Why choose managed services?

Managed services: many advantages

Would you like to entrust your IT infrastructure to experts? Then managed services are perfect for you and offer undeniable technical and financial advantages.

The technical advantages of managed services

The benefits of managed services are mainly technical, particularly if you do not have sufficient skills internally. Managed services businesses employ experts who will know how to reactively ensure the continuity of your information services in the case of a failure or malfunction. Most of the time managed services packages include access to technical support 24/7 every day of the week, and guarantee a rapid intervention time depending on the bundle you sign up for. If you have considerable maintenance requirements and a significant IT infrastructure, don’t hesitate to also opt for additional services, such as system monitoring in real time, regular monitoring to anticipate bugs and failures, a security audit to ensure the completeness of your data, and the rapid replacement of components that no longer work, etc. The regular backup of your data is, in most cases, taken care of by your provider of managed services. IKOULA offers you several managed services packages with customised options that can extend right up to the administration of your websites and your databases so that you can concentrate on the heart of your business.

Any other advantages? A managed services provider is constantly on the lookout for new technology and will provide you the best solutions on the market for your information system and thus help you optimise your daily tasks. If you need to develop your infrastructure, a provider like IKOULA will guide you towards the best solution, both in terms of cost and performance.

The human and financial advantages of managed services

If you are a small organisation, using managed services can help you avoid hiring a dedicated employee for the task if your requirements are not great enough to necessitate a full-time role. The implementation of an information system and its maintenance can be highly complex, particularly if your profession is far removed from the new technology sector. A managed services provider can offer you a scalable package tailored to your needs. You can entrust this provider with all or part of the maintenance of your workstations, servers, or software. This can range from simply intervening in the case of failure or malfunction, to administration in real time, in connection with a dedicated contact partner. Any other benefits? Your managed services provider will have an overview of the entirety of your information system. This makes it a long-term solution in contrast to making use of a multitude of subcontractors that often only have a partial overview of your infrastructure.

The prices are highly accessible and will allow you to optimise your expenditure since managed services facilitates rapid response in the case of failure and prevents interruption to your business continuity. This is even more important if you sell goods and services, or if you are developing within a strategic sector where reactivity is key. In general, service providers will offer you a monthly flat rate that you can scale up if your requirements increase.

How to choose your managed services provider

Before choosing a managed services provider, you need to define your needs: the service level (basic or customised), the size of your infrastructure, the number of dedicated services or cloud, the amount of hardware to maintain, and the budget you have available for this. Once your requirements specification has been defined, certain criteria are indispensable for high-performing managed services:

1. The variety of packages offered. Even if, for the moment, you only have low requirements, this may change and your provider needs to be capable of easily offering you more extensive solutions.
2. Constant access to technical support.
3. A periodic security audit is a great advantage for anticipating issues.
4. A rapid intervention time in the case of failure or malfunction.
5. Access to dashboards summarising incidents and interventions, as well as reporting tools.
6. If you need a high level of service, don’t hesitate to opt for managed services with dedicated technical experts.
7. If you have highly specific restrictions as regards security and/or criticality, make sure that the provider offers tailor-made solutions.

Whatever your needs, we recommend you compare several offers and opt for the provider best suited to your restrictions. Before getting in touch with an expert or sales representative from your chosen service provider(s), prepare a list of questions that will allow you to expand on your needs and help you opt for a long-term and high-performing solution.

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