I recently was asked how I define co-managed IT services. This is a really great question, because if you can’t define your business, you are in trouble.
Q: Robin, how do you define a co-managed service provider?
A: Co-managed is where you’re targeting mid-market or enterprise companies that are large enough to have one or more dedicated IT people. When I say dedicated, I’m not talking about the office manager who also acts as tech support. I’m talking about a company that has a dedicated network admin or something to that effect. Right now, the sweet spot is a company that has 1 to 5 IT people for smaller MSPs and what they’re doing is they’re going in and customizing a managed services agreement where they’re supporting those IT people with ticketing tools, data backup, help-desk support, or whatever support they need.
It just depends, you might go into a company and they might find somebody who’s a good help-desk person, but they’re not a network engineer or they’re not well versed on security. They’ll come into a Co-managed arrangement where you handle the help-desk, will give you and set up our ticketing system, and then you can elevate tickets up to my team and we’ll handle those. You handle the ones in-house and that’s a co managed IT environment. There are sessions up on the TMT dashboard about this.
In short, co-managed services give organizations the freedom to customize their IT services by helping them decide which services to keep in house and which would be better suited for outsourcing. As an MSP owner, you need to understand this simple principle to sell IT services effectively.
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Co-managed IT agreements are becoming more popular with MSPs because companies are outsourcing. Co-managed agreements aren’t typically based on the number of users in a company, but rather the number of dedicated IT employees that company has. That said, what you tend to find is that once companies get north of 50 or 75 users, they are going to start having an in-house IT person, but it’s not a hard, fast rule. There is a definite trend of more companies not bringing IT in-house, but outsourcing because of their cybersecurity and regulatory compliance needs.
Labor shortages are driving this as well. It’s really hard, as MSP owners know, to find great IT people. And so instead of having to hire someone for that incremental amount of work, companies are increasingly looking to partner with an MSP in a co-managed IT agreement.
Using Co-Managed IT Services Definition To Attract New Clients
Here’s some of the main selling points of CoMIT that you can use…
The idea of co-managed IT services has been gaining a lot of attention in recent years as businesses try to make the most of their technology investments. But what is co-managed IT, and why should businesses consider it? That is the question you have to answer for prospects.
Simply put, co-managed IT involves using both in-house and external experts for IT support and maintenance. Instead of relying on a single IT team, businesses can tap into different resources, including outside providers that can bring specific expertise and help bolster internal resources. It’s a partnership between internal and external IT professionals to make sure your business’s infrastructure remains secure, efficient and compliant.
The key benefits of co-managed IT include having access to additional skills and resources from the external provider when needed; taking advantage of technology cost savings; improved reliability through better disaster recovery planning; better monitoring with fewer service outages; increased efficiency by utilizing shared tools, processes and resources; streamlined onboarding; improved scalability; faster response times; plus 24/7 availability.
In other words, you don’t have to be a big company to reap the rewards of comprehensive, managed IT services – or limit your potential because you don’t have the personnel or technical knowledge required to manage every aspect of your IT infrastructure. With co-managed services, you can play to your strengths while outsourcing those areas where you may lack the skill set or know-how. You will gain access to up-to-date security protocols, technological advances in the form of cloud solutions and integrated technologies like Artificial Intelligence (AI), as well as complete end-user support without needing an in-house specialist team dedicated solely to this task.
With so many potential advantages, it’s easy to see why so many companies are choosing co-managed IT services today. If you’re looking for more information about how this innovative approach could benefit your organization, speak with an experienced managed services provider who will provide expert advice tailored to your individual needs.
