Why businesses are turning to managed IT services

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Why businesses are turning to managed IT services

More organizations are turning over certain IT functions to managed service providers, freeing internal IT staff to focus on strategic IT projects

As written by @Thor Olavsrud on CIO.com
Organizations are increasingly turning to managed service providers (MSPs) to handle elements of their IT needs as part of a collaborative arrangement with the internal IT department, according to new research from IT industry trade association CompTIA.
MSPs have been around for a long time, but adoption has been relatively low. As late as last year CompTIA found that only 3-in-10 organizations had any of their IT in the hands of an MSP, says Carolyn April, senior director, Industry Analysis, at CompTIA. But more than two-thirds of companies surveyed for CompTIA's Fourth Annual Trends in Managed Services Study, released Monday, say they have used the services of an outside IT firm within the past 12 months.
Companies have become more familiar with managed services and are turning to them for management of certain IT functions, particularly email hosting, customer relationship management (CRM) applications, storage, backup and recovery and network monitoring.
"While one-time projects account for some of these engagements, a significant portion is ongoing management of one or more IT functions by a managed services provider," says April, who is also author of the report. "There is a much higher degree of familiarity with the term 'managed services' and greater adoption."

Top MSPs extending their reach

Some upper echelon services are offering managed services around data analytics, business intelligence (BI) and advanced application monitoring — and April says there is increasing demand in those areas — but most MSPs have yet to extend beyond their heritage in managing network infrastructure and basic software infrastructure.
"I think mobile is an area where the channel is getting some traction but they're really not tapping the full opportunity there," she adds.
Part of the awareness problem in the past has been a definitional one, April says. In these days of software-as-a-service (SaaS), the customers (and sometimes providers) remain unclear about what actually constitutes a managed service.
"I think the definitional issue is an enormous one," she says. "It's one of the things that has made it extremely difficult to market size the managed services space and determine adoption rates."
The MSP community hasn't done the best job communicating the benefits of managed services to end users, April notes, though the fact that usage has nearly doubled in the past year suggests they've begun to do better.

Partners, not replacements

It is also important to note that while companies are increasingly relying on outside providers for part of their IT needs, MSPs generally complement rather than replace internal IT.
"Very few of these companies get rid of their IT staffs just because they join up with an MSP," April says.
Instead, especially in larger companies, bringing an MSP into the mix frees up existing IT staff to focus on more strategic projects.
"It elevates the IT staff and brings them out of the shadows within the organization," she says. "It allows them to focus on a custom app dev project or cloud initiative — something highly strategic. I think that's a win-win for your IT staff."
That also highlights that the reasons that organizations turn to MSPs have begun to change. In the past, April says, cost savings were seen as the primary benefit of MSPs. Now, she says, cost benefits are considered table stakes and customers are looking for additional benefits like generating revenue and helping the company become more efficient. Even security has evolved from being considered a roadblock to using MSPs to a reason for doing so.
April explains that companies have shifted their views over security as it has become clear that security problems are often the result of human error by internal staff.

Why IT turns to MSPs

CompTIA found that improving the efficiency and reliability of IT operations was a main driving factor for going with an MSP for 56 percent of companies with 100 or more employees and 47 percent of companies with fewer than 100 employees.
Enhanced security and compliance was a driving factor for 38 percent of companies of all sizes. ROI/cost savings was a driving factor for 33 percent of companies with 100 or more employees and 28 percent of companies with fewer than 100 employees.
The trade association found that six-in-10 respondents that consider their technology usage advanced are using an MSP for physical security services. Also, 63 percent of the same group are using an MSP for application monitoring. The managed services that are lowest in demand to date are videoconferencing, mobile device management and audio/visual services.

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Don’t Wonder Where To Take Your Business Next, Expand Into New Markets

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Don’t Wonder Where To Take Your Business Next, Expand Into New Markets

As you have worked to develop a healthy clientele or long list of loyal customers, you must be imagining where you can find and engage new prospects or where you can open new doors. With the right business management solution, you won’t have to wonder. Harness the power of your data so you can take your business wherever you want.
Growing a successful business starts with a solid foundation of management technology. Many businesses already utilize Office® 365 to prepare professional documents, as well as capture and share important data. A customer relationship management (CRM) solution, such as Microsoft Dynamics® CRM, can be seamlessly integrated with Office 365 and can provide the solid foundation that you need to expand operations even further. Download “Redefine Your Reality: Let Office 365 and Microsoft Dynamics CRM take your business to places you CAN imagine,” an infographic, to learn how these powerful business management solutions can take your business anywhere.
Microsoft Dynamics CRM offers an integrated and centralized solution for managing marketing and sales activities and customer-centric data. You can release marketing campaigns that get noticed, tap into social media channels, and take a proactive stance with meeting, and exceeding, customer expectations. After capturing this data within Microsoft Dynamics CRM, you can then use the built-in intelligence and reporting features to leverage this data to your competitive advantage. You can get to know customers better, for example, and identify buying behaviors, as well as determine which of your products or services are increasing in popularity. With this visibility, you can explore new markets, attract a new range of prospects, and reach out to more customers in new regions and markets. As you develop leads in these new areas, you can build up the momentum and increase sales, while engaging more customers on many different levels.
Using today’s powerful business management solutions, including Microsoft Dynamics CRM, you can drive sales, deliver superior customer service, and expand your business into new markets. Download the infographic and contact Managed Solution to learn how to use Microsoft Dynamics CRM to turn customer data into actionable insight that you can use to drive sales and take your business to new heights.

For information on deploying Microsoft Dynamics CRM in your organization, please call us at 800-257-0691 or fill out the contact form below and an expert will contact you shortly.


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Redefine Your Reality And Take Business To New Heights

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Redefine Your Reality And Take Business To New Heights

Business owners have high hopes for their companies and often envision where they can take their business next. Deploy powerful business management technology, such as Office® 365 with Microsoft Dynamics® CRM, and reinvent your business, taking it to all the places that you can imagine. With the support of these modern solutions, you can redefine your reality, breathe new life into sales, and drive growth.
Many successful businesses already use powerful office solutions, such as Office 365, to prepare documents, convey data, and interact with prospects and customers. Office 365 also offers a powerful foundation for other important business management solutions, including Microsoft Dynamics® CRM, a robust customer relationship management (CRM) solution. Download “Redefine Your Reality: Let Office 365 and Microsoft Dynamics CRM take your business to places you CAN imagine,” an infographic, to learn how Office 365 and Microsoft Dynamics CRM can breathe new life into sales and deliver a superior customer experience. Here’s what you can accomplish with this powerful duo:
  1. Drive sales productivity: Microsoft Dynamics CRM offers a centralized location for all of your customer data. Armed with detailed information, your sales representatives and customer service teams can respond faster to customer needs. Strengthening relationships with customers can lead to more sales opportunities, including cross-sale and up-sale opportunities.
  2. Build sales momentum with social insights: Microsoft Dynamics CRM offers a simple way to tap into social media to interact with customers, as well as listen in to what is being said about your products, services, or your business. Nearly 73% of sales professionals that use social media outperform those that don’t harness this valuable resource.
  3. Explore new markets: Built-in business intelligence features in Microsoft Dynamics CRM offer a new way to understand your customers and sales data. As you get to know customers better, understand buying behaviors or trending products, you can expand into new regions or markets and grow your business.
Take your business to wherever you can imagine it to be or want to go next. Download the infographic and contact Managed Solution for more information about integrating Office 365 and Microsoft Dynamics CRM, using these solutions to redefine your business, strengthen customer relationships, and drive successful growth.
For information on deploying Microsoft Dynamics CRM in your organization, please call us at 800-257-0691 or fill out the contact form below and an expert will contact you shortly.


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Why Modern Business Turns to Blended IT

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Why Modern Business Turns to Blended IT

More and more companies are discovering the benefits of employing a blended IT workforce, which can benefit your company in a number of ways. Below are some reasons why modern business is turning to a blended IT workforce.
The blended IT workforce is becoming more and more popular because it involves utilizing a mix of full-time employees, independent contractors and temporary workers. This approach has resulted in increased productivity and decreased overall IT spending.

More Information on Blended IT >>

Contact us for more information on how to blend you IT team with ours


Managed Solution is a full-service technology firm that empowers business by delivering, maintaining and forecasting the technologies they’ll need to stay competitive in their market place. Founded in 2002, the company quickly grew into a market leader and is recognized as one of the fastest growing IT Companies in Southern California.
We specialize in providing full managed services to businesses of every size, industry, and need.

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Why Modern Business Turns to Blended IT

Blended-IT

Why Modern Business Turns to Blended IT

More and more companies are discovering the benefits of employing a blended IT workforce, which can benefit your company in a number of ways. Below are some reasons why modern business is turning to a blended IT workforce.

The blended IT workforce is becoming more and more popular because it involves utilizing a mix of full-time employees, independent contractors and temporary workers. This approach has resulted in increased productivity and decreased overall IT spending.

More Information on Blended IT >>

A data-focused culture helped one sales team achieve a 36% increase in average win value. There’s no good reason to leave all that money on the table—the value of data analysis is undeniable.

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4 Ways Real Companies Sell Smarter with Sales Analytics

By Stephanie Dart, Director of Product Marketing with Microsoft Dynamics as written on community.dynamics.com
All sales managers want better numbers from their teams, but many are ignoring the obvious solution. A paltry 15 percent of organizations use analytics to drive objectives. Investing in analytics isn’t just a nice idea if you have the time and money to make it work. A sales team backed by superior data analysis is an unbeatable force. Sales analytics is a time-tested way to get more from the employees and customers you already have and uncover opportunities you may have missed.
Analytics helps sales teams:
• Identify overlooked opportunities
• Find ways to turn existing customers into repeat customers
• Track individual customer trends
• Develop new offerings to satisfy customer need
• And more

Identify overlooked opportunities

Your reps can’t spend all day trolling the Internet for hot tips. That’s where intelligent business software comes in. Kennametal, a leading material science and manufacturing company, uses Microsoft Dynamics CRM to track customers in the news. Whenever client-specific content appears in sources such as The Wall Street Journal or NPR, the CRM software aggregates the headlines and delivers them to sales and marketing teams. That way, the sales team can act right away when opportunities arise. And up-to-the-minute knowledge of their customers’ competitive landscape helps sales reps generate new leads and engage in productive conversations with current clients.

Find ways to turn existing customers into repeat customers

Marketing and sales go hand in hand when it comes to customer retention and have for a long time. Analytics can turn traditional methods into sure-fire outreach. Mike McMinn, Group IT Director for the English pub chain Marston’s, links his company’s enthusiasm about data analytics to the trackability of ROI. “In the UK, companies have a tendency to just give out offers. We want to provide a better experience by knowing customers better—and knowing which of our efforts are paying off. If we can understand our customers better, [using] campaigns that encourage them to buy just one more pint we can increase our profit by several millions of pounds per year.”
Analytics can also reveal how and when your customers need you the most, so you’re able to prepare for a rainy day. When bridge repairs shut down a transit route, Transport for London prepared by studying commuter behavior. The data told a very clear story, so the transportation authority developed strategies—a temporary interchange, increased bus service in the area, personalized commuter notifications—that would keep riders using public transit despite the closure.

Track individual customer trends

On a sales team, you’re going to get good data only if your whole team is invested in tracking it all the time. Reporting software that’s easy to use makes sales teams more agile and increases the quality of the output.
Kennametal finds that visual reporting (like what Microsoft Dynamics CRM offers) helps surface spikes and trends, and this reporting provides insight into profitability and allows for detailed drilling down to the customer-detail level. Better still, reporting can be automated to provide regular updates on how the company is performing against projections. And anyone can access these tools across the organization at any time. No special analytics background required.

Develop new offerings to satisfy customer need

At accounting firm Grant Thornton, analytics is also indispensable in the discovery and development of new sales offerings. Data uncovers demands and desires that customers can’t even clearly articulate. Insights gathered according to line of service, type of service, revenue, and other factors can reveal an untapped opportunity—so the accounting firm can capitalize on it and satisfy a customer need.
We’ve highlighted four advantages here, but there are countless ways analytics can bolster your sales organization. The insights that data analysis can provide a sales team make very smart people even smarter. Since deploying Microsoft Dynamics CRM, Grant Thornton has experienced a 450 percent jump in the number of opportunities it is tracking, a 36 percent increase in average win value, and a 700 percent rise in the number of contacts in its system. Numbers don’t lie. Let them help your team reach the next level.

For information on deploying Microsoft Dynamics CRM in your organization, please call us at 800-257-0691 or fill out the contact form below and an expert will contact you shortly.


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Healthcare Institutions Save Time and Reduce Development Costs by up to 90 Percent with Cloud-Based Portal & Blended IT

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A Global Leader in Aging and Brain Health Wins Big with Blended IT

Healthcare Institutions Save Time and Reduce Development Costs by up to 90 Percent with Cloud-Based Portal
A global leader in aging and brain health, Baycrest wanted to more easily share resources with other healthcare organizations in Canada and around the world. By using a blended IT approach and working with a Microsoft Partner, Baycrest developed eHealth2Share, a cloud-based portal based on Microsoft Office 365 that allows hospital workers to share information and expertise. By reusing software applications and electronic forms, eHealth2Share will help healthcare institutions save weeks of employee labor time.
Baycrest offers a comprehensive system of care for aging patients and one of the world's top research institutes in cognitive neuroscience. The organization wanted to improve efficiency by sharing information and expertise with other hospitals in Canada and around the world. Healthcare officials realized that cloud technologies could help Baycrest develop a centralized information hub without investing a lot of time or money.
Blending forces with an award-winning Microsoft Partner, Baycrest built eHealth2Share, a centralized information portal that allows healthcare providers to share a range of information, including electronic forms, policies, software applications, training programs, and best practices. Baycrest developed the portal by using Microsoft Office 365, which provided an affordable way for organizations to access and share documents using the Microsoft Office applications that most employees are already familiar with.
With eHealth2Share, healthcare organizations can save time and lower development costs by as much as 90 percent by downloading software applications and electronic forms that other institutions have already produced. They can also improve care by more easily sharing knowledge and expertise with colleagues at other institutions. In addition, employees can save time by sharing electronic forms, policies, best practices, and employee training programs.
“It can cost [US]$10,000 to $40,000 every time a healthcare institution needs to develop an electronic form,” says Terrie Tucker, Director of eHealth at Baycrest. “By sharing standardized forms on eHealth2Share, hospitals can download forms that already exist, make the minor edits needed, and have a customized form and associated workflow ready to go, with substantially less investment in staff time and effort.”
By utilizing a blended IT workforce, developing the portal made it possible for Baycrest to create eHealth2Share quickly and at low cost. “We wouldn’t have done this if we had to maintain it internally and had to worry about security, access, and all those types of things,” Tucker says. “The fact that it’s in the cloud and someone else is managing the servers is what made it all possible.”
More and more companies are discovering the benefits of employing a blended IT workforce. This approach includes using a mix of full-time employees, independent contractors and temporary workers. A blended IT solution provides for the best possible financial and strategic business outcomes.
Already, Baycrest is seeing the benefits of eHealth2Share. Employees are saving time and labor by downloading documents developed by other institutions and then customizing these documents to meet their specific needs. Baycrest has posted several software applications to eHealth2Share for other institutions to download free of charge, potentially saving them thousands of dollars in development costs.
“By openly sharing best-in-class electronic forms and e-learning modules, healthcare institutions can save weeks—and even months—of time that it takes to create them,” says Tucker. “It’s all about sharing resources and saving public taxpayer dollars.”
To date, about 40 healthcare providers at 40 institutions have subscribed to eHealth2Share, including all the major teaching hospitals in the Toronto area. Baycrest eventually hopes to extend the portal to healthcare institutions around the world. Tucker believes the portal will be especially useful for smaller healthcare organizations and those in remote areas that don’t have the same resources as larger, urban-based institutions. “This is truly an innovative use of cloud services in the healthcare sector,” she says. “It presents a huge opportunity for knowledge exchange and relationship building. Ultimately, this has the potential to save healthcare institutions a lot of time and money.”

Source: https://customers.microsoft.com

More information on Blended IT

For more information on creating a strategic IT Department with our Blended IT solutions, call 800-313-2109 or complete the contact form below and we will be in touch.


Managed Solution is a full-service technology firm that empowers business by delivering, maintaining and forecasting the technologies they’ll need to stay competitive in their market place. Founded in 2002, the company quickly grew into a market leader and is recognized as one of the fastest growing IT Companies in Southern California.
We specialize in providing full managed services to businesses of every size, industry, and need.

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Modern Biz Myths On Outsourcing IT

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Modern Biz Myths On Outsourcing IT

No matter what your business may be, technology is crucial to keeping it alive. So how do you keep technology running smoothly while also running the day to day business operations?
You can either hire an in-house IT professional, which many small businesses choose to do, or you can outsource your IT by having someone else do it for you. Although keeping IT in-house may seem like the cheaper, easier option, it can actually end up costing more financially.
Here are four reasons that may make you consider outsourcing your IT to a Managed Service Provider.

1. The better the IT, the higher their salary – and all their other costs

Many people think in-house IT is an inexpensive option. Let’s bust this myth: Companies can save up to 75% of their IT costs by outsourcing, while also receiving better service.
Even though it sounds cheaper to hire an employee to work IT than to hire an outside company, it is not. At all. The starting salary for a pretty inexperienced local-IT administrator is $35,000 per year. Need something better than that? A mid-grade IT-administrator typically has a salary between $50,000 and $75,000 a year. And if you have more complicated technology with complex and frequent problems, you’ll end up paying at least $80,000 a year to hire an expert IT-administrator.
Not only do the salaries put a hole in your pocket, but you will also have to pay for benefits, such as health care, a 401k, and a retirement plan. And don’t forget about the cost of equipment, like new cell phones, computers, and even office space.
So by now you have to pay almost double the salary for an in-house IT professional.
However, if you choose to outsource your IT to a Managed Service Provider, there are no social benefits, no office space needs, and not always equipment needed. You pay for your users per month.
Myth: Busted.

2. They aren’t your mom: they might not always be there when you need them.

If you hire someone in-house, you are only hiring one person. Which means if that person is not there, or is not doing their job well, your company can suffer. Anybody who has worked with technology knows that you can run into a problem at any moment. When that moment strikes, it is important to have more than one person to call to help you.
So naturally, your in-house IT person is in Bora Bora for the week, on paid time-off, and you have nobody to help you. You are now paying money to have a technical problem that you cannot get fixed at your business.
With an outside Managed Service Provider, you could pick up the phone and have access to number of different IT experts who want to help you. (Yes, it is that easy). So even if one of their IT experts is on vacation in Bora Bora, coincidentally with your in-house IT-administrator, the rest of the department will still be there to rescue you. Most of the time, they’re more reliable than your significant other – now that is good service.

3. You can’t always do it all on your own – neither can they

Technology, while an amazing asset to any business, is complex and has many different fields. For one IT-administrator to be responsible for every aspect of your business’s technology is hardly realistic. An in-house IT-administrator may run into a problem he/she does not know how to solve, but they have nobody else to ask.
It is nearly impossible for one person to be an expert in every field of technological support. So how do you avoid putting all your eggs in one basket? Outsource your IT to a Managed Service Provider or use a blended IT workforce. They will offer you a whole team of IT professionals, each with expertise in a variety of fields. This means if one of their team members cannot help you, somebody else in the office certainly can.
And there won’t be any guessing whether or not they know what they are doing. All these IT professionals are experts in specific fields, meaning you are getting the best of the best answers and help you can.

4. Do you need them or do they need you?

So you’ve hired a full-time IT-administrator to fix all your IT problems. Now your new problem is that you don’t have any problems for them to fix at the moment. But they still want/need a job (and a salary).
In order to keep their jobs, and keep working, sometimes an in-house IT professional will create more complex systems that nobody else can operate besides them. This means you have to keep them around, even when you don’t necessarily need to.
A Managed Service Provider doesn't always want to replace your in-house IT professional, they just want to ensure you have the least complex and inexpensive systems.
A good Managed Service Provider can partner with in-house IT staff or act as a full IT support team. At the end of the day, outsourced IT should be used to make your business operations run smoother and support strategic business outcomes.

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