing you to customize services based on your changing needs.
Eventually, reliable managed IT service providerwill boost your business competitiveness and efficiency. Shifting towards a trustworthy IT service provider will provide you extra benefits, like:
Control over OPEX costs
Investment in IT infrastructure and systems can be expensive. It will require upfront, which will make operating expenses tough as your company grows. When choosing an outsourced managed IT service, these expenditures are combined into a fixed, single OPEX cost. Because a managed IT service provider usually works with fixed monthly charges, things like maintenance, repairs, and breakdowns are computed into your operating budget without breaking your bank.
Avoid operational and sunk costs
Working with an in-house team requires adequate sunk costs like monthly salaries, office upkeep, benefits, and insurance. Also, it consumes both money and time to train employees to let them learn about your current processes and systems. By outsourcing IT initiatives to an expert, you can decrease huge capital expenses that are otherwise spent on in-house IT management systems. Together with reducing your capital expenses, managed IT service can also decrease your IT related costs. For example, managed services can save your expenses on:
Licensing
Consulting
Emergency repairs
Training
Also, you benefit from decreased labor rates
· Experience and expertise
Your outsourced managed IT service provider has required certifications, qualifications, expertise, and training specific to your field. Your service provider will provide you access to the best administrators with special skill sets. Also, you will have access to the latest technology, which can be executed smoothly and rapidly.
Quick response time
These days, business operations can’t be delayed by downtime or technical issues. Particularly during peak traffic hours, having 24/7 support is essential to ensure high productivity. In this way, support service will always be available to you no matter whether it’s day or night, weekday, weekend, or holiday.
· Cyber security support
A managed IT service provider who complies with PCI will help decrease risks relating to the use of credit card, client’s data, and any sensitive information. Your service provider will apply security strategies to make sure your business complies with security standards.
Quick time to market
Cloud computing by IT management will bring high-speed outcomes, eliminating IT inefficiencies. It means quick time to the market and high productivity.
Decrease risk
Investment in business always carry some risk, irrespective of its nature. Some of the most common risks include:
Changing technologies
Financial conditions
Government laws and
Changing market conditions
With a managed IT service, you can reduce your risks.
PARIS (AP) — The curtain came down on Paris’ feel-good summer with a grand parade of French athletes on the Champs Elysées on Saturday after the country threw one last party to celebrate the Olympic and Paralympic Games.
The Parade of Champions included 460 Olympic and Paralympic athletes, including 120 Paris medalists. About 70,000 spectators lined up on the parade’s route on the French capital’s famed avenue that ended on a ring-shaped stage around the Arc de Triomphe monument. Hundreds of the Games’ volunteers, Olympic and Paralympic representatives and city officials also attended.
Organizers delivered a celebration of French sport on par with the spectacular and audacious opening and closing of the July 26-Aug. 11 Olympics and the Aug. 28-Sept. 8 Paralympic ceremonies.
“Among us, we call it the 5th ceremony,” Thierry Reboul, the director of ceremonies, told French media. “We tried to include the same elements to this show as we did to the four ceremonies this summer: surprise, emotion and sharing.”
President Emmanuel Macron and his new prime minister, Michel Barnier, also attended. During the ceremony, Macron decorated with state honors 120 French Olympians, who had medaled in Paris, including the star swimmer and judoka, Léon Marchand and Teddy Riner. In all, 187 French athletes were bestowed with the Legion of Honor or the National Order of Merit on Saturday, but not all participated in the parade.
Macron’s celebration of the Olympic spirit that he said has produced “national harmony” came against the backdrop of a harsh political reality and a deeply divided society following an inconclusive legislative elections in July, just before the start of the Paris Games.
Faced with a hung parliament, social tensions and ballooning debt, Macron earlier this month appointed Barnier — a veteran conservative and the European Union’s former Brexit negotiator — to form a new government.
Macron’s decision caused fury in the left-wing coalition that won the most seats in the National Assembly, but not enough to govern alone, leaving France’s powerful lower house of parliament with no party holding a majority.
Barnier said he will present his ministers next week. The New Popular Front coalition vowed protests and censure against Macron and the new government, insisting that the president has dismissed the popular vote that gave the leftist alliance the mandate to govern.
EDMONTON – The return of k.d. lang and the Reclines is expected to be a highlight as the Canadian Country Music Association hands out its annual hardware tonight in Edmonton.
The appearance marks the first time the Alberta songstress has teamed up with the band in 35 years and is tied to her induction into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame.
Lang and the Reclines are expected to perform “Big Boned Gal” from the last album they recorded together in 1989.
Singer MacKenzie Porter of Medicine Hat, Alta., is co-hosting the show with American crooner Thomas Rhett, and they are also set to perform.
Porter is up for six awards, including female artist of the year, as well as single and video of the year for “Chasin’ Tornadoes.”
She’s tied with Jade Eagleson of Bailieboro, Ont., who is also nominated for best single for “Rodeo Queen” and top album for “Do It Anyway.”
Tenille Townes is defending her title of best female artist after winning the prize in 2023 for the fifth consecutive year. The “Somebody’s Daughter” singer from Grande Prairie, Alta., was first nominated for the award in 2011, when she was 17.
Brett Kissel and Dallas Smith are set to perform and the James Barker Band and Steven Lee Olsen are set to take the stage as presenters.
The awards show is back in Alberta’s capital for the first time since 2014. It was held in Hamilton last year and in Calgary in 2022.
It airs live on CTV at 8 p.m. ET.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 14, 2024.