When it comes to IT solutions, most businesses rely on one of three options:
There is, however, a fourth option: co-managed IT. This hybrid option gives you an on-site IT manager or a small team AND access to an off-site IT services firm.
For any business that takes IT seriously, this can prove to be an efficient and reliable option. It’s not as costly as a full on-site team, but it can be more comprehensive than relying on an MSP alone.
Simply put, the co-managed IT solution gives your business more options when it comes to getting IT and network stability and security right.
It keeps you nimble when it comes to on-site issues.
For instance, having an on-site IT manager means you have someone who knows the quirks of your business and its very specific needs.
But depending on the scope of your business and the size of those needs, the job has the potential to get complicated fast.
This is where having access to an off-site expert IT staff can be useful.
An outsourced IT firm alleviates that pain point.
Your IT manager has someone to call when they need to, and suddenly you have a full IT staff.
These are experts in IT who understand a range of issues, from system management to industry regulations – and just about everything in between.
They might not be familiar with the quirks or intricacies of your specific business or industry, but you already have that taken care of in the co-managed model.
You can have someone on-site who you can count on day to day, but when they need assistance, they have someone they can reliably call.
They have access to an incredible knowledge and experience base.
But it gets better!
One of the benefits of this approach is employee retention.
Co-managed IT can completely shift your company culture for the better.
Here’s why: small or single-person IT teams can get overwhelmed and overworked fast. This is common in IT.
As a result, small-business IT departments often seem like a revolving door for those employees.
It creates a broken culture.
If your on-site team lacks access to the proper tools or resources, it won’t take long for them to become overwhelmed and, eventually, burned out.
If there’s a crisis, like a ransomware attack or a storage failure, and your internal IT team isn’t given the support they need to succeed, it puts undue stress on them.
While they might succeed in the end, they’ll be unhappier for it and will likely start looking for a new job.
With IT in such high demand, especially in 2021, it’s likely they’ll find another job, leaving you left to pick up the pieces.
Co-managed IT helps you avoid this.
There are many other ways businesses can benefit from this hybrid model.
If you haven’t yet considered co-managed IT, give it a look. You may find the IT solutions you’ve been looking for.
In a time when cyber security is more important than ever before – with more teams working remotely and cybercriminals working overtime – every business can use all the help they can get.