Managed IT Services Hiring Guide

Setting up and running an IT infrastructure internally might not work for every organization because of high costs and skill gaps. Hiring managed IT services can be an affordable and highly effective solution for most businesses.

Technology powers almost every aspect of modern businesses. To be competitive, organizations need to maintain a reliable information technology (IT) infrastructure. However, managing complex IT systems and processes in-house can be challenging, especially if your internal IT team is overwhelmed or lacks specialized skills.

Highly Rated Managed IT Service Providers

That’s where managed IT services come in — you let a capable third party handle all or specific IT functions in your business. As a result, you lighten the burden on in-house IT staff. You also take advantage of professional expertise to streamline your IT operations and reduce the costs of managing IT internally.

Because not all third-party IT providers are reliable, it's important to learn how to hire managed IT services that best suit your business. This guide will help you choose the right IT partner. 

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What Are Managed IT Services?

Outsourcing your IT processes to a trusted partner can reduce the workload of an overwhelmed staff or supplement an in-house team that’s unable to meet IT demands due to time constraints or skill gaps.

With managed IT services, you transfer the burden of maintaining an IT infrastructure from your business to the service provider. As a result, you let external experts worry about your IT needs while you focus on core business activities. 

Most managed IT providers offer multiple services and allow you to choose what you need to succeed. So whether you want to beef up security in your computer systems, set up a disaster recovery plan, or comply with data privacy regulations, a managed IT team can help you achieve your IT goals. 

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5 Benefits of IT Managed Services

When considering the best way to handle technology in your business, you may wonder whether to build an in-house IT department or hire a managed IT service provider. Both have their pros and cons. But here are compelling reasons to partner with a managed IT provider. 

1. Cost savings: Hiring full-time IT staff comes with recruitment costs, salaries, employee benefits, and training expenses. With managed IT services, you only pay your service provider a predictable monthly, project-based, or tailored fee. This helps you save money, especially if you don’t have the budget for a dedicated in-house IT team.
2. Enhanced security: Small businesses, in particular, often lack sufficient resources to keep up with the latest cybersecurity threats. Managed IT teams can include security professionals who stay up-to-date on new cybercrime tactics and how to combat them. Also, they often use modern, sophisticated tools like intrusion detection systems, firewalls, and data encryption solutions that may be too expensive for smaller businesses to acquire and maintain in-house. 
3. Scalability: As your business grows, your IT demands evolve. A software-as-a-service company, for example, may need to upgrade its server infrastructure as the number of users increases. You can easily scale your IT needs with managed IT services to meet growth demands — opt in or out of service plans based on your current needs. 
4. Compliance: Depending on your industry and business location, you must comply with data security and privacy laws, such as the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), the California Consumer Privacy Act, and the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). Noncompliance can lead to costly fines and legal battles in court. Through powerful tools and experienced professionals, managed IT providers can proactively monitor your computer systems. That way, you always comply with your industry's applicable cybersecurity and privacy regulations. 
5. Backup solutions and disaster recovery: Managed IT services can help you implement data backup best practices such as cloud storage and saving multiple backup files in different locations. So when disasters like hurricanes and fires strike, you can recover quickly and ensure business continuity. 

What Services Do IT Managed Teams Provide?

Managed IT talent provides multiple services that are tailored to your business needs. But here are the most common ones:

• Network management
• Data backup and disaster recovery
• Cybersecurity
• Cloud management
• Help desk support
  

Network Management

Your managed service provider (MSP) oversees resources in your computer network, including storage, hardware, bandwidth, and processing power. The goal is to ensure these resources are prioritized correctly. For instance, the MSP may allocate more processing power and memory on the network to mission-critical applications and less computing resources to less-essential IT processes. Another aim of this service is to keep your network operating as efficiently and securely as possible.

Data Backup and Disaster Recovery

Backup and disaster recovery involve regularly creating copies of your business data and storing the information in several locations. During a cyberattack, accidental data deletion, or natural disasters like floods, you can use the copies to re-establish access to applications, data, and IT resources, allowing you to resume business operations quickly. 

The right MSP helps you set up redundant backups and choose the most suitable environments (the cloud, on-premise, or both) to store the copies. They also create a step-by-step plan for retrieving the backed-up files after an outage.

Cybersecurity

Cybersecurity is all about implementing measures that protect computer systems, networks, and programs from threats like ransomware and phishing. Your managed service provider can educate employees about cybersecurity and create internal policies promoting basic data security principles. These include using strong passwords that are difficult to crack and avoiding emails from suspicious senders.

Additionally, your service provider can develop a framework you can use to deal with attempted and successful data breaches in your business. The provider can also deploy the right technology to protect your organization from cybercriminals.

Cloud Management

Your MSP manages and optimizes cloud-based services in your organization. The aim is to help you unleash the full potential of the cloud by ensuring your cloud-based IT infrastructure operates efficiently, securely, and cost-effectively.

With this service, your MSP sets up and configures cloud-based applications, virtual machines, and databases. Your service provider can also track the performance of cloud assets to make sure they meet your operational needs. Additionally, the MSP manages your cloud service providers to verify that your vendors meet service level agreements related to cloud performance and availability.

Help Desk Support

This service involves providing technical support to your employees and customers. When complicated IT issues pop up, your staff and clients can contact your managed service provider for help. The MSP can help you troubleshoot problems before they escalate into full-blown issues.

How To Assess Managed IT Services

When hiring managed IT services, tracking results is key. Knowing what key performance indicators (KPIs) to measure ensures the services align with your IT goals. Important metrics to look out for when evaluating managed IT services include:

• Incident response time: The time it takes to identify a cyber breach in your business and successfully mitigate the problem to prevent further damages. The shorter the incident response time, the more effective and reliable an IT service provider is. 
• Resolution time: The total time it takes to resolve IT incidents completely. You want a managed IT services team that solves problems swiftly. That way, you return to normal business operations quickly after a cyber disruption. 
• System uptime: The measure of how long your business systems have been on and available. High uptime translates to less downtime, which means your employees and customers get more uninterrupted access to critical applications that power your business. It’s also one of the signs your managed IT service provider is reliable.
• Change success rate: The measure of how effectively an IT-related change has been implemented and whether it’s delivering the intended outcomes or expected benefits. A high success rate indicates your IT service provider executed and managed your IT strategy competently.
• Customer satisfaction score: It shows how satisfied businesses are with an IT provider's services. It’s calculated using customer experience ratings and expressed as a percentage. The higher the score, the more likely an IT team can help you achieve your IT goals. 
• Mean time between failures (MTBF): This KPI reveals the average time your computer system will operate before it fails. To calculate it, you divide the overall time your systems are up and running by the number of system failures in a particular timeframe. A high MTBF means your IT service provider has implemented measures that reduce the likelihood of system breakdowns. 

What Is a Managed IT Services Team? 

The field of information technology is multi-faceted — it involves many processes and activities, each requiring a particular skill set. Managed IT teams have various kinds of IT specialists with different expertise to handle all your IT needs. Common professionals in these teams include:

• Service delivery manager: Oversees the entire IT service delivery, from understanding your business needs to making sure delivered services meet your expectations. Common tasks associated with this role include taking charge of IT projects, tracking KPIs, and proposing service improvements. 
• Network engineer: Plans, implements, and manages computer networks in your organization. Typical roles include installing network equipment and resolving networking issues. This individual also maintains physical networking hardware, including VPNs, routers, and mainframes. 
• System administrator: Ensures your computer systems work correctly. The person manages your operating systems, provides technical support to your employees, and maintains your computer servers. This individual also monitors your system for breaches and responds to threats early before they disrupt system operations. Another key responsibility of a system administrator is installing, configuring, and upgrading your software and hardware. 
• Security specialist: Implements cybersecurity protocols to protect businesses from cyber threats. The specialist installs, configures, and maintains cybersecurity technologies designed to prevent unauthorized access to your systems. When cybercriminals breach a computer network, this person works with other IT professionals to deploy countermeasures. Other responsibilities include making sure software tools across all systems in your business have the latest security updates.
• Cloud specialist: Handles everything related to an organization’s cloud environment. For example, this professional can assess your goals and propose cloud solutions that best suit your business needs. A cloud specialist can also deploy and manage any of your cloud-based applications. Their main goal is to ensure your cloud operations are secure, scalable, and optimized for maximum effectiveness. 
• Help desk technician: Provides IT support to your customers. This individual helps your clients troubleshoot and solve technical issues in person or remotely. A help desk technician can also educate end users about security best practices. 

What To Look for When Hiring a Managed IT Services Team

When hiring IT managed services, there are multiple providers you can partner with, but not all of them are reliable. If you pick just any IT Managed services team, the firm may use a generic approach that doesn’t fit your unique needs. The wrong managed IT partner can also make your business more vulnerable to security threats instead of strengthening your cyber defenses.

That’s why you need to carefully evaluate different managed IT providers before making a partnership decision. List down several options that seem like a good fit, compare their services, and choose one that best meets your needs.

Remember, how to hire managed IT services that suit your business goes down to knowing your IT goals and finding the right team that can help you achieve those goals. Below are the key factors to consider when looking to hire the right IT provider:

Criteria for Hiring Managed IT Services

When you use these factors to evaluate your options, you can easily eliminate providers that don’t match your requirements and zero in on the ones that may be a better fit. And you don’t have to Google providers one by one when considering your choices — it’s tiresome and time-consuming. An IT service directory like Clutch gives you access to thousands of managed IT service providers in a central platform. 

You can compare your options on the platform based on customer testimonials, services provided, pricing, and location. As a result, making an informed decision when hiring managed IT services becomes easy. 

As you evaluate managed service providers, you can interview shortlisted candidates before picking the perfect IT partner. Here are some effective questions you can ask during the interview: 

10 Questions to Ask When Hiring Managed IT Services

1. What IT services do you offer?
2. Does your team have any relevant certifications and accreditations?
3. What’s your availability and response time?
4. How many IT professionals do you have, and what are their skills?
5. What’s your approach to cybersecurity and compliance?
6. Why should I choose you for my IT needs?
7. How long have you been offering managed IT services?
8. What IT and cybersecurity tools do you use?
9. Have you worked with businesses in our industry before? 
   
10. What’s your pricing structure?

How Managed IT Services Can Elevate Your Business

Hiring managed IT service providers can be a great investment. When a third party handles your IT operations, you don’t have to worry about setting up and running an IT infrastructure on your own — skilled professionals do that for you. As a result, you get more time to focus on what matters the most: serving your customers.

Managed IT services are also cost-effective. You don’t have to pour money into hiring and training employees. You also don't need to pay salaries and benefits to an in-house team. The time, money, and resources you save can be channeled to growth initiatives that can take your business to the next level.

However, managed IT services are only effective if you partner with the right team. Check out Clutch’s rankings for leading managed IT services providers, and use the platform’s filters to vet your options.

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