What is a Managed Service Provider?

IT is one of the most crucial departments in most companies. Technology and business processes depend on the success of your IT department. The level of focus needed to align IT with business needs requires a lot of time, resources and knowledge. These are all things that prevent you from focusing 100% on your business objectives.‎

‎Working with an MSP starts with an assessment. Discover the possibilities!‎

Werken met een MSP begint bij een assessment. Ontdek de mogelijkheden!

 
 

What is an MSP

‎An MSP provides managed services to organizations, which usually involves‎‎ managing ‎ all or part of their IT infrastructure remotely. ‎ ‎This as stated in the service-level agreement (SLA) between the two parties.‎ Services such as 24×7 monitoring, troubleshooting, network security and IT asset management all fall within the scope of MSPs. Pricing models for MSPs are based on pre-made agreements. ‎

‎Unlike traditional IT service providers, MSPs tend to ‎‎ take ‎‎360° responsibility ‎‎for the services outsourced to them rather than just working on a project basis. ‎An MSP can be seen as ‎ ‎an extension of your company‎.‎‎ ‎‎ They provide expert advice when their clients need to make strategic IT decisions. In recent years, more and more organizations have opted for MSPs to ‎‎mitigate risk and be ready for future ‎‎technological ‎‎growth‎‎.‎

 

The difference between an MSP and a Break-Fix.

‎You have two types of service providers:‎

  1. Break-Fix Service Providers
  2. Managed Service Providers (MSP)

Break-Fix Service Providers

Break-fix service providers are great for organizations that don’t need heavy IT support. 

‎Break-fix service providers treat each issue as a separate case. A break-fix provider comes when you experience a problem but do not act proactively. You therefore remain fully responsible for the ins and outs of your IT environment. ‎

 

Managed Service Providers (MSP)

‎It’s an MSP’s job to proactively ensure that‎‎ ‎the customer’s business operates and innovates smoothly 24/7.‎ ‎‎ ‎‎To achieve this, an MSP performs a few things:‎

  • ‎ routine hardware maintenance to avoid problems ‎
  • ‎continuous helpdesk and external IT support ‎
  • ‎automation of security patches and software updates‎
  • ‎helping with IT consultancy (vCIO).‎

What are the priorities of a Managed Service Provider?

Security is a priority

‎MSPs know that securing a customer’s data is a top priority. The reason for this is that the entire business of an MSP depends on the trust that customers place in them with their IT infrastructure and data. ‎Any breach of security would damage the customer’s image and their own.‎ This is why MSPs go beyond their noses ‎‎to protect their customers’ data. An MSP does this by implementing fully managed and layered network security. This helps you prevent cybersecurity threats, maintain business continuity, and prevent data loss. Apart from that, MSPs also play a major role in data backup and disaster recovery.‎


Helping customers meet their business needs

‎The main objective of an MSP is to prevent problems and monitor business continuity. To achieve that goal, MSPs implement and manage solutions that fit their customer’s business needs. ‎They help their clients with budgeting, planning (understanding long- and short-term needs) and the implementation of the latest solutions.


Helping customers innovate

‎To scale, every company needs to innovate. The case is often that organizations then have to perform certain time-consuming, stressful and intensive activities, such as migrating to the cloud or switching to other software. An MSP can be a boon for such activities. ‎‎They help organizations ‎save valuable time and resources by taking on IT projects (large or small),‎ spending less money by implementing best practices, and providing cost-effective ways to implement new technologies.‎