What are Co-Managed IT Services?
While your business must have access to the latest IT expertise in today’s business world, it does not mean everything has to be handled in-house. Every business, when it grows to a certain size, eventually needs departments to manage its affairs. One of the most important is an internal IT department to coordinate and necessitate access to Information and technology services.
As technology evolves and new products, services, and skills enter the market, many organizations have found it necessary to outsource some elements of their IT requirements. With co-management of IT services, these organizations retain their in-house IT departments but outsource some IT services that they cannot handle in-house.
How Co-Managed IT Services Work with In-House IT Departments
A co-managed IT service model enables a company to collaborate with a third-party specialist IT service provider to complement its IT capacity. To put it simply, a professional managed IT service provider brings in the knowledge and expertise that the company’s in-house team lacks.
With this approach, the organization gets to pay only for the services the IT department cannot offer and the expertise the organization lacks. Outsourcing IT services may be based on the company’s expertise at that particular time, their budget, and the urgency of the service. The company can split the workload and tasks between the third-party managed IT services provider and the internal IT team.
When Should a Company Opt for Co-Managed IT Services?
Creativity is a grossly underestimated asset that every business needs to succeed today. When a company nurtures ‘thinking outside the box’, it stands a better chance to take advantage of emerging opportunities long before the competition is aware of them. The opportunities for creativity that third-party specialists bring are reasons enough for your company to consider co-managed IT services.
Another major reason why businesses choose co-managed IT services is that the third-party contractor complements the in-house team. Whereas the company IT department may focus on more strategic concerns of the company, a third party may help streamline the neglected basic everyday processes.
If the in-house IT department is busy every day, they may even fail to focus on the strategic components of the business. Even if the company experiences fast growth, these components would always remain a bottleneck if not addressed. Rather than go for a pure in-house or strictly cloud approach to sourcing IT services, the fastest-growing companies today choose to combine the two. This is a sure way to ensure that as the company or organization grows, it is reflected in the capacity of the IT team and services.
The Benefits of Co-Managed IT Services
The benefits that your company stands to benefit from co-managed IT services will depend on many factors including your nature of business, the services you seek, and the service provider you go with. Here are the five core benefits this hybrid IT services model offers over an in-house IT department.
Access Hi-Tech IT Equipment at Low Costs
The most significant value that cloud IT services have to offer businesses is the opportunity to save money on IT equipment. It is cheaper and more convenient for a company to pay a small monthly subscription fee to use someone else’s IT infrastructure rather than buy everything. While this means the company has little control over the infrastructure, the upside is that they are not responsible for its management either.
Co-managed IT services have proven to be much simpler, cost-effective and enable the company to retain some control over its infrastructure and services. Simply put, co-managed services are a hybrid of cloud and in-house IT services whose extent and limitations the company can determine.
Convenient Access to a Range of IT Expertise
Many businesses often start with a small IT department with one or two staff with general IT knowledge. This usually works in many situations, but as the company grows and its needs get more complicated, it will ultimately need an expert. When the IT department is not up to a task, co-managed IT services will come in handy.
Co-managed IT services enable businesses of all sizes and organizations in all industries to access experts in a range of specialties without incurring ridiculous consultation charges. It is easy for a company to cherry-pick the expert they need for every situation. For instance, they can seek professional advice on security from a cybersecurity expert and consult a strategist to help them with their IT strategy.
Complement In-House IT Staff
So, the peak season is around the corner, and it could cause IT problems? Perhaps your business just landed a big project and needs more hands on deck as soon as possible. When business turns, and more human resources are required, co-managed IT services are the perfect solution to avoid hiring staff only when needed.
Co-managed IT services are usually very flexible. Talking to a service provider to deploy skilled staff to complement the technical team in the peak season is a sure way to cut costs. The best thing is that the new addition to company time will always bring a range of IT expertise that will benefit the IT staff and the company in the long run.
Boost Your In-House Team’s Productivity
The best co-managed IT services provider should offer round-the-clock support to its clients, whether the in-house staff is in or out of the office. Since third-party service providers are always responsive and pragmatic, the benefits of this approach to doing business will rub off on the in-house team as well.
The interaction between the in-house and contracted IT staff will build employee morale, improve their work ethics and strategies, and even empower them to be more productive and reduce downtimes. This will, however, depend on the IT service provider with whom the company chooses to partner.
Conclusion
Both cloud-only IT services and purely in-house staffing have their upsides and downsides. Co-managed IT services is a hybrid of the two that naturally offers the benefits of both worlds. Whether your business is new or old, small or large, you should consider co-managed IT services as an option to handle the organization’s IT. To discover more benefits of this IT service provision and infrastructure management model, consult an expert at V&C Solutions free of cost today.
