As businesses become more and more tech-dependent, in-house IT teams struggle to keep up with IT demands and user’s ever-increasing demands. To solve this problem, many organizations resort to outsourcing all their IT services to managed IT providers. But for some businesses, doing so may be too drastic or entirely out of the question. Co-managed IT services can help companies in such situations by addressing all their IT support needs and augmenting their internal IT staff by taking away the drudgery of some IT tasks. This will free them up to provide more critical services internally.
Before we begin: managed vs. co-managed
Managed IT typically means completely outsourcing all IT support services to a third party. Ideally, this arrangement only works if you do not intend to retain your IT staff. A co-managed IT partner, on the other hand, supplements the existing IT team by taking over some of its responsibilities and lessening the overall technical workload.
Technological advancements, talent scarcity, and changes in the IT landscape are the main factors driving the popularity and growth of managed IT services as a whole. Although both co-managed and fully managed IT services seem to solve the same problems, each approach is very different from the other.
Here are some scenarios where a co-managed IT partner would be the right fit for your business:
When daily tasks overburden your IT staff
According to Work Institute’s 2019 Retention Report, unfavorable work conditions such as overworking is one of the main reasons for high employee turnover rates. You certainly would not want to stretch an already overburdened IT team even thinner by losing some players. Here is how you can tell when your IT staff gets overwhelmed:
- The IT department always runs in overdrive, even when there is no emergency.
- It takes more than an 8-hour workday to complete daily IT tasks.
- The team loses sight of the big picture by concentrating on long, mundane checklists.
- Implementing IT changes takes longer than it should.
Having a co-managed IT partner relieve your overloaded IT support staff is the best way to optimize your IT performance while maintaining a favorable work environment for your employees.
You want to deploy a new solution that your staff doesn’t specialize in
Technology is evolving so fast that the pool of adequately qualified IT support candidates is continuously shrinking. It can also be quite challenging and expensive to regularly train an in-house IT department on emerging technologies and innovations. All this becomes a problem when trying to deploy a new technical solution. An upgrade that your IT staff is unfamiliar with.
You would obviously need specialized hands to deploy and maintain advanced IT tools such as cybersecurity systems and communications infrastructure. A co-managed IT partner can guarantee that only highly trained professionals handle your sensitive IT resources. Working with skilled and experienced IT experts during time-critical IT installations can help minimize downtime. This reassures smooth and correct implementation.
You want to give staff the bandwidth to focus on strategy or a big project
Instead of wasting your IT staff’s potential on dull routine tasks, it might be more productive to redirect their efforts and expertise to big-picture projects. A co-managed IT service can quickly assume the day-to-day IT support role without needing any training. This frees your IT team to tackle more complex assignments and strategic initiatives that are better suited to their abilities. This is one of the practical ways to expand your IT scope. You can also empower your team to develop useful solutions and ideas.
Partnering with a co-managed IT provider like KME strengthens and streamlines your existing IT support. This is achieved by bringing extra hands and valuable tech expertise to the mix. We are considered part-time IT. You literally can now hire a percentage of a person and avoid busting your budget. IT management becomes a shared responsibility between a third party and internal staff gives your business the best of both worlds.
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