How Do IT Managed Services Actually Minimize Risk?

There are myriad benefits to partnering with a managed IT company, but they can sometimes be hard to articulate. Let’s try a quick thought experiment that should illuminate why the expert strategy and help of an outsource IT company are crucial to any business.

First, let’s imagine 2 businesses: one that has tasked a tech savvy staff accountant, we’ll call him Bill, whose paid role is on the accounting team, and another that has chosen to engage a managed service provider (MSP) to manage the IT needs for the organization. The first business’s owners are hoping that  Bill can help them save money and avoid risk without any help from the outside, while the second business puts their trust in their MSP to protect their IT interests. 

Managed IT Service Providers Provide Expert Strategy During a Crisis

No one wants to think that a crisis will happen, but as we’ve learned in the past several months they can happen quickly and with little warning. These circumstances amplify vulnerabilities latent in your company’s processes, so for this scenario we’ll imagine both of these businesses are facing a crisis that forces their employees to work from outside of the office (sound familiar?). 

With no experts providing a strategic framework or roadmap for what to do in a crisis, the business with no MSP partnership will face countless scrambles to adapt. Upon the jump to remote operations, they will be forced to improvise a way to pivot to a remote workforce and still maintain security. If Bill, our favorite tech savvy accountant, even understands the risks now facing his business he is probably sweating bullets. They have no plan for secure data transmission, ensuring the security of the personal home machines employees’ may now be using to connect to the office, or where to even begin with maintaining some level of collaboration that resembles office operations.

The second business is at a huge advantage in the face of a crisis because of their partnership with their MSP and the expert strategy the MSP has put in place in anticipation of just such a situation. The infrastructure is already in place for secure remote access and remote operations. The team is already prepared due to ongoing security awareness training provided by the MSP to combat increased email phishing and hacking campaigns aimed at companies vulnerable to attack. Collaboration tools such as Teams and Slack are in place because an effective MSP has already communicated the benefits of digital collaboration even when in the office. 

Just like the second business in this scenario, every Mentis client is prepared for a pivot to remote operations due to our proven processes and strategic planning and execution. During client onboarding we:

1. Evaluate – Carefully review, document, and audit the environment against our world class standards
2. Strategize – Engage key client stakeholders in order to truly understand the client, their values, and their objectives
3. Develop a Plan – We build a technical alignment roadmap that starts where the client is now at onboarding and then, based on proven processes, stated business objectives, and other considerations we determine where the client should be in 6, 12, 18 months and beyond
4. Execute and Maintain – With the roadmap as the guide and budgets established, we work with the client to execute the plan and maintain world class technical operations with world class results  

Easy as 1, 2, 3, 4!

Managed IT Service Providers Minimize both Cost and Risk by Providing Expert Help

After the crisis has passed, Bill’s “go it alone” business will have incurred potentially crippling costs in its scramble to put out the fires that sprang up during the period of transition. Their uninformed, reactive decision making caused operations to suffer, with devastating financial consequences.

For businesses facing a crisis that choose to use a managed IT service provider, the plans in place and decisions made long ago result in minimal impact, if any, to operations and finances. Here at Mentis Group, our proven process around IT management and strategic planning prepares our clients for potentially impactful events out of their control, such as a pandemic. If a crisis comes, our clients can rest assured that we have a strategy for dealing with it and that we will provide expert help in implementing that strategy. When your MSP is truly a partner, rather than a crutch, your business will be much more prepared for future crises. Mentis’s job is to protect your data, systems, and operations, which all starts with becoming part of your team and understanding your business. When we understand your company just as well as you do, we can anticipate and meet your needs before they turn into problems.

If you’d like to learn more about how Mentis Group can help your business both minimize risk and be ready for a crisis, please contact us today.