Co-managed IT Services is a type of IT solution in which duties are shared between an internal and external IT team. Co-managed solutions allow businesses to customize and decide which IT tasks to manage in-house and which ones to outsource to an external provider.

Ideally, this arrangement provides a “best of both worlds’” type of scenario, where businesses get the benefit of both approaches to managing IT. Here’s everything you need to know about the co-managed IT service model, and when it makes sense as opposed to a fully managed solution.

What Are the Benefits of Co-Managed IT Services?

Co-managed IT services provide numerous benefits, including instant access to a range of IT skillsets, strengthened cybersecurity protections, great network uptime, and improved morale.

Let’s look at each of those in greater detail.

IT Skillsets on Demand

Having an IT services provider in your corner gives you access to all their IT expertise, without having to hire or pay an expensive IT consultant. Outsourced IT services enable businesses to access specialized skills that they may not have in-house.

Here are some of the concrete benefits this provides:

• Confidence in Specialist Domains
  Embark on cloud computing, cybersecurity, and network infrastructure management, projects, such face cloud migrations, server migrations, or firewall upgrades with the confidence that they’ll be finished on-time and on-budget.No matter what level of support you need during your projects, you’ll have a team that understands your business and can provide the professionals you need to get it done on budget and on time.
• Scale and Cost Efficiency
  You can scale up or scale co-managed services based upon your needs. Businesses that have peak demand times or when they face sudden spikes in work volume can turn to their co-managed team to handle the extra load.During times of low demand, the services provider can easily scale their support down, optimizing cost efficiency and resource allocation.

Stronger Cybersecurity

Most small and medium-sized businesses do not have the capacity to implement a robust cyber defense. However, with a continuous increase in cybercrimes, businesses need to be constantly aware of emerging potential threats to their sensitive data.

A trusted outsourced IT services firm has experience keeping data safe for dozens or hundreds of businesses across many verticals. That expertise makes a co-managed support provider an excellent partner in achieving strong, uninterrupted cyber security.

Here are some of the ways to enhance cybersecurity for businesses:

• Consult organizations so that they comply with compliance and cybersecurity standards, fulfilling their legal obligations, and avoid compliance fines
• Patching and update management to ensure that all software and systems are up-to-date with latest security patches. This reduces the risk of known vulnerabilities that are exploited by hackers.
• Implement advanced security monitoring tools to identify and respond to any threats in real time. This helps mitigate potential security breaches before they escalate.

Relieve IT Staff Morale

By providing an IT support partner to the in-house IT staff, the in-house team can focus on the things they are the best at. In an industry where employee turnover is endemic, and hiring is notoriously difficult, retaining top-flight employees by reducing unnecessary stress can save enormous time and money.

Co-managed IT services can relieve IT staff pressure in the following ways:

• Provide IT staff with a partner to monitors and manages their systems and proactively watch for problems.
• Offer around-the-clock support, allowing in-house teams to offload after-work and weekend hours, thus ensuring that critical IT systems are monitored and issues are addressed promptly.
• Handle complex network management tasks, troubleshoot challenging issues, and provide solutions that are beyond the scope of the internal team.
• Relieve pressure on in-house team and increase their morale to concentrate better on mission-critical tasks or projects.

The question of morale isn’t just an intangible or cultural issue; it saves concrete dollars related to hiring and training.

Improve Business Resiliency

Co-managed IT services can help streamline business continuity processes and give you a sounding board in times of disaster to help you reduce recovery costs, minimize damage to productivity, and manage all the externalities that come with a catastrophic network event.

For example, a co-managed IT service provider can help avoid interruptions in the first place and maximize network uptime, business continuity by performing routine network monitoring and maintenance for your team, giving you proactive insight into potential problems.

Secondly, having an external IT team can also support complex continuity functions, such as backup and disaster recovery testing and business continuity testing, ensuring that those critical projects get complete on time without committing internal resources.

Eliminate Hiring Drama

Hiring IT staff is not an easy process. It puts a huge drain on your HR department since it is hard for non-technical HR departments to find and evaluate people. Co-managed solutions eliminate this slow and stressful problem.

• Eliminate or reduce the direct costs related to HR, including recruitment, payroll, and the risks of hiring the wrong person.
• Assist HR in sourcing internal IT candidates with the right experience and skills for specific IT roles due to their experience in IT recruitment, ensuring that what in-house hires you make provide maximum impact.
• Guide small and medium-sized businesses with fluctuating IT needs to cost savings measures in the areas of training, staffing decisions, vendor selection, and IT strategy.

When Does the Co-managed IT Model Make Sense?

The co-managed IT model can make a crucial difference for small-and medium-sized businesses that already have internal IT staff. These companies have limited IT teams who are overwhelmed by the task of proactively managing the entire network.

There are two common scenarios when businesses seek these solutions out. Do either of these sound familiar to you?

• Overworked IT Leadership Need Support
  IT leaders who don’t have enough subordinates will struggle to complete patching and updating, help desk service, and other routine network management tasks. Co-managed IT services provide your leader with a team of experienced IT support professionals who can complement their leadership and handle those tedious tasks.
  Outsourced support allows your IT leadership to focus better on core business objectives and strategic initiatives instead of being stuck in carrying out routine operational tasks.
• Your IT Support Staff Needs Strategic IT Leadership
  On the opposite end of the spectrum, there are businesses that have IT staff to handle day-to-day tasks but lack the experts to drive proactive IT strategy. Co-managed services can help by providing strategic IT leadership to allow businesses to make major decisions and budget.
  Our virtual chief information officer (vCIO) team will sit down with your team every month to develop a comprehensive technology roadmap that aligns with the business objectives of the organization.
  They can also play an important role in supporting the digital transformation initiatives of the organization. They can evaluate existing IT infrastructure, recommend upgrades and acquisitions, and help you implement those changes to streamline your operations and improve user experience.

The Most Trusted Co-Managed IT Services Provider in Ohio

Businesses in Ohio give Astute Technology Management’s service very high reviews.

Do you need an IT partner to help your staff succeed? Read more about our co-managed solutions here or contact us at 614 389 4102 or [email protected]. We look forward to speaking with you!