May 30, 2023
Organizations have three options when it comes to managing their technology. They can handle all of their IT needs internally, they can outsource some IT work — like cybersecurity or a cloud migration — or they can outsource it completely with a fully-managed IT provider. In this blog, I’ll provide a few scenarios where a skilled provider might make a big difference.
3 Big Problems Managed IT Can Solve
Managed IT isn’t the right fit for every business. But if you have any of these problems, you might want to look into it:
- You can’t retain top IT talent
- You’re stuck in a break/fix model
- Your IT team doesn’t have the expertise you need
I’ll provide a little more context around each of these scenarios below.
1. You Can’t Retain Top IT Talent
Demand for highly skilled IT personnel is high. How high is it? These statistics paint a bleak picture:
- Most top tech talent get up to seven solicitations on LinkedIn per day
- Two in five IT professionals are at high risk of burnout due to demanding workloads
- Only 29% of IT workers intend to remain with their current employers
Take it from me, this problem isn’t going away any time soon. What we often see at Marco is that IT burnout ends up being a vicious cycle. A company has chronic problems retaining its staff, which means they’re often understaffed for long periods of time. That puts additional pressure on the staff who remain with the company, which ultimately leads to more burnout, which leads to more talent loss.
Attracting and retaining IT talent is a problem for a great many businesses, but it doesn’t have to be your problem. Furthermore, any national Managed IT Services provider worth its salt won’t have this problem either.
For example, at Marco, our US-based team has over 650 certified systems engineers and technical representatives. We’re large enough that it’s much easier for us to anticipate scheduling needs and offer more work-life balance. And unlike smaller in-house teams, we also have the ability to offer more professional development and opportunities for specialization. That’s important, because the person who is great at providing friendly and knowledgeable help desk support may not be the same person who wants to be tasked with monitoring cybersecurity threats, and vice versa.
2. You’re Stuck in a Break/Fix Model
Is your IT team constantly putting out fires? Not only does that make for a stressful workplace, but it also means they’re probably working so hard to keep your critical systems and tools running that they don’t have enough bandwidth to solve underlying problems. I’ve just described the break/fix model of IT, and if that sounds like how your IT department spends its time, managed IT can be a game-changer.
A great Managed IT provider will invest in getting to understand the root cause for recurring problems so that they can be fixed, once and for all. You’ll get fewer disruptions to your business, your staff will get a less frustrating work week, and with a few adjustments, your technology can start living up to its promises.
3. Your IT Team Doesn’t Have the Expertise You Need
Cybersecurity risks have escalated dramatically in recent years, and small to midsize businesses (SMBs) remain a cybercriminal’s target of choice. That’s not the fault of your in-house team, but cybersecurity is rapidly becoming its own specialized skill.
Without a world-class cybersecurity expert at your beck and call, many SMBs are having difficulty fending off increasingly sophisticated cyberattacks, and most aren’t doing so well with it. 61% of SMBs experienced a cyberattack in 2021.
It’s not fair, it’s not right, but it’s the truth.
You can get top-notch cybersecurity through a managed IT provider, but if that’s your only need, many providers will offer it as a stand-alone service. For example, at Marco, we offer a number of à la carte IT services, and you can also call on our team to help out with larger IT projects like a cloud migration.
However, if you’re frequently finding your IT department short-staffed or they’re always stuck putting out fires instead of helping your business grow, managed IT may fit the bill much better.
Marco’s Managed IT Offering
When clients select Marco’s fully-managed IT service, also known as AmplifyIT, they hand over their technology responsibilities to a certified Managed Services provider with security expertise.
With AmplifyIT, clients receive:
- Marco’s fully-managed IT service (AmplifyIT)
- Enterprise-scale IT support
- Responsive help desk support to assist end-users
- Regular maintenance upgrades to IT infrastructure
- Expertise in emerging technology
- 24/7 security monitoring and automation
- A bi-annual Client Business Review to assess data, analytics, and ticketing information
How To Know You Can Trust Our Team
Marco follows a security strategy based on the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Cybersecurity Framework to ensure technology systems and procedures lead to secure outcomes that are in line with the organization’s goals.
As an added level of security, Marco has undergone training and compliance reviews to achieve SOC 2 Type II compliance, a third-party industry validation that ensures the right policies and procedures are in place and followed.
Next Steps
You may already know what gaps you currently have, and what IT services you’d need to fill them. But if you don’t, that’s okay. You’re already an expert on what your business does well, and that’s enough. Marco’s IT experts can take it from there and can recommend the solutions that will add the most value. But if you’d like a bit more information, we also created a more comprehensive eBook about managed IT, and the benefits it can bring to SMBs. Click below to get your free copy.
