Different types of managed services
If you’re wondering about the different types of managed services you can offer as an MSP, here are some of the tasks and monitoring roles you may take on for an organization:
- Network and system monitoring: Monitoring is a time-consuming task for a business. As an MSP, you can take on the role of monitoring an organization’s network performance, quality, and downtimes, remediating issues quickly when they arise—often before end users realize there is an issue. This can all be done remotely via a remote monitoring and management (RMM) platform. Over time, you can gather data that helps you improve the infrastructure, optimize performance, and reduce costs.
- System design and upgrades:As an MSP, you will work with individual organizations to understand their unique requirements and ensuring that their IT systems fully support their business objectives. As part of this, you’ll need to keeping an eye on more general industry trends to make sure your customers remain on the cutting edge. As an MSP you may be required to set up cloud or other outsourced infrastructure, wireless and mobile networking, and virtualization solutions.
- Security management: An MSP can protect an organization against the latest malware threats, provide software patching and maintenance, monitor application compatibility, and perform other key parts of risk protection and cybersecurity. MSPs also manage organizations’ email security and help safeguard other data from cybercrime.
- Backup and disaster recovery: Ensuring the integrity and safety of a company’s data is another key role MSPs fulfill. Making sure that they have adequate backups and that data is able to be recovered in the event of a disaster is critical to this.
- Communications, support, and SaaS: Some IT managed services companies can choose to offer communications support such as data, VOIP, or video as part of the provided and managed services package. Others will be able to support software applications that are hosted on their own servers and offered on a subscription basis. You may consider providing 24/7 support, either remotely or via a help desk.
- Auditing and compliance: As an MSP, you can remove the compliance burden for your customers with thorough assessments. When it comes to network vulnerabilities, logging practices, cloud computing, and industry-specific policies, it’s important you are prepared to provide appropriate guidance and support around compliance.
- Analytics and reporting: Finally, one thing every MSP should provide is regular reporting in the form of data analytics to help customers evaluate their network performance and other KPIs. You can prove your worth as an MSP by providing an unbiased snapshot of workflows and suggestions for improvement. Where can the business take advantage of automation or better software? What trends are causing lost productivity, and how is it impacting the bottom line?
Why offer managed services?
For IT professionals, offering managed services means you can be a valuable resource for businesses, providing expertise and continual support around either general IT needs or specific functions. At the same time, your arrangement generates recurring revenue, allowing your business to more easily plan and grow. Unlike the break/fix model, where you are just putting out fires, working as an MSP allows you to focus on creating efficiencies, building out a reliable network, and taking other proactive measures. For your customers, you will provide a level of expertise that more than justifies the monthly retainer fee.
If you’re considering becoming an MSP, or want to learn more about growing your business or knowledge base, SolarWinds can help. Utilize our resource center to discover other ways MSPs provide value to businesses of all sizes.