Great Lakes Computer Corporation

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5 Best Managed IT Services to Outsource

IT supportShould you do it yourself, or should you let a managed network services provider do it? It’s a tough call, and a lot of the decision depends on the budget and IT needs your business has.

Here are some of the top services you should consider in general, regardless of your business:

    1. Data Security: Data security is simply not something to play around with. If you have any doubts whatsoever that your company cannot protect itself from threats like Heartbleed, then think strongly about hiring a managed services provider to do the job for you.
    2. Physical Infrastructure: This can save millions of dollars, speaking in terms of maintenance and labor costs. It’s also very expensive to design and implement your own physical infrastructure. To make sure you save money, you have to negotiate the contract carefully. Make sure you know exactly what you get for what you pay, and your business can save capital which can be diverted to other business tasks.
    3. Moving Your Equipment: If you’ve found a new location for your IT equipment, that can be another good reason to outsource to a managed IT services provider. Moves don’t sound like much. But once you think of all the steps involved with a move, like planning when it will happen, how much power and cooling you’ll need, how many man hours it takes, and what your downtime will be, you can see how complex it gets. Then, multiply that complexity by the amount of IT equipment you have, and you can see why moves are worth outsourcing. This goes doubly if you’ve never done one before.
    4. Printing Process & Printer Maintenance: Most of the cost of printing comes after you purchase the printer. Ink is generally the main culprit of the additional costs. Paper and maintenance can both increases costs substantially too. At Great Lakes, we’ve also found printer issues account for the most help desk calls (even more than laptops and personal computers).
    5. Server Storage Devices & Storage Maintenance: This tip is similar to the data security tip. Again, if you don’t have the skills to maintain your storage devices, then outsource it to someone else. You need to have that backup available if disaster strikes at your business.

You can outsource any and all aspects of your IT department. But, those are some of the main aspects you should consider outsourcing.

Learn more about the author Bob Martin

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Top 3 Mistakes Made When Searching for an MSP

IT SupportAs with any vendor-provided service, some companies do a better job than others even though you might pay exactly the same price.  You’ll have to talk with multiple managed network services providers before you find one that meets your needs at a price that works for you.

As you go through the process, though, make sure you avoid these mistakes:

1.    Focusing Way Too Much on Price:  You generally don’t want to go with the cheapest bidder…ever.  Yes, they can get you the price you want.  And they might promise you the moon when it comes to service types and quality provided.

However, in reality, they have to cut corners somewhere on their end, which actually reduces your quality of service.  Employees may be asked to spend fewer hours providing your services.  Some may not get performed at all.  They may also be asked to work faster, which causes more mistakes.  Price is important, but don’t make a low price your primary concern.

2.    Not Giving Managed IT Service Providers Enough Accurate Information to Bid Your Service: Your company will save money if you give your service provider close enough information, right?  And you get another benefit:  you don’t have to ask your own IT teams to audit and provide data regarding all your resources.

These benefits only last very short-term.  Eventually, your managed services provider learns the exact size of your network.  And in the meantime, you might wonder why they aren’t serving your network as efficiently as they should be.

Give them the most accurate data you have up-front so you don’t have to deal with the issues again later on down the road.  If your statistics are far off enough, you might even have to renegotiate the bid…another agonizingly long process.

3.    Forgetting to Set Clear Objectives: Managed IT services always provide more value if you know what you want to get from them before actually finding a vendor.  Your objectives could be as simple as finding an outsourced option so you don’t have to do the work.

Or, you might want to reduce costs by 10%, move all of your data storage to the cloud, or cut the number of repairs you have to make in a year by 50%.  Whatever your objectives are, set them beforehand and communicate them clearly to your service vendor.

Yes, some of these business mistakes sound rather simple and like they shouldn’t happen.  But, they do happen sometimes. The more you can do to avoid them, the better relationship you have with your managed IT services provider!

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Arguing the Case: 3 Reasons for Law Firms to Use Managed Services

Lawyer technologyIt is easy to make the case that law firms should seek out a managed services provider in order to save money on IT operations. Hiring a dedicated IT Solutions vendor can provide services and produce tremendous cost savings over a model in which the law firm must maintain and support an in-house IT department.

Regardless, cost reductions alone are not the only reason for moving to a managed services approach. Instead, such a shift offers significant additional advantages that have little to do with trimming direct costs.

Here are three main reasons Law Firms should use Managed Services:

1.  Focus on Core Competencies

How many lawyers in your firm received their degree in IT and have the spare time to stay up to date on technology and PC repair?  The desire to have a job done properly is a by an expert is a strong motivation for many firms that decide to investigate outsourced IT support for law firms. Because a managed services provider is truly a specialist in the areas of data security, data backup, and remote management of document production, outsourcing IT allows a firm to enjoy the benefits of vast expertise. When a law firm tries to provide these functions for itself, its attention to such matters is naturally diluted by the fact that the company must perform many essential functions. In this scenario, IT needs can get pushed to the side. This is not the case when a dedicated vendor is providing IT services.

2.  Staffing issues eliminated

Another reason why an MSP makes sense for law firms involves the need to attract and retain quality talent for open positions. An in-house IT department at a law firm may be a two- or three-person operation – or may perhaps be even smaller. This is not the kind of situation that draws in highly-qualified personnel. Instead, a perceived lack of advancement opportunities will cause the best IT prospects to look elsewhere for employment, leaving the law firm with a lower tier employee.

By working with a managed services provider, however, even the smallest law firm can take advantage of a much larger talent pool. This is because IT companies are able to attract staff much more effectively to fill IT-related positions. These highly-qualified individuals will then provide services to companies that could never have secured their services on their own.

3. Access to the best technology

Because MSP’s serve many companies at once, they can purchase new equipment and remain on the cutting edge of technology without “breaking the bank.” By spreading their own costs widely, each company served absorbs just a little bit of the costs. In contrast, a law firm providing its own IT services cannot afford to update its technology nearly as often since it would have to absorb 100% of the cost on its own.

Learn more about the author Bob Martin

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