Experience the benefits: how your company can benefit from managed services

In today’s business world, organisations are having to face a wide range of challenges. These range from rapidly evolving technology and increasingly complex business processes to growing demands for efficiency and quality.

• Managed services offer an effective solution to these complex challenges.
  
• When used correctly, they can deliver a wide range of benefits.
• The exact benefits will depend on the scope and nature of the processes that you hand over to your managed services provider (MSP), but there are a number of general benefits to using managed services.

How managed services drive success in business

Avoid staff shortages

According to our Managed Services Study, one of the biggest benefits of managed services from a business perspective is their ability to avoid staff shortages and increase workforce flexibility. Managed services allow you to tap into your MSP’s expertise as you need it. This can help you respond more flexibly to fluctuating workloads and avoid bottlenecks during peak periods. Fast-growing companies also stand to benefit, as MSPs can quickly scale their capabilities to accommodate growth in business.

Focus on core skills

MSPs can take on processes that are outside of your company’s core business. This targeted transfer allows you to focus on your core areas and make room for your growth plans. Internal teams can focus on strategic and mission-critical issues, maximising potential growth and achieving your goals faster.

Rapid support

When you need to transfer processes, MSPs can help on a plug-and-play basis. This means that the MSP provides a ready-made team tailored to your company’s unique challenges. This allows you to quickly realise the benefits of managed services without long waits or time-consuming implementation processes.

Specialised resources

MSPs provide a way of accessing specialist knowledge and experience without the need for internal training or hiring outside of your core business. Alliances with tech providers also enable MSPs to make use of best-in-class tech expertise. This is increasingly important in a world where expertise is becoming more diversified and the need for specialists is growing, even in niche areas such as property tax law.

Cost efficiency

Managed services allow you to operate more cost-effectively. MSPs can take on complex and specialised tasks that require in-depth expertise, eliminating the need for you to create internal processes or purchase expensive software. Instead, you can simply leverage the MSP’s existing resources and expertise to reduce costs.

Experience the benefits of managed services

Many of these benefits may seem compelling on paper, but non-users often remain sceptical. Our Managed Services Study shows that the benefits of managed services are often not fully appreciated until companies have had experience with them. The value proposition becomes tangible and clearer through personal experience with the service model. This is reflected in the fact that users rate benefits up to 20% higher than non-users. For example, 93% of users, but only 73% of non-users consider avoiding staff shortages and increasing staff flexibility to be a significant benefit.

An important component of this is the relationship of trust that develops over time between the business and the MSP. Regular communication and feedback allows the services to be continuously improved and adapted to better meet the company’s individual needs. This builds trust and satisfaction, as businesses see their specific requirements being taken seriously and implemented effectively.

Why are some companies still hesitant?

Despite the clear benefits, some companies are reluctant to embrace managed services. According to our Managed Services Survey, the risks that companies are most commonly concerned about are dependence on their MSPs (90%), loss of control (79%) and loss of internal expertise (81%). On closer inspection, however, these concerns are less serious than they may appear at first sight. Companies using managed services retain full control over strategic direction and all key decisions, and managed services are based on close, collaborative relationships, with regular feedback loops to ensure that the services are continuously optimised and adapted to the company’s needs. Companies already using managed services confirm that these worries are unfounded: they are much less concerned about losing control than non-users are. In other words, managed services are about giving up legwork, not control.

Security and confidentiality of data is another common worry around managed services (59%): companies are concerned that external service providers could gain access to sensitive company information, creating a security risk. These concerns can be addressed by selecting a provider with high security standards and comprehensive IT security measures.

The bottom line

Managed services have the potential to offer many benefits, and these have been proven in practice by companies that have already adopted them. 

This shows that MSPs deliver on their promises, and that companies build trusting relationships with their providers. In turn, this gives companies the confidence to hand over technically challenging and specialised tasks. At the same time, initial concerns about dependence on MSPs and loss of control have proven to be unfounded.