Managed Services

by Matthew Kolberg, Director of Managed Services for ASK

In today's financial climate business managers are being forced to find ways to do more with less and at the same time raise the efficiency of business processes. Managed IT Services can accomplish both of these goals by streamlining your IT environment. It will also get you back to running your business (the thing that you do well) and get you out of managing and worrying about IT issues. Managed Services is defined as: Practive management, monitoring, and issue resolution for your entire IT infrastructure provided at a predictable monthly cost.

Many companies currently resolve problems with their IT infrastructure in the following way:

1) You identify a problem

2) You call your service provider for help

3) The service provider comes to the rescue

4) The service provider bills for their services

The problem with this type of relationship is that your business objectives and the service provider's business objectives are not aligned. When you experience problems your service provider benefits.

Another issue with this type of IT systems management is that IT problems are generally poorly defined and often reoccur if not properly monitored or diagnosed. IT is a complicated industry full of an infinite number of problems that are intertwined and intermittent in nature. The typical complaint that is heard from many business owners is that they constantly approve payment for IT problems that continue to reoccur. Business owners frequently wonder about the accountability of their IT Consultants for these reoccurring problems and when they confront the provider they are most likely blinded by a technical explanation that makes no sense to them. What has happened over the years is that IT has turned from a convenience to a must have. A problem with IT can cost you real money in lost revenue, lost customers, and lost productivity.

Under a managed service agreement, your Managed Service Provider (MSP) is incented to fix small problems before they become large problems. With proactive management this becomes possible. The MSP is notified of system issues before you know about them and can schedule time to resolve them remotely without your business being affected. Because most Managed Service agreements are provided at a fixed monthly cost, your MSP must keep your systems running efficiently in order to profit.

Managed Services is not a magic wand, it is simply an economy of scale. A well run MSP can provide you with the kind of service you would get from a large staff of IT professionals at a fraction of the cost. Coupled with this talent is a sophisticated collection of software components that allow the MSP to proactively monitor all devices in your environment for problems, and resolve those problems quickly and remotely without waiting for an available technician to travel to your site.

This economy of scale is possible because technology has advanced to the point where 95% of IT problems can be remotely diagnosed and resolved without a technician ever having to travel to your place of business. This removes the cost of travel time, mileage and return service calls.

Because the MSP manages many environments and resolves many problems a day, they are in a unique position to understand what types of preventative maintenance and protection your environment should have in order to prevent catastrophic system outages and security breaches.

With a Managed Service Contract and an experienced capable provider you will:

Add reliability to your infrastructure

Obtain Predictable Costs

Have a team of experts available to you any time

Align your business models

Secure your environment

Get back to running your business!

About the contributor:

Matthew is the Director of Managed Services for ASK, a Mid Michigan based Value Added Reseller and Managed Service Provider. Matthew has over 13 years experience in the IT industry and was one of the technical engineers that designed ASK's Managed Service offering. With customers throughout the Midwest ASK's Managed Service offering has grown to manage thousands of desktop, server, and network devices. Matthew graduated from Michigan State University and holds a degree in Telecommunications with a focus on Information Systems Management.

For more information on Managed Services and how it can add efficiency and cost savings to your business contact: Matthew Kolberg

1-877-ASK-4-ASK or mkolberg@justask.net