Managed service providers (MSPs) pride themselves on high levels of support. Yet, there are some things we can do and others we cannot. Laundry and grocery shopping come to mind for the latter. But, more seriously, this article will explain what an MSP does and does not do.
Your business faces many challenges today. You are managing budget and employees while complying with government regulations and industry standards. Meanwhile, technology is changing the work environment, customer expectations, and market demands.
An MSP learns about your existing business technology and processes, as well as your objectives. This helps them suggest current, reliable, and secure technology solutions.
Typically, you will engage an MSP for a consistent monthly fee. In return, you get up-to-date IT and the freedom to focus on the parts of your business you are passionate about. You may even involve your strategic planning to streamline operations
What an MSP Does
Let us begin with what an MSP does do. As external IT help for your business, an MSP can:
Support your technology in a break-fix situation
Help your IT infrastructure run better
Provide server monitoring and IT maintenance
Manage and meet your evolving technology needs
Reduce your business costs by reducing hardware and software infrastructure costs
Increase operational efficiency
Secure your systems, back up your data, and plan for disaster recovery
Support your users and their IT needs
Match your business with the right technology for the task
Develop strategy for your smooth cloud migration
Enable you to avoid recruiting and retaining your own large in-house IT team
Sounds great, right? Before you sign the dotted line, however, keep reading to be sure that
you understand what this service provider cannot do.
What an MSP Doesn’t Do
These IT professionals fix problems and help optimise your business technology. Still, they cannot do everything. Your MSP also cannot immediately fix every problem. While an MSP will understand the urgency, not every technology solution is a simple one.
You also cannot expect to never have a tech problem ever again. Yes, an MSP’s job is to monitor your hardware and software to keep it updated and secure, but they cannot prevent every issue.
For instance, if an employee finds an infected thumb drive and plugs it into a business desktop, all the MSP can do is act to fix the issue.
Also, the tech team at your MSP cannot magically sense what is wrong with your IT infrastructure. The more information you can provide from the outset, the more focused their efforts are.
When filling out a service or support ticket it helps to share:
Who is affected
The extent of the issue
The urgency of the matter
What you tried to do to fix it
Any error messages are seen
Finally, the MSP should not be dictating policy or controlling how your business operates. Yes, these experts can offer input into how technology can help, and they can also weigh in on how proposed changes might impact your IT infrastructure, but you should not feel pressured by them to make decisions.
Partner with MSPs
Now you know what to expect of a partnership with your MSP. If a company is promising to do things on the doesn’t-do list, you might be in for terrible service.
Having a better picture of what an MSP does do, you can avoid unrealistic expectations. This can help you get the most from your investment in this IT partnership.
Contact us at www.norfolkcs.co.uk or 01953 857980 for a free audit and friendly discussion on how we can help.