As company executives fight to compete in the digital age, many are finding IT and data solutions costly and challenging to fully manage in-house. Many have found the most successful and cost-effective solution is to partner with a managed services provider (MSP).
What do MSPs do?
MSPs are third-party partners company executives collaborate with for help managing parts of their businesses, such as their cloud or IT needs. MSPs bring expertise, technology, and solutions to the table on a scalable level. By leveraging their deep understanding of up-to-date technology, MSPs can ensure optimal performance, security, and technology operations while saving on overhead IT costs. MSPs also offer creative solutions to businesses struggling to navigate the ever-changing tech and big data world.
How to choose an MSP
Choosing a managed services provider isn’t always easy. Executives’ needs aren’t always clear, and it can often be difficult to determine which MSP is best before actually working with one. As you begin your search for a trusted provider, consider the following factors to help determine an effective partner for your business:
- Services — Every MSP offers a different and often huge range of services. Some are full-service, meaning they take care of your IT and cloud needs comprehensively, while others simply offer help with various pieces of the tech puzzle. Depending on your needs, it’s important to find an MSP capable of offering exactly what you need to address your unique company data management and security requirements.
- Security — While the cloud and other IT services inherently offer security solutions, finding MSP experts who value security and work in protected environments is key to the safety of your data. Understand their security procedures and the ways in which they will be handling your information.
- Expertise — Experience and expertise are invaluable when partnering with an MSP. It’s crucial you find a counterpart able to handle your systems and provide creative solutions while working from experience to manage your platforms.
- Customer service — As with any business relationship, look for great customer service in your MSP from top to bottom — from the first sales team member you work with all the way to your account manager. Your MSP should be an integral part of your tech team, so finding a helpful and service-minded provider is key to the success of your system.
- Customization — The beauty of the cloud and other IT solutions is the ability to customize their functions to meet your exact business needs. Look for MSP professionals willing to customize their services and solutions to give you the freedom to optimize your technology in ways that will best support your business. Your MSP should offer custom solutions and creative ideas to give you effective and efficient results.
- Onboarding — Ask each MSP representative about the timeline and cost associated with bringing them on board. Each MSP will have a different style and process, so it’s important to know what each could look like for your business with each MSP you interview.
- Cost — Consider what services your business would be receiving in return for your payments to each MSP. Read the fine print in your contract and understand exactly what you should expect before signing on the dotted line.
Bringing a managed services provider into the fold of your business is a big decision, and you should treat it as such. Choosing the wrong provider can result in headaches, missed deadlines, and, in the worst-case scenario, an unfit system for your business needs. Taking the time upfront to research your options and find a great provider can save you time, money, and frustration down the road.
Here at Arisant, we pride ourselves on being a fully customer-orientated Oracle Managed Services Provider. We help our customers maximize their Oracle investments by providing their IT organizations with a cost-efficient yet high-quality alternative to hiring and managing expensive full-time staff members. We would love to learn more about your business and IT needs to see if our Oracle Cloud experts could be a great MSP fit. Please contact us online, by phone at 303-330-4065, or by email at sales@arisant.com to get started.
