When it comes to IT solutions, most businesses rely on one of three options: 1) They have a dedicated in-house IT employee or team, 2) an outsourced managed services provider (MSP) or 3) nothing at all. There is, however, a fourth option, especially relevant for companies using P21™: co-managed IT.
This hybrid option gives you an on-site person who is responsible for fine-tuning P21 for your business operations AND access to an off-site IT services firm that keeps the infrastructure running well. For any business that relies on P21, this can prove to be an efficient and reliable option. It’s not as costly as a full on-site IT team, but it can be more comprehensive than relying on an MSP alone.
Simply put, the co-managed IT solution gives your business more options when it comes to getting P21, IT and network stability right – and secure. It keeps you nimble when it comes to on-site issues. For instance, having an on-site manager means you have someone who knows the quirks of your business and its specific needs.
But depending on the scope of your business and the size of those needs, the job has the potential to get complicated fast. This is where having access to off-site expert IT staff can be useful. An outsourced IT firm alleviates that pain point, and particularly if they are familiar with P21. Your IT manager has someone to call when they need to and suddenly you have a full IT staff.
These are experts in IT who understand a range of issues, from system management to industry regulations – and just about everything in between. They might not be familiar with the specific quirks or intricacies of your business, but you already have that taken care of in the co-managed model.
Co-Managed Brings Everything Together
You can have someone on-site who you can count on day to day, but when they need assistance, they have someone they can rely on. With a knowledgeable MSP, they have access to experienced IT staff who focus on security, keeping everything updated, including P21, and managing your hosting environment, either in Azure or on-premises.
But it gets better! One of the benefits of this approach is employee retention. Co-managed IT can completely shift your company culture for the better. Here’s why: small or single-person IT teams can get overwhelmed and overworked fast. This is common in many small-business IT departments, which often seem like a revolving door for those employees. It creates a broken culture.
If your on-site team lacks access to the proper tools or resources, it won’t take long for them to become overwhelmed and, eventually, burned out. If there’s a crisis, like a ransomware attack or a storage failure, and your internal IT team isn’t given the support they need to succeed, it puts undue stress on them.
While they might succeed in the end, they’ll be unhappier for it and will likely start looking for a new job. With IT in such high demand, especially in 2021, it’s likely they’ll find another job, leaving you left to pick up the pieces.
Co-managed IT helps you avoid this. Plus, there are many other ways businesses can benefit from this hybrid model.
You Have Someone Who Can Address Issues Immediately
While you can generally rely on an MSP to deliver a quick response time, it might not always be as quick as you’d like or need. With this model, you have someone to get on the issue in seconds – and they can bring in the MSP as needed.
Regulatory Compliance Becomes a Breeze
Depending on the industry you service, you may have to deal with compliance terms and regulations. Your coordinated P21 and IT team is versed in everything they need to know – and they stay on top of it as things change.
You Have to Hire Fewer People
While you may have at least one person on staff, or maybe a small team, it’s unlikely to grow any larger – and it doesn’t need to. Not when your on-site team has access to all the tools, resources and expertise they need to get any IT job done.
You Have a Healthier Company Culture
This is a big one that often gets overlooked. When your on-site P21 expert has access to those outside IT resources, they’re a lot happier. Happier employees are more likely to stick around for a longer period of time, adding to the overall stability of your business (plus, less frequent hiring is another way to keep costs down).
If you haven’t yet considered co-managed IT for your distribution business, give it a look. Working with an MSP that has more than a cursory understanding of P21 will ensure you get the right IT support for the critical component for your daily operations – and everything else, too.