Most mid-market businesses have at least a longing to expand to the full enterprise level. Indeed, some mid-market businesses have even taken the step of using tools that were geared for the enterprise user to better compete with these larger firms. This isn’t the best idea, as these tools aren’t designed for the mid-market business. Few tools actually are. Managed IT services, however, are increasingly allowing mid-market firms to take advantage of at least a kind of tool formerly only seen at the enterprise level.
What Are Managed IT Services Doing for Mid-market Businesses?
With managed IT services, mid-market firms are better able to address key challenges and work toward growth.
Improved agility. Agility was once the great advantage of the small business over any larger business. This includes the mid-market business, which suffers from a small loss compared to the small business. With managed IT services, however, mid-market businesses are rediscovering their old agility. Managed IT services are allowing quicker development of projects, which allows more to be done at the same time. This boost of extra agility is giving mid-market businesses an edge even large enterprises often don’t have.
Better security. Mid-market businesses often have a tougher time with security. They don’t have the resources that enterprise users have to protect against hacking and data breaches. They’re more desirable targets than small businesses because they have more data and resources to pursue. Using managed IT services, however, takes a lot of weight off the business directly. The service provider has to provide security on its services, and failure to do so will drive businesses to its competitors. That means the service provider has a vested interest in improving security and will do so. It can even help consult with the client business on ways to improve its own security, protecting from both ends.
Truth to power. While service providers have a vested interest in keeping client businesses, their insular, third-party nature has one extreme benefit for the mid-market business. The service provider’s only interest is in providing the best service possible. This means issues like politics and culture are mostly invalid to the service provider. The service provider can offer an unvarnished opinion, assessing current systems, making recommendations for improvement, and even suggesting areas to remove or revamp.
Constant support. For a mid-market business to have 24 x 7 x 365 technical support, it would have to hire accordingly. A mid-market business that expects to be open 8 x 5 x 260 or so, meanwhile, would have to hire more than triple its IT staff to reach the goal. With managed IT services, 24 x 7 x 365 tech support is often baked into the proposition. It’s part of managed IT’s need to distinguish itself in the market and provide the best services. This not only ensures that help will be available when it’s needed, but also that recovery from any losses due to system failure can be patched quickly.
Improved customer relations. The same features that make managed IT a hit with client businesses also make those same businesses a hit with their own clients. Customers don’t want to hear why systems are down. Customers want to know when systems will be running again. Mid-market businesses can offer their customers a better experience because their own systems are running well and fixed quickly when problems emerge. Additionally, managed IT services can include tools specifically designed to improve customer relations. Cloud-based data analytics, for example, help businesses determine what to offer their customers, what current offerings are the most popular, when more staff should be in place to address busier times of day, and more. While these services would be available in-house for the enterprise user, they often require more computing power than the mid-market business has.
Raising the bottom line. The universal profitability equation is known to every business: profit is revenue minus expenses. Since managed IT services commonly reduce expenses, and provide useful tools to improve revenue, managed IT services work directly on both sides of the profit equation and improve the likelihood of profitability overall.
Where to Turn When You Want Managed IT Services
It’s easy to find managed IT service providers. However, finding the best providers can be much harder. Start your search by getting in touch with us at Coretelligent. Our combination of a collaborative approach and staff that have worked extensively with mid-market businesses makes us the perfect source of the best managed IT services for mid-market businesses. Our critical systems monitoring functions and 24 x 7 alerts keep your systems up and running at all times. More than anything, we take the personal approach with all our clients, because one size definitely does not fit all. When you want that kind of personal, top-notch service on your side, just drop us a line to get started.
