Chicago Co-Managed and Managed IT Services
What they are, why they matter, and what you need to know.
In the fast-paced modern era that we’re living in, every business has essentially become a “technology company” regardless of industry. IT spending these days is about more than just embracing a new trend for the sake of it, or making sure that employees can easily get online so they can send a few emails.
Technology is the foundation of how we communicate and collaborate with one another. It’s how businesses stay agile enough to adapt as the market changes around them. It’s what helps them carve out a legitimate competitive advantage. The list goes on and on.
It’s also tremendously expensive, to say the least. According to one recent study, the average business will spend between 4 and 25% of its total revenue on IT services depending on the industry. Not only is that money that most business leaders probably wish they could spend elsewhere, but it hardly creates a level playing field when you’re trying to compete with someone much larger than you are.
Thankfully, many organizational leaders have found that co-managed and managed IT services in Chicago are a better way of doing things that couldn’t have come along at a better time. This is true for a wide range of different reasons, all of which are worth a closer look.
What Are Co-Managed IT Services an Alternative To?
Even as recently as a decade ago, onboarding a new employee looked a lot like this from an IT perspective.
- You’d need to procure all the hardware that employee would need to do their jobs on a daily basis, which usually meant a desktop computer and possibly a laptop computer.
- That hardware would need to be configured, meaning software licenses need to be purchased and everything needs to be installed.
- Updates would need to be run over time to help make sure that employees have access to all the latest tools.
- If any issues were to arise, both the employee and your IT department would need to spend time troubleshooting it.
- Over time, that hardware would grow slow and inefficient – meaning it would need to be updated.
Even though that is a simple explanation, it’s still a time-consuming process. Now, multiply that amount of effort by the number of employees in your business. Next, consider the fact that all this would need to be handled by an in-house IT employee, which is a position that came with a median salary of about $100,000 in 2022.
Chicago managed IT services, on the other hand, refer to the practice of outsourcing IT management responsibilities and functions to a third-party provider like Genuity These services are designed to improve operations and reduce costs within an organization's IT infrastructure.
So instead of handling everything in-house, you’re giving up some level of control to another company that you trust. You’re also giving up all these enormous costs and time commitments in exchange for one simple and predictable monthly fee.
Chicago Co-Managed vs. Managed IT Services: Making the Right Choice
But even if you’ve decided that outsourcing is the way to go, you still have two main options to pick from. You can offload everything to that third-party provider by way of fully managed IT services in Chicago, or you can keep some functions in-house with a co-managed it services deployment.
- In managed IT services, the service provider takes full responsibility for managing and delivering IT services according to a service level agreement (SLA). Co-managed IT services involve a partnership where the client retains a significant degree of control and oversight over their IT infrastructure.
- Managed service providers (MSPs) are responsible for monitoring IT systems, detecting issues, and addressing them before they become problems.
- The Chicago co-managed IT services model is often chosen by organizations that have an internal IT team but require additional expertise or support from an external provider.
- Unlike managed services, co-managed services can be more flexible in terms of scope and duration, allowing organizations to scale services up or down as needed.
- The client relinquishes direct control over day-to-day IT operations to the MSP with fully managed IT services, trusting them to manage IT infrastructure and services efficiently.
So which one is right for you? The answer, as always, is “it depends.” Truly, you need to think about what you still want to maintain control over when it comes to your IT infrastructure. You also need to think about your long-term goals and what you hope to accomplish over the next five or even ten years.
When you think about things in that context, you will soon realize that your choice has essentially been made for you.
If you’d like to find out more information about what to look for in Chicago managed IT service providers, or if you’d just like to continue the discussion about how Chicago managed services can help your business thrive, please don’t delay – contact the team at Genuity today.
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