Your company has a secret weapon for leveraging limited resources, streamlining cost-saving operations, bolstering cybersecurity, improving data management for strategic decision-making, and reinforcing your overall infrastructure for growth. 

It’s your IT support team.

A department limited historically to primarily updating passwords and installing PC towers is now a powerful resource for a company’s survival –especially during challenging economic times. A growing number of businesses are outsourcing their IT services to ensure they get the necessary expertise in software development, digital innovation, change management, and other services essential for success. 

Over half (59 percent) of surveyed companies report their IT services have transitioned from the traditional break-fix model to a managed services contract model. This is especially true for startups, which report up to 70 percent growth in IT outsourcing. 

Many benefits fuel the appeal of an industry expected to exceed $835 billion by 2032. Factors like cybersecurity, software innovation, system expertise, and rich data management bring almost immediate value to a company’s operations. Those reasons contribute to the foundation for our Strategic Services model. 

But unlike an in-house IT department (which often divides time with other duties), partnering with our Strategic Services team offers project flexibility, cutting-edge expertise in a variety of systems and software, and a focus on technology-based functions that simplify processes, develop better collaboration among departments and ensure constant alignment with the stakeholders’ vision, goals, budget, and priorities. 

One of the reasons our Strategic Services teams are so effective is that our service offerings align with the needs most commonly in demand from our customers. Let’s talk about three services customers need and see the most value from outsourcing IT support. 

 

Steadfast Security Services

One of the major concerns of companies is security–and with good reason. Experts estimate that around 94 percent of all businesses use cloud services. Although the cloud is an overall safe space for data—certainly more secure than data housed on-premises, in most cases— the convenience of mobile access makes it vulnerable to employee breaches. In fact, 88 percent of data breaches result from human error. 

Now consider recent economic challenges, which have ignited measures to reduce labor, close branches, eliminate some products and services, and change employee duties, all contribute to a heightened data security risk. Sometimes, even the IT team is impacted by personnel changes. 

Hiring a managed services team that isn’t directly impacted by these changes is a strategic way to ensure data access is protected, controlled, properly filtered, and secured. These functions can also include data backup and recovery. 

Customers want to ensure their critical data is backed up and can be recovered in the event of data loss or system failure. Managed services providers are often asked to set up and manage backup systems, perform regular backups, and test data recovery processes.

Businesses must also be prepared for unforeseen events that could disrupt their operations. Did you know less than half of companies with 500 or more employees have company-wide disaster recovery plans in place? Power outages, major broken data systems, and even a computer glitch can financially devastate a business. 

Experts estimate that the average cost of downtime across all industries has historically been about $5,600 per minute, but recent studies have shown this cost has grown to about $9,000 per minute.

Prevention means everything in times of crisis. It’s why our customers often request our services to develop and implement disaster recovery plans, conduct regular tests, and ensure business continuity in the face of disruptions.

 

Cutting-Edge Cloud Services and AI Technology Management 

Companies need cloud technology to be competitive. It’s the reason why many businesses are adopting cloud services such as infrastructure as a service (IaaS), platform as a service (PaaS), or software as a service (SaaS). 

But along with those innovations, leading companies are diving head first into AI technology, and IT teams must be prepared to implement tools that can transform a company’s infrastructure and disrupt CX operations.  

“With the buzz around AI tools like ChatGPT, IT teams will need to get better and better at making sure they can support the use of such tools at their organizations, such as ensuring data quality, setting up appropriate data pipelines, feeding in the right metadata, adhering to data privacy and security policies, etc.,” Darren Person, CIO at NPD Group and Forbes contributor, noted.  

The value of any managed services team is measured not solely by its ability to address technical support issues but by aligning digital-backed innovations with the company’s overall vision for growth and scalability based on a comprehensive understanding of the company’s culture, customers, organizational operations, and challenges. 

We value the relationships we develop and maintain with stakeholders and the company’s executive team. When we understand what matters most to them, we can be sure our resources (and their investment) are focused on those issues. 

 

Infrastructure Management and Customized Services

Companies within significant industries share similar challenges, goals, and general processes–even similar suppliers and customer bases. But that’s where commonalities among companies end. Beyond that, our customers have a unique perspective on the obstacles they face and what they believe is the ideal solution. 

We encourage businesses to find a team that offers customizable solutions. Managed services should never be sold as a one-size-fits-all model. Instead, a team shows its value in its ability to modify a system to increase the effectiveness of your operations, branding, sales, delivery, productivity, and scalability. 

At Simplus, we take time to understand our customers, but we also research our customers’ customers. It’s common for our clients to seek assistance in managing their relationships with various technology vendors. This could involve procurement, contract management, license tracking, and vendor coordination for support and maintenance. 

Vendor management is often overlooked, but investing in it helps companies control spending while maintaining strategic vendor relationships. 

In a tight, competitive climate, companies must see real value and measurable results from every department–including IT support. 

We understand those concerns. It’s why we offer a solutions-focused model that can guide your company to a customized, cloud-based, cutting-edge digital system that safely provides the tools you need to maximize efficiency and make a positive impression on your customers while also delivering the technology and support you’ve always wanted to enjoy the journey through digital transformation with innovative solutions and business growth.