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Co-Managed IT Service Model

What are Co-Managed IT Services? Are They Right For You?

Outsourced and co-managed IT models have become the strategic go-to for SMBs who want to focus their efforts on business growth rather than the rigors of daily IT support.

How do you know if your organization should consider co-managed IT services and for what IT functions you should outsource?

co-managed ITThe growing importance, complexity, and scope of IT, as a whole, has driven many companies to favor co-managed IT services.

In a co-managed IT model, an organization’s internal IT team collaborates with their managed service providers to divide IT responsibilities based on skill gaps and time, among other considerations.

Companies benefit from this model by gaining access to experience and expertise it may not possess internally while maintaining visibility and alignment with business/technology objectives.

When to Consider Co-Managed IT?

When your business experiences accelerated growth, the technology workload can quickly increase to the point where you find the internal IT team overwhelmed, which quickly leads to drops in production across the business. With over 25% of business being conducted online in 2022, these slowdowns and drops in production can have serious consequences.

Strategic initiatives and alignment such as digital transformation initiatives, effective and timely project management, access to enterprise-class tools, and security become major concerns as the IT team falls further behind, struggling to keep up with the day-to-day leaving no time for strategic planning or adoption of newer technologies.

Co-management takes the burden off of your IT department so that they are able to focus on the tasks and projects they are highly skilled in.

IT Functions to Consider for Co-managed IT Services

What are some of the critical table stakes for co-managed IT services for growing companies?

Project Management

Smaller businesses may have one or two IT staff on hand who are great at what they do, but lack experience in project planning and management. When partnered with the right Managed Service Provider (MSP), your IT staff benefits from a lighter workload that allows them to focus on projects that enable business growth.

Outsourced IT project management gives your business access to experts who know how to plan and manage projects of all sizes.

Digital Transformation / IT Roadmapping

The creation of an IT strategy for a Mid-Market organization can be a huge challenge. Aligning agile short-term and long-term goals with the technologies needed to actualize them can be more than a small IT staff can handle.

Working together with your MSP for IT roadmapping provides access to a team of experts that will immediately boost the productivity of your IT staff and pass the benefits of increased efficiency to faster business growth.

Enterprise Tools

When you work with the right MSP, you gain access to enterprise-class tools that provide your business with the same level of insight and service that large companies can provide for themselves.

The best part is that you don’t have to make huge investments in developing a sophisticated IT team or software to do this. When you outsource, you gain immediate access to the same kinds of tools and services your business could not afford otherwise.

IT Security

One of the critical areas of business operations is the security of its IT infrastructure and digital assets. SMBs and Mid-Market organizations often lack the resources and skill set necessary for implementing and maintaining an effective security strategy.

Outsourcing your security needs to a reputable MSP/security services provider makes robust security much more than a pipe dream.

With the right security partner, your business gains access to state-of-the-art technology and security experts who know how to keep your IT infrastructure and digital assets safe.

Outsourcing is about much more than just handing off a bunch of work to another business. It’s also about forming mutually beneficial partnerships that help both businesses grow.

Learn What to Ask When Selecting an IT Partner

 

Most Common Co-Managed IT Service Models

Model #1: Outsource Helpdesk, Insource Escalation Resources

In this scenario, a business partners with an MSP to provide everyday tech support while keeping escalation in-house.

This allows your tech support experts to focus on resolving the toughest issues while your co-manage partner takes on the mundane helpdesk calls.

This is a particularly effective model for companies that are spread out across multiple locations and time zones.

One of the greatest advantages of co-managed helpdesk services is the standardization of service across all of your company’s locations.

Your business also gains the ability to reliably provide support services outside of normal business hours.

When you have a professional, co-managed helpdesk strategy in place, you eliminate the need for one or more IT personnel working the graveyard shift waiting for someone to call.

Model #2: Outsource Infrastructure Management, Insource Tier 1 Helpdesk

This option is a great fit for a business that:

  • Have over half of its employees at one location
  • A handful of remote workers or offices that connect into HQ resources
  • Remote work schedule that’s aligned with HQ time zone

In this model, your business outsources all of its IT infrastructure management while keeping first-line technical support in-house.

You may have an IT staff that lacks the time and advanced skills necessary to provide advanced infrastructure support or the resources to plan and manage projects.

Your business may also lack dedicated security resources to protect IT infrastructure and digital assets.

You may have a company culture where employees expect to be able to just walk down the hall to IT rather than calling over the phone.

Outsourced IT infrastructure management is ideal for an organization that needs expert IT skills and experience to manage and secure IT infrastructure.

This removes the burden of infrastructure management from your IT staff, freeing them up to provide first-rate, personalized help desk support to everyone throughout your organization.

Is Co-managed IT Support Right for You?

Co-managed IT support offers flexible solutions that meet your internal IT team where they are. Need a partner to focus on the day-to-day rigors of IT support? Or are you looking for a partner to focus on long-term planning for new technology initiatives and growth while your internal IT team focuses on the day-to-day? Maybe you’re just trying to fill a skills gap to complement your existing IT team. If any of these situations sound like your business, co-managed IT services could be right for you. If you’re a mid-market organization with a need for co-managed support or managed services, reach out to learn more about our solutions today!

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Man and woman share a tablet in the background. The image is overlaid with text that says Outsourced IT support and management pros, cons, costs.

Outsourced IT Support & Management – Pros, Cons, Costs

For a growing number of businesses are turning to outsourced IT support as the ideal solution. But, what is exactly does outsourced IT entail?

Outsourced IT

A Look at Outsourced IT

It’s no secret that small businesses are lean and scrappy. As a result, many do not have an internal IT department—in fact, many startup companies initially don’t have a contracted person to turn for IT problems other than perhaps calling the hardware or software manufacturers.

However, you quickly realize just how important IT functions are to your business and hire a dedicated IT professional. Providing day-to-day support to users, maintaining and securing IT assets, handling telecommunication contracts, vendor/manufacturer relationships, and sourcing software and equipment can quickly overwhelm a one person team. And while trying to balance all that, there is little to no time left to focus on the business’ holistic IT strategy.

As a business, you can add additional personnel or choose outsourced IT support to address your growing IT needs. But a quick search online yields dozens of IT companies in your area, each describing their services with unfamiliar jargon.

So how do you know if a provider has the services you need? First, let’s look at the basic terms you might encounter when searching for an IT service provider.

Breaking Down the Managed Service Provider (MSP) Space

For people who don’t regularly navigate the waters of IT service providers, the language can be confusing.

Furthermore, there is often a lot of overlap in the definitions of distinct terms. For example, take a look at these general terms from Gartner:

Managed Service Provider (MSP) delivers network, application, system, and e-management services across a network to multiple enterprises using a “pay as you go” pricing model. A “pure play” MSP focuses on management services as its core offering.

IT Outsourcing (as a part of an outsourcing definition) is using external service providers to effectively deliver IT-enabled business process, application services, and infrastructure solutions for business outcomes.

Co-managed IT — A managed service that partners with you to provide only the IT services your business requires.

Clearing up the confusion around these common terms makes it a lot easier to find your way from the ocean of options into the harbor of the right IT solutions provider for you.

Now that you have a clearer understanding of these terms let’s take a look at outsourced IT support.

Outsourced IT Support: A Closer Look

When you outsource your IT support, you trust an MSP to manage your IT support.

The MSP takes over day-to-day IT operations and support and develops an IT roadmap for the future to meet your business and technology objectives.

Outsourced IT support is ideal for SMBs with no formal IT department who need IT systems to operate smoothly and reliably (not all SMBs rely on technology enough to invest in outsourced IT support).

What are the benefits of outsourced IT Support?

Outsourced IT provides multiple benefits to SMBs by managing all IT operations and alleviating the burden of day-to-day support concerns and long-term growth planning.

You gain access to IT professionals with skills and expertise similar to those employed by large corporations at a fraction of the cost.

They are able to jump right in, learn your IT environment, and begin providing the IT support you need.

A Proactive Approach to Help Desk Support

Another benefit of outsourced IT is that it should include a “managed” component.

Managed Services essentially amount to preventative IT maintenance.

What this means for your business is that small IT problems are nipped in the bud as soon as they bubble up, and before they have a chance to compound into much bigger, more costly ones—something that most small businesses cannot do on their own.

Outsourced IT Support Staff Come to Your Office When You Need Them

While remote IT support is often adequate, you may need a more personalized approach.

On-site IT support staff get to know your employees the same as if they worked there.

You can’t beat the quality of service delivered by on-site IT support professionals who know your employees by name.

Cost Becomes a Scalable Expense

Outsourced IT allows an organization the freedom to scale IT service up or down to meet business needs and available budget.

This flexibility makes outsourced IT support a great value for your company while allowing you to customize your service to your needs.

Related Content – 5 Ways Outsourced IT Can Boost Revenue & Productivity

Co-Managed IT Support: An Overview

When you opt for a co-managed solution, the IT provider partners with you to learn what your specific IT needs are.

A strategy is developed that seamlessly integrates the MSP’s IT professionals with your IT team to deliver the service you need holistically and efficiently.

For example, most companies choose to delegate first-level help desk to a managed service provider, freeing up internal IT resources for strategic tasks and initiatives.

Benefits of Co-managed IT Support

Co-managed IT has all of the benefits of outsourced IT support, plus added flexibility that allows your organization to divide up IT responsibilities.

With a co-managed IT partnership, you gain the value of IT services that is tailored to your specific needs and works in cooperation with your internal IT staff.

What’s Best for Your Organization—Outsourced IT Support or Co-managed?

At this point, you have a much clearer picture of the options available to you. But which one is best for your organization—outsourced or co-managed IT support?

How to Decide Which Option Is Best for You

To decide which solution is the right fit for your business, consider the size and scope of your IT needs. Typically, if you have 50 or fewer IT users in your organization, a fully outsourced IT solution may be best for you. Your managed service provider will cover both day-to-day IT support tasks as well as help design an IT roadmap to guide you through future growth and initiatives.

But what if you have more than 50 employees and at least one IT person?

Co-managing is almost always the right fit for businesses with 50 or more employees—especially if there’s at least one IT person. The co-managing partnership gives you the best of both worlds: delegate routine system monitoring, maintenance, and help desk while in-house IT focuses on strategic initiatives such as future upgrades/planning, new locations, and executive needs.

IT Solutions Tailored to Your Needs

Sometimes, small to mid-sized companies need specialized IT support but don’t want to outsource all of IT. When you need a custom IT support solution, talk with us. Whether a fully outsourced IT support model or a co-managed model aligns best with your needs, Coretelligent has the solution. So how can we help you?

 

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White Glove IT Support

What is White Glove IT Support? Why Do You Need It?

The term White Glove support gets thrown around in the managed service space, but what does it really mean? For Coretelligent, White Glove IT support is a foundational philosophy, a badge of honor, what drives us, and is one of the attributes that makes us stand out in the market space.

White Glove IT SupportCoretelligent delivers White Glove service centered around the specific needs of clients. We understand that a one-size-fits-all IT model does not fit most businesses. So instead, we collaborate with our clients to offer customized IT solutions and an exceptional level of support to help our clients meet their business objectives.

While other MSPs may claim to offer White Glove service, the difference is entirely in the details.

What Does White Glove Mean to Coretelligent?

Around-the-clock Support and Access to Experts

Our U.S.-based service desks are staffed 24x7x365 by our own engineers. We do not use an answering or dispatch service, so there are no gatekeepers or time delays in resolving any issues you may experience.

An Extension of Your Team

We organize our service desk into “Service Pods” which means that clients interact with the same core group of engineers familiar with their environment and people. We aim to build strong relationships for a successful long-term partnership and provide your firm with a deep bench of technical experts.

Communication and Partnership

With our service delivery model, each client is assigned a Customer Success Manager (CSM) responsible for managing the business relationship. Your CSM is focused on optimizing our service delivery and ensuring the satisfaction of your workforce. They are your primary contact for any account concerns or questions.

Proactive Strategic Vision

Other managed service providers (MSP) operate using a reactive model—meaning you interact with them when something breaks. The Coretelligent approach is more thoughtful and preemptive. We offer strategic guidance and proactive ownership of your IT operations. We meet with our clients to help them develop and navigate an IT roadmap designed to ensure the best technology solutions are in place for achieving business goals.

IT SupportIndustry-specific Knowledge

Our deep expertise in key industries leads to managed IT services that meet your critical business needs today while positioning your organization for future opportunities.

Having an industry-knowledgeable partner is critical for companies in highly regulated sectors. For example, Coretelligent is SOC2® certified, which is crucial for verifying proper security controls for certain industries like life sciences and financial services. Additionally, our SOC2® certification represents our commitment to offering top-notch security and IT best practices to our clients.

The VIP Experience

We offer concierge-like support for clients and users looking for that extra level of detailed support, including interacting with VIP users. As part of the onboarding process, we work with clients to understand the expectations of VIP users, how they like to receive support, and their communication preferences.

Full IT Lifecycle

Coretelligent offers a full suite of solutions and has extensive experience supporting growing companies. Not all MSPs can scale, but we can. Choosing a full IT lifecycle partner guarantees continuity as your business expands or shifts in response to the marketplace. Coretelligent is prepared to provide everything from 24x7x365 technical support and cloud computing services to strategic road mapping and comprehensive compliance and cybersecurity solutions.

Holistic and Flexible

Our philosophy is to provide the service offerings that our clients need. We don’t attempt to fit you into our box but rather design the level of service you require around your vision. Whether you require fully outsourced IT or a co-managed solution, we will work with you to meet your needs. Additionally, whether you work in an AWS or Azure environment, we will meet you where you are and not push changes that suit only us.

The opportunities are endless with Coretelligent’s white-glove approach to designing, implementing, protecting, and supporting your IT operations. Our world-class experts, specialized know-how, and the industry’s best customer service will help drive your company’s innovation, performance, profit, and growth. Reach out to learn more about Coretelligent and how our solutions can work for you.

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