5 Ways To Get The Most Out Of Your Managed IT Service Provider

 By partnering with a managed IT service provider or managed service provider (MSP) for a subset of IT, you can free up your internal IT staff for more strategic projects. Building a strong and strategic partnership with MSP is essential to receive practical and actionable IT advice, strategies and plans.

Here Are Five Ways You Can Get the Most from Managed IT Services

1. Show MSP as a partner, not an alternative

While companies are increasingly relying on external providers for some of their IT needs, MSPs tend to complement rather than replace internal IT. Approach your relationship like a partnership. Rather than replacing IT staff, MSP acts as an extension of the current IT staff and allows internal IT staff to focus on more strategic projects.

2. Establish a clear role

Providers need to know what is expected of them and vice versa. For a successful partnership with MSP, it is important to know who is taking on which role or task. If you have an in-house IT department that works with MSP, a specific reporting structure is required to avoid redundant requirements and tasks that can result in poor performance.

3. Resist the urge to bargain for managed IT services

Companies are familiar with managed services and have teamed up with MSP to work on elements of their IT requirements as part of their collaboration with internal IT. According to a report by CompTIA, the MSP market is in a commercialization due to oversupply. [1] Some MSPs try to seduce you with rock-bottom prices. A bargain MSP can save you money at first, but choosing a provider based solely on price can add to your business's costs in the long run. Look for MSPs who can help you understand your company and achieve your business goals with their services. Request a case study or discuss with existing customers to get a better idea of​​their offering.

4. Rely on their expertise

MSP has the expertise to help you align your technology with your business goals and create agile and scalable solutions that grow with your business. A clear understanding of what you can do with MSP and a habit of asking questions about the services used by other MSP clients is key to getting the most out of MSP. To take full advantage of MSP, schedule regular meetings to keep up with the latest industry trends and gather insights to develop your strategic IT goals and plans.

5. Aggressive, unresponsive

To get the most out of MSP, you need to adjust your budget as your IT goals and usage patterns change. Build sustainable and proactive relationships with MSPs and use MSP expertise to evaluate existing systems, servers and workstations. Rely on their strategic advice to plan future IT projects more efficiently.