Managed IT Services… What’s that?

May 19

Written By Chris Jones

In this blog post:

What is a “managed services provider”?
Why might my business benefit from utilizing one?
Some of the services offered by CCI

What is a “Managed Services Provider”?

An IT managed services provider (or MSP for short), is a company that provides a whole range of IT services to another company under the terms of a subscription or contract. MSPs bring with them years of experience in the Information Technology field, as well as the capability to meet any business problem through their extensive network of contacts and connections.

Another way to think about MSPs is to think about the various kinds of managed service providers. For example, one MSP that you’ve likely seen many times before (but haven’t thought about in that manner) is a landscaping MSP; their services run the gamut from simply mowing the lawn to completing (re)modeling and restoration. They are able to do services for you that you could easily do yourself (mowing the lawn), but they can also scale up to doing construction-grade work if it fits the solution required.

Why might my business benefit from utilizing an IT MSP?

An IT-managed services provider, like the example of the landscaping MSP provided above, represents a known commodity for an unknown world.

Perhaps your business is small, and there isn’t enough technology work to justify the cost of a full-time employee:
- Instead of giving “Bill” the dubious distinction of having two jobs (and being able to really only afford to pay him for one), an IT-managed services provider could provide a contract (or even an hourly) rate to address your technology needs.
- This also has the benefit of peace of mind: knowing that the solution to the problem is one borne of experience and expertise - not one of a “Band-aid Bill”
Your business is growing… you can begin to afford to hire an employee to tackle the (similarly) growing IT problems:
- An MSP brings with it both experience, but also a team of employees - ensuring that there is always at least one person who is knowledgeable about any particular area, but also ensuring that you’re not waiting for the roof to fall in when your IT employee needs to take time off
Medium-sized business - you’ve finally made it!
- Even here, an IT-managed services provider represents a benefit. On top of the experience, expertise, and size of the team, an IT MSP specializes in the field of information technology. If your line of business is such that information technology is essentially a set & forget operation, it may be wise to have an MSP come set it up - so that you can “forget” it!
- Further, at this level, you begin to see the multiple areas of business that an MSP can provide: IT support for a medium business may require a help desk, but you may not be able to devote so much of the budget to hiring the team required - while each situation is unique, an MSP providing level 1 & 2 tech support can often end up being cheaper in the long run, so that you can devote your employment strategy towards finding someone who can know your applications, network, and line of business intimately enough to provide level 3 support.

CCI - Middle Tennessee’s premier Managed Services Provider

Enter Computer & Communications Innovations - Middle Tennessee’s premiere IT managed services provider. You can read about us more here, but you should know that (as an IT MSP) we provide a number of services to our customers, including: