RJ2 Perspective
Written by: Jeff Dann, President of RJ2 Technologies
Co-Managed IT Services (CoMIT): Empowering Your IT Team
Many businesses deal with internal IT personnel that operate as generalists supporting the user community, the servers, then network and a whole list of additional duties; like line of business applications, cyber security compliance regulations, compliance, and staff training. For most businesses, the decision has been a hard choice of investing in inhouse staff versus the outsourcing to a professional Managed Service Provider. Today there are more options to consider by implementing a co-managed IT environment where internal staff and consultants work together by divide and conquer all the IT requirements for business efficiency.
An MSP brings capacity and a diversified expertise to the table, so your inhouse staff is assigned tasks according to what they do best, and you hire an MSP to focus on the skill sets that require a more unique level of experience, such as network management, cyber security, or compliance. Think of the benefits for your inhouse team to have readily available expertise to escalate issues to and mentor them through issues developing their skill sets. Meanwhile, as technology changes, you have expertise to rapidly implement new solutions at relatively the same cost of hiring and training new personnel and all the hidden costs there as well. You now have a built-in buffer for downtime due to staff sicknesses, vacations, or replacement of staff. You now have a team that can come up beside the business while you decide your position on going forward.
Here are three situations where CoMIT will benefit your organization:
1. Your IT staff is limited in size or experience
Plenty of successful companies operate with one or two generalist IT staff in-house and occasionally need additional hands to meet the IT needs of the company. In addition, businesses can easily find themselves in positions where their internal resources cannot accomplish a given technology challenge or opportunity.
With CoMIT, small or larger size businesses can tap into additional workforce and expertise when needed.
For example, leadership could determine that in-house IT staff will focus on day-to-day tasks of employee operations while the MSP can be asked to manage the network operations and other duties that require unique skill sets, such as cyber security, while being available for escalations of the IT staff personnel.
2. Your in-house IT team is overworked
SMBs can find its IT department is getting overworked, even larger in-house teams can find themselves in this situation. Seasonal swings, special projects and fast growth can all put additional pressure on existing IT teams.
CoMIT services allows businesses to bring in only the resources it needs when it needs them.
CoMIT services can also help relieve the pressure on a busy service desk staff. This helps prevent the tickets from piling up on the overworked staff and increases the response and resolution time for trouble tickets from other staff members.
3. Your in-house IT team lacks experience with an upcoming project
With business strategy and technology in a constant state of change, businesses are often tasked with opportunities to implement new IT systems and programs. Existing in-house IT teams may not have the experience needed to successfully plan, implement and/or maintain an upcoming initiative.
CoMIT services can provide businesses with a broad range of experience and deep bench of experts beyond that of the existing in-house staff. Good MSPs are regularly sending their engineers to continuing education courses and encouraging them to get professional certifications. Also, due to working with various clients, they have also seen and worked through all kinds of issues, which are valuable learning lessons. These are strengths businesses can tap into with co-managed IT services.
