Unleash the Full Potential of Managed IT Services
Many businesses strive to use technology to optimise operations and drive profitability. However, as the technology stack grows and systems become more complex, managing your IT infrastructure, efficiently, becomes a challenge. Investing in a Managed IT Service Provider is a popular choice for many companies, but, like any investment, questions are often asked about how a business will see an ROI from Managed IT.
Concept of ROI in Managed IT Services
When many people think of “Managed IT”, they think of the IT department that you call when your computer is running slow, or you’ve locked yourself out of your device. In reality, IT investments can directly impact a company’s bottom line and contribute to its overall success by improving business-wide operations, removing inefficiencies, improving productivity and reducing costs. However, calculating ROI from Managed IT Services isn’t always straightforward. It requires a comprehensive analysis of various factors, such as upfront costs, ongoing expenses, and the anticipated benefits over time.
How Managed IT Services Impact ROI
Managed IT Services have the potential to significantly enhance ROI by:
Increasing Operational Efficiency
Outsourced Managed IT gives you access to experts who can proactively manage IT systems to improve operational efficiency by examining your existing IT infrastructure, uncovering system issues, and proactively resolving them with no business disruption. Outsourcing IT also gives you access to specific IT experts who can focus on particular system areas (like cybersecurity). With your IT managed by experts, businesses can put more resources into their core competencies, reducing costs and improving productivity.
Streamlining Business Processes
Having a team of IT experts managing technology infrastructure means inefficiencies can be identified and removed from your business processes to streamline workflows, improve collaboration and improve access to information. This could include moving static systems into the cloud to improve collaboration or replacing fixed phone lines with VOIP or UCaaS to make processes and communication more flexible.
Minimising Downtime
One of the problems with reactive IT management is that problems are often only resolved after they’ve occurred. Most people have experienced this. A system isn’t working as it should, and they call IT to fix it. This often leads to downtime while teams wait for issues to be fixed .This downtime can be extremely detrimental to a business from a cost and productivity perspective. It can also harm customer service if teams cannot respond to enquiries while IT issues persist.
Managed IT Services reduce downtime by taking a more proactive monitoring approach to issue resolution, often identifying and resolving issues before they become an issue. Having this visibility means fixes can be planned for out-of-hours (or at least during less busy times) to minimise disruption while ensuring performance remains consistently high.
Strengthening Cybersecurity
Over a third of businesses were targeted by a cyberattack at least once in 2022. With the rise in cyber threats and increasing complexity of attacks, Managed IT Services play a vital role in identifying, implementing and managing proactive, robust security measures that mitigate the risk of data breaches and any associated financial or reputational repercussions. This could be implementing industry best practices like multi-factor authentication and encryption, segmenting your network to setting access restrictions on certain data or information or providing 24/7 incident response support.
How to Maximise ROI of Managed IT Services
Choosing the Right Managed IT Service Provider
Partnering with the right Managed IT Service Provider is fundamental to realising the best ROI. A Managed IT Service Provider with an established reputation for delivering expertise can help you take a wide view of your existing IT infrastructure and help you find the right approach to improve your technology stack, remove inefficiencies and provide ongoing support.
You should also investigate whether you need a Managed Service Provider to work on a particular part of your existing infrastructure. For example, do you need specific help migrating to the cloud and managing cloud based platforms? Are you looking to strengthen your IT security? Do you need to improve your network management or implement better communication using UCaaS? Looking for a Managed IT Provider with certain expertise could help you get better ROI.
Cost Management in Managed IT Services
Effective cost management is crucial for ROI. One key area where a valuable Managed IT Service Provider can help is identifying areas for cost optimisation within existing technology infrastructure, such as eliminating redundant software licences, implementing cloud solutions, consolidating systems and sizing your IT infrastructure so it fits your business, rather than having a bloated technology stack that’s costing more money than it should.
In fact, according to research, the successful deployment of Managed IT Services can reduce IT operating costs between 25% and 45%. Regular reviews and assessments with a Managed Provider can help to align IT management with business goals and strategies to ensure budgets are used as effectively as possible.
Measuring the Success of Your Managed IT Services
As with any investment, measuring the success and impact of Managed IT Services on ROI is essential. Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) serve as valuable metrics to gauge the effectiveness and value delivered by these services.
Key Performance Indicators for Managed IT Services
Some crucial KPIs to monitor when assessing the success of Managed IT Services include:
- Cost savings achieved through outsourcing IT functions
- Reduction in system downtime and associated costs
- Improvement in employee productivity and operational efficiency
- Enhanced network performance and security
Get the best ROI from Managed IT with Netcentrix
Upgrading your business’s technology stack can revolutionise how your business operates and greatly improve how you serve customers. By partnering with Netcentrix, our expert team will work with you to analyse your existing technology and create a roadmap to optimise your systems and achieve their full potential. From IT consultancy to fully managed IT services, we can help turn your IT infrastructure into a driver for growth and efficiency. Contact us today and speak to one of our specialists about your requirements.
