SMB Business Basics: Leveraging Managed IT Services to Improve Customer Experience and Service Delivery

The bridge between customer expectations and the reality of the experience is solid service delivery. When the delivery meets or exceeds expectations, the business is perceived as excelling, even in a competitive environment.

IT has become critical to the operations of many companies.  Managed IT is one of the best solutions for balancing the necessity of regularly updated IT systems with total ownership and ongoing maintenance costs.

If you are a small to mid-sized business owner, then you should evaluate how effectively you can leverage Managed IT services. Your IT operations, when managed well, can provide you momentum enough to help sustain other business development efforts. Leveraging IT services through Managed IT is a hassle-free and reliable way of taking care of your IT department.

Why Managed IT?

For a small business to achieve consistent growth and productivity, operations must function seamlessly.  Today, even the average household has multiple connected devices, as most companies rely heavily on technology so that they can be reached day or night by clients or critical employees.  Ensuring that your company’s online capabilities remain up to par is essential if you are striving for rapid growth. As a result, the environment is truly competitive. Success now demands a higher level of dependability than ever before.

Seamless operations are a possibility only when server and network management are carried out diligently. Efficient management is when you can access your business data at any time, without the fear of loss. Here are a few benefits that can be expected when your Managed IT functionality is optimized:

• Consistent and reliable data access multiple physical locations
• Effective security management of both internal data and client data, and ensuring that data security is not compromised
• Reduced downtime and well maintained uptime, allowing a business to compete within the industry
• Continuity of data availability, even in the event of an accident or calamity that may cause substantial damage or loss

Security Management

You can also identify efficient Managed IT by the way a provider handles data security and security management functions. Data security measures are extremely important, for both secure access to internal authorized resources as well as client resources.

Clients’ data takes precedence because they have entrusted the Managed IT provider with critical information about their business. Select a Managed IT services provider wisely to ensure this trust is not breached. Trust maintained helps beget more trust; and the reliability exhibited allows the business to flourish and expand as more clients join the business due to overall better services.

Choose Your Vendor Wisely

Your Managed IT vendor will help you not only manage your IT department, but also help ensure clients’ trust, thus contributing to business growth. Here are some considerations when choosing one:

• Well-matched to your business: Is your vendor in sync with your business and industry? How well do they understand your clients, their needs, and therefore your requirements? Their expertise and experience should align with your clients’ needs.
• Legal & statutory compliance: Legal compliance includes ensuring confidentiality. This can extend to their security systems, as well as their authorization levels. If the statutory compliance measures are missing, including basics such as Service Level Agreements that can help guide a Managed IT project, you should reconsider awarding them your project.
• What do their customers say: Very rarely will genuine good work elicit negative reviews. If you select a particular vendor or provider, make sure you look at client testimonials and customer reviews first.