When it becomes clear that your IT staff is just too overworked, one common solution was to bring in outsourced labor as an extra pair of ‘hands.” These IT consultants, for instance, may be relied upon to lend a hand to overwhelmed IT employees on a temporary basis.
However, just IT outsourcing is quickly becoming outdated; co-managed service contracts are increasingly being created to address the increasing pace of change and demands of your business. The following explains why this trend is upon us and how co-managed service can help “fill the void” left by overburdened employees.
Why Co-Managed Services are Taking on More Roles Than Ever. Technology meet operations. Many internal IT staff would enjoy the opportunity to blend their technological expertise with overall business operations. This arrangement – where an internal IT staff member of a Small or Medium Business (SMB) might also serve as its Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) application expert, for instance – allows greater innovation by removing internal barriers between complementary departments.
Less corporate bureaucracy = SMB competitive advantage. While the CIO of a Fortune 500 company will have a large staff, he or she might not realize the competitive advantage SMBs will enjoy by leveraging the internal staff person as the ERP expert. With fewer executives and departments, SMBs with co-managed service can often get a leg up on the competition.
Fewer in-house barriers with shared responsibility. IT departments of the past were often rigid, hesitant to change and highly protective of job duties. Rigidity stemmed from a concern that technology could easily be ruined in the hands of a careless worker, while change often meant that a fellow IT employee could be out of work. Co-managed services eliminate yesterday’s isolation of the IT team.
How Co-Managed IT Services can Boost Efficiency. Modern managed service providers (MSP) can provide co-managed service for remote or on-premises hire. There are many ways an MSP can help companies ease the load of their overworked employees.
Here are some ways IT consultants improve efficiency, thus allowing in-house workers to get more done in fewer hours:
• MSP’s can resolve security problems, leading to increased efficiency and less downtime.
• MSP’s offer 24-hour help so employees never have to twiddle their thumbs waiting for a certain program to work properly.
• MSP Subject Matter Experts can also improve consistency across systems and platforms, which in turn leads to less time wasted on compatibility issues.
• MSP’s are passionate about creating new, tech-savvy solutions to old problems.
• For instance, knowing that your employees need considerable initial training, your consultant may suggest creating special on-boarding videos to smooth the hiring process.