Can managed service providers replace an internal IT support team?

As a small business, you’re understandably looking to save money wherever possible, and so may well be looking at providing your IT support internally for all users.

What’s more, again as a smaller organisation, you may be contemplating focusing on employing a single engineer. However, there are likely to be some potential issues with this, including the headache of what happens when that key person is on holiday, off sick or eventually decides to move on from your company?

Equally, however great they are, and however long they have worked for you, there is, after all, only so much knowledge and expertise one individual can have, meaning there will inevitably be knowledge gaps. Any internally employed staff also, obviously, need to be properly managed, while pension, National Insurance and the like all have to be paid.

So the reality is that outsourcing to a managed service provider definitely can replace internal IT support effectively and efficiently. At the same time it can be a cost-effective way of doing things, whether it’s providing help during an IT emergency or you’re expanding or even scaling down a business.

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Some of the benefits of using a managed service provider are likely to include:

• Your users being able to contact the helpdesk of your managed service provider and speak to a highly-trained service team.
• You may worry that an outsourced provider would not know your organisation in the same way as an in-house IT support function – but the service desk professionals will understand the history, know your business, and provide continuity and consistency and apply best practice.
• An external team can make itself available 24/7 as a service option, and will log all calls to ensure a thorough service.
• You may also be concerned about not having someone on-site when necessary. But the vast majority of issues can be proactively managed and resolved remotely. However, a managed service provider can be on-site whenever needed, for example in the event of an emergency or to install new PCs or infrastructure..
• Advice on how to run your IT will be tailored to your industry sector, along with the size of your organisation and what it needs – a business with 100 users, for example, will be given different recommendations to a 20-strong one.
• Services are typically provided for a fixed monthly fee to be cost-effective, and to make budgeting very straightforward. 
• With IT services providers such as Epoq IT, you can also access a expert resources as and when required, for example IT business consultancy and project services.

Download our Complete Guide to Managed IT Services

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What about a hybrid option?

If your internal IT team is at full capacity, but you don’t want take on more staff in-house, you could consider outsourcing part of your IT support to a managed service provider, or use specific resources for a particular project. This is a solution which can work well and outsourcing those would considerably reduce pressure on any in-house staff.

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How we can help

At award-winning Epoq IT, we’re a leading managed service provider with a strong focus on building long-term relationships with our clients. We offer a complete and flexible solution for managing your IT, from strategy and support to compliance, risk management and security.

Get in touch now for a chat about we could meet your IT needs in a highly personalised way, freeing you to do what you do best – running your business.

Find out more about our flexible SME IT Services bundles.

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