Managed IT service providers are IT companies that manage your company’s IT infrastructure. Their main role entails constantly monitoring and mitigating risks, providing updates and reports on IT security, and offering support to your business, among many other technical and support assistance services.

While most managed service providers offer somewhat similar services, there are factors that can help you decide on the right service provider for your business..

1. Determine the IT services you believe are needed and then compile a list of providers that offer those services.
2. Explore the provider’s capabilities. Can or do they have and offer 24/7 support? What is their customer service like? Do they have a large pool of certified IT specialists?
3. Compare the cost of the IT providers at the top of your list, but not at the expense of quality specialists and customer service.

There’s never a one-fits-all cost for managed IT services. Prices will vary depending on the company’s level of expertise, your geographic place of business, and the services required. Instead of comparing MSPs based on pricing alone, you should find providers with all-in fixed-fee packages and no hidden costs.

There are many advantages of working with a managed services provider. Such as maintaining an optimally working network, managing and mitigating risks posed by cyber-attacks as well as taking an enormous burden of hiring and keeping skilled IT talent off the plate of the organization.

When investigating an ideal IT support provider, there are a few vital things to research. Some places to start include:

• What is the experience level of the support staff from the provider?
• What are the levels of support they offer? (24/7, level 1 or 2 or higher?
• Does the provider specialize in certain industries or network environments?
• What are the qualities that set them apart from their competitors?

Managed IT service providers offer overall lower IT operating costs to your business as well as greater security and reliability as you have one team solely responsible for maintaining your network and technology infrastructure

Managed IT services offer various services depending on specialization. Among the primary services you can expect from an MSP include; overall network and IT infrastructure management, system performance monitoring and threat detection, patch management, and performance reporting, among others.

Both managed IT services and consulting professionals work with your business to determine and implement the best technology practices to support your company. While the work of consultants ends after implementation of the technology, managed services providers stay longer, providing ongoing support and ensuring optimal functioning of the technology day in and day out.

When looking at managed services vs staff augmentation, you should note that managed services take charge of maintaining and supporting all your technology and essentially becomes part of your team. On the other hand, staff augmentation involves outsourcing an IT team that can only come in when your team needs additional help. Staff augmentation comes in to offer an extra hand when undertaking large projects, which is done on a project by project basis, such as installing a VoIP system, while managed services are ideal when an organization lacks the resources to hire an entire team to manage the IT needs of the organization.