What Is an MSP And Can It Help Improve Your Business?

Technology is an increasingly important part of all businesses, large and small. But with technology comes security concerns. This means processes and policies need to be put in place to help keep the company and its employees safe from cyber threats, which is were an MSP comes in.

One such way to make sure your technology remains safe is to use a managed service provider (MSP). So what is an MSP and can it help improve your business?

Let’s dig in.

What is an MSP?

An MSP is a company that partners with yours to make sure your technology infrastructure and applications are running efficiently and supporting your business goals. Your MSP remotely monitors your network around the clock, ensuring your data and applications are secure and healthy. This allows the MSP to find — and fix — potential problems before they can affect you or your customers.

MSPs protect your company from disaster by providing backup and recovery services for your hardware and software as well. A managed service provider can also take on IT support/helpdesk responsibilities. This allows your staff to focus on the other important aspects of your company including providing top customer service to your clients.

Other services an MSP may provide to your company include cloud computing, mobile phone and tablet management, network design and implementation, office 365 managed services, and VoIP phone services.

Which Companies Benefit From Using An MSP?

If a company depends on technology to run its business it can benefit from having a Managed Services Provider on its side. And MSPs customize their services depending on whether it’s for a small company or a large, multinational corporation. But what remains the same from client to client is an MSP’s mission of giving the people who run a business peace of mind when it comes to technology so they can focus on running the company’s day-to-day operations.

Small- and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) benefit from using MSPs because it allows them to have top-of-the-line IT services without having to break the bank. Hiring an in-house IT staff often doesn’t make good financial sense. Additionally, best practices suggest an IT strategy should have an amount of redundancy that ensures companies are not held hostage by single password holders or exposed to the many risks of losing their single IT person.

Even larger companies sometimes need to supplement their in-house IT departments by off-loading various projects or tasks to the MSP, thus allowing their internal IT staff to focus on more critical parts of the business.

What Does an Managed Services Provider Cost?

Rates obviously vary for each provider and depends on the size of a client’s business and what services the client needs.

In general, though, companies find great business value in paying monthly for outsourced IT expertise. The client pays the MSP a monthly service fee for around-the-clock monitoring and security services. This way you can take full advantage of an MSP’s ability to manage your company’s infrastructure at all times.

If something breaks down, the MSP comes out to fix the equipment at no extra charge because it’s all part of your contract.