Managed Solution Recognized for Excellence in Managed IT Services
San Diego, CA, February 23, 2017. Managed Solution announced today that they have been named on CRN's 2017 Managed Service Provider (MSP) 500 list in the Pioneer 250 category. This annual list recognizes North American solution providers with cutting-edge approaches to delivering managed services. Their offerings help companies navigate the complex and ever-changing landscape of IT, improve operational efficiencies, and maximize their return on IT investments.
In today’s fast-paced business environments, MSPs play an important role in helping companies leverage new technologies without straining their budgets or losing focus on their core business. CRN’s MSP 500 list shines a light on the most forward-thinking and innovative of these key organizations.
The list is divided into three categories: the MSP Pioneer 250, recognizing companies with business models weighted toward managed services and largely focused on the SMB market; the MSP Elite 150, recognizing large, data center-focused MSPs with a strong mix of on-premise and off-premise services; and the Managed Security 100, recognizing MSPs focused primarily on off-premise, cloud-based security services.
Managed Solution was named to the MSP Pioneer 250 list because of their innovative business solutions. With exceptional managed services such as 24/7 IT help desk support, Managed Solution is dedicated to catering to every business' specific needs.
“Managed service providers play an increasingly important role in the day-to-day operations of businesses across North America,” said Robert Faletra, CEO of The Channel Company. “MSPs help organizations streamline their spending, effectively allocate limited resources, and benefit from advanced expertise in the latest technologies. We congratulate the service providers on CRN’s 2017 MSP500 list, who have continually succeeded in meeting their customers’ changing needs and help them get the most out of their IT investments.”
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Is your IT department crying out for help with managing different systems and elements? Systems Integration could be the answer. Without having to work on multiple systems, engineers can focus their energy on other tasks.
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Reduced Costs
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Integrated systems lead to streamlined operations. With this, companies end up reducing their labor costs! Not only does Systems Integration save you a headache, but it can also save you a few dollars, too.
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Improved Performance
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Systems Integration is generally easy to use, so anyone can learn how to use the system and operate accordingly. Real-time alerts let engineers handle tasks as quickly and efficiently as possible. Many devices can even be managed through mobile devices, making performance on-the-go a breeze. A single work station makes systems management just a few clicks away!
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Energy Savings
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With streamlined operations, systems integration can significantly reduce energy consumption. This not only reduces overhead costs, but it also is better on the environment and can help your business be a bit more eco-friendly.
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5 Reasons Managed Services is Crucial to your IT Strategy
Development and implementation of a global IT strategy is crucial to further advancement of your organization’s ever-growing performance goals. However, this task is hindered by a stagnant or diminishing budget. It can be overwhelming for IT managers to maintain a feasible budget for their business in conjunction with ensuring the performance, security, and operational goals are met. Budgeting experts advocate a predictable cost model such as Managed Services.
Below are five reasons you can consider Managed Services as an integral component of your IT strategy.
1. Predictable Cost Structure
Costs for an IT department include—but are not limited to—equipment, personnel, and training to keep up with industry standards. Managed Services incorporates these costs into one predictable monthly charge. With the expansion and evolution of your business this single monthly cost can be scaled to meet business demands and address out-of-scope work.
2. Advanced Risk Management
The insurance industry calculates risk and promotes that insurance provides you with peace of mind. Managed Services reflects that very same assurance. Coverage can include:
- Any combination of coverage for the LAN, WAN, proprietary systems, user management, or monitoring and alarms.
- Extended Support Models provide various levels of support (24X7, 8X5, on-incident, custom) that cater to a variety of business needs
- MSP's provide proper documentation, which can help mitigate sudden loss of critical IT personnel.
- Transferring incident response and other certification requirements, such as HIPAA for Healthcare, and PCI-DSS for Financial institutions.
3. A Shift in Focus to Your Core Business:
Building and progressing a business has enough challenges as it is. Building and maintaining fundamental IT infrastructure can be just as daunting. Large IT companies choose to outsource their IT to a third-party to then concentrate on revenue-generating initiatives.
4. Future-Proof Strategy:
The future holds an abundance of technical challenges for the security and operation of your business. Delegating the task of maintaining infrastructure parallel to current industry developments gives you the opportunity to focus on other aspects of your organization.
Managed Services is staffed with specialists that handle both basic routers and firewalls so that the transition from one to the other can be a seamless and stress-free process for your network security. Let experts focus on your company’s adaptation to market demands, while you dedicate your time to growth and achievement.
5. Better Value:
Value of your business operations is crucial to success and customer satisfaction. Value is the outcome that weighs your investments.
Managed Services models have evolved over time through the hard work and commitment of many integrators and providers. Dedication to the perfection of its delivery resulted in benefits and features that greatly contribute to the equilibrium and profit of your company. Lower monthly costs, constructive operations, expert skill sets, more stringent service level agreements (SLAs), and attractive service level objectives (SLOs), are just a few notable examples from an abundant list.
IT is at the core of most businesses; it is the underlying business engine. Your company could be investing substantial capital on building in-house operations for hardware, software, and the skills required to maintain them.
However, the onsite IT staff may be limited to certain operations that are less modern, and a lot rarer, than the wide-array of operations needed for Managed Services.
If you’re interested in easing the burden of cost management predictions in the midst of unpredictable requirements, consider Managed Services as your solution.
Interested in how Managed Services could work for you? Learn more here.
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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
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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Healthcare Staffing Agency Given An Opportunity To Grow
Business Needs
A healthcare staffing firm with about 20 employees had been with the same independent IT consultant since they were less than half that size. While the independent consultant did a great job supporting them in the early days, he was having difficulty keeping up with their day to day needs as they continued to grow. Things became even more difficult if he was out sick or on vacation. With improved economic conditions as well as new legislation for the healthcare industry, the client felt this would be the proper climate to grow their business. Although to make this a reality they would need guidance on what technology to leverage as well as a way to support their company as the number of employees continued to increase. They also wanted to provide employees access to work remotely from the office.
Solution
Managed Solution first partnered with the healthcare staffing firm by doing an assessment of their current environment while also taking on the responsibilities of the day to day IT support. The assessment provided the client insight to what was really going on in their network. A server that was thought to be only a year old was revealed to be over 4 years old, out of warranty, and approaching capacity. Also, it was not configured and patched properly which was the cause of some their daily challenges. What was also revealed was that their back-up solution had not worked properly for over a year. This was troubling due to compliance standards they thought were being met. Managed Solution was able to design and implement a new network infrastructure that would not only help them meet their HIPAA and Joint Commission requirements but also improve the way their employees were able to work together.
Success:
Managed Solution was originally chosen to partner with the client due to their growing demands for day to day IT support that were not being met. While this was addressed, the true benefit to the client was making them aware of why they were having challenges, both known and unknown, and providing them guidance to overcoming them. What is probably more exciting were the recommendations in technology that have helped them grow their business. After 1 year of working with Managed Solution, they were able to increase their staff by 25% because they know they now have a way to support them. With their continued success, they are now anticipating further growth by an additional 200% over the next 2-3 years.
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Learn more about managed services provided by Managed Solution
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For more info on Managed Services, contact us at 800-790-1524
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