April 11, 2016
It can be difficult at times to discuss Mindsight Managed Services, because the challenges faced by organizations and the value they find in our Managed Services program are directly impacted by the size of their environment. IT directors, administrators, and CIOs managing enterprise environments spanning multiple cities or countries are responsible for truly massive networks. It’s not just a matter of scale, either. The necessary steps to keep a system that large afloat are simply more complex than their smaller scale counterparts. Naturally, a Managed Services contract is going to look very different for large enterprises, compared to the small-to-medium business (SMB) market.
That is not to say small-to-medium business don’t have challenges of their own. With fewer than 250 total employees in the company, SMB IT departments are often comprised of a single person—or a small team at best—tasked with the maintenance and expansion of an entire business IT environment. It is a daunting responsibility to say the least, and Managed Services can assist each organization in a precise and relevant way.
SMB Pain Points and How Managed Services Can Help
As a small IT department, there are certain realities and considerations that do not exist in larger organizations. Below, we’ve gathered just a few of the pain points faced by an SMB company and how a Managed Services agreement can address them.
Nitty-Gritty Tasks: A one-man show or small team in the IT world are not enviable positions. Their day is consistently occupied with server updates, downloading patches, and other nitty-gritty level IT work. With so much time devoted to tasks, it can be almost impossible to think strategically and develop new initiatives to deliver the resources the rest of the business needs.
- The Managed Services Solution: By leveraging the experience and breadth of knowledge found within the Mindsight engineering team, the IT team can become more than just the in-office “IT Guys” and begin to operate more strategically. He or she can now work with the business to determine what’s necessary to move the company forward and adapt to growth.
Sick Days or Vacations: IT itself is a specialized discipline of study. When an IT employee walks out the door at the end of the day, the knowledge he or she has goes with him or her. In the SMB market, this puts small IT departments in a difficult position. If a member of the IT team is sick or on vacation, there is often no one else around to pick up the slack. On their time away, the IT person is either tied to their cell phone, or the company is left vulnerable. Neither situation is very attractive.
- The Managed Services Solution: By signing onto a Managed Services contract, an SMB business can obtain a blanket of protection covering their systems every minute of every day. If the team is sick, on vacation, or otherwise indisposed, essential applications will receive any support they need, and the business can proceed uninterrupted.
Turnover in the IT Department: One of the difficult realities of the IT industry, especially in Chicago, is the high demand for qualified, experienced IT professionals. Every company is in need of them, and there is a shortage of high level engineers. Therefore, IT turnover affects companies large and small, but it can be most detrimental to an SMB business. In an instant, an SMB can be left with no technical support of any kind.
- The Managed Services Solution: Much like the illness or vacation scenario, Managed Services can provide a safety net for the SMB organization. If an essential IT administrator leaves, Mindsight is ready to step in indefinitely or until a replacement can be found.
Augmenting the Existing Team: IT is a wide reaching field of study, and each discipline within has enough depth to devote an entire career to its understanding. It is nearly impossible to find one person with a thorough knowledge of the entire IT landscape.
- The Managed Services Solution: Imagine the skill proficiency of the department as a leaky roof. The team can certainly repel most of the water in a rain shower, but there are a few areas where the rain can seep through. Managed Services acts as the sealant plugging these holes. If you only wish us to only fill in for a few spots, Managed Services can. On the other hand, if there are other areas that require additional support Managed Services can help with those areas as well.
Graveyard Shift: The network and data systems of an organization don’t have the luxury of a night off, and discovering a network failure in the morning can cost a business thousands of dollars in lost time. For many small IT teams the only solutions is to create a graveyard shift and keep one of your staff in the office for monitoring and maintenance. While this provides the coverage the environment needs, it places unnecessary strain on the team.
- The Managed Services Solution: Managed Services can provide that extra set of eyes that company needs while the IT team is off hours. Mindsight offers 24/7 monitoring and repair of the company’s most essential business applications. With Mindsight the company does not need to sacrifice peace of mind for work-life balance.
Supplementing the Existing Team, the Existing Strategy
In organizations of all sizes, IT resources are often limited. There’s always another application, another team member, or another piece of hardware that could benefit the environment. The smaller an organization is, the more true this relationship becomes. Mindsight Managed Services can act as a supplement to the existing strategy to round out those areas that may need a little extra support. Generally speaking, if there is something the department needs help with, there is a Managed Services package to solve the problem.
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About Mindsight
Mindsight, a Chicago IT services provider, is an extension of your team. Our culture is built on transparency and trust, and our team is made up of extraordinary people – the kinds of people you would hire. We have one of the largest expert-level engineering teams delivering the full spectrum of IT services and solutions, from cloud to infrastructure, collaboration to contact center. Our highly-certified engineers and process-oriented excellence have certainly been key to our success. But what really sets us apart is our straightforward and honest approach to every conversation, whether it is for an emerging business or global enterprise. Our customers rely on our thought leadership, responsiveness, and dedication to solving their toughest technology challenges.
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