Managed IT services in 2021 and beyond

Information technology (IT) is the lifeline for many business processes. If you want to boost the productivity and cybersecurity in your company, you have to leverage the right technology. You can use technology in warehousing, customer management, and digital marketing, among many other areas.

However, the rate at which technology is changing might be difficult for you as a business owner to keep up with. As a result, going for managed IT services is the route many business owners are taking these days. The advantage of managed IT services is that you entrust all of your IT needs and responsibilities to a managed service provider. What’s more, this strategy has proven to be economical compared to having an in-house team. And with managed IT services, you benefit from using cutting-edge technology that improves your competitive advantage.

If you’re thinking of requesting managed IT services for your enterprise, you need to research the kinds of services you require and the provider’s expertise. This article gives you some of the trends in managed IT services that may benefit your business in the long run.

• Cloud Computing

In the recent past, the demand for cloud computing has seen a sudden upsurge. More business entities are transferring their operations to the cloud. Clouds are data centers located in several areas of the world. With cloud computing, there comes a myriad of advantages:

• This service provides a leading cybersecurity protocol. Because of that, you can transfer all of your business data—even the most sensitive ones—to the cloud without a problem.
• Cloud computing provides easy data access from anywhere using any device.
• It supports cross-platform use with different operating systems.

Besides those advantages, cloud computing supports collaboration. If you happen to have a hybrid model of staffing that comprises an in-house team and remote workers, you can easily work on tasks together. You can also synchronize events using an embedded calendar to ensure that all workers are updated with all upcoming company events.

Moreover, cloud computing offers automation services for repetitive tasks that help in business analytics to improve work efficiency and reduce human error.

• Cloud-Based VoIP Telephone System

A good number of businesses have veered away from the traditional telephone system that uses airtime. Cloud-based telephone service is used to call through the internet without the need to buy call time. To have this service, you need to identify a reputable service provider to network some desk phones for you, just like you network your computers. Like any other service that comes with cloud computing, you’re assured of cybersecurity and the privacy of your communications.

Voice over internet protocol (VoIP) telephones’ embedded capabilities are call forwarding, call recording, teleconferencing, voice conferencing, and a voice mail service. In case you make a call and it’s not answered, you can leave a message that your recipient will be able to listen to later on.

Moreover, cloud phone service can easily be integrated with your smartphone using an application. So even if you’re not in your office, you can comfortably receive and make calls from anywhere, which would give you flexibility and convenience.

• Internet Of Things (IoT)

IoT is a bridge that connects systems, devices, and services. Many businesses are leveraging this to develop a robust, secure, and effective way of exchanging information across devices without needing a central server. With the internet of things, you can collect data and transfer it to the cloud in real time. Therefore, you can monitor real-time data and make information-based decisions, which saves time. Businesses that have implemented IoT have gained from efficiency, accuracy in data collection, and reduced costs.

IoT is particularly essential in financial services as it helps your customers manage each aspect of their financial needs effectively and efficiently through the latest technology.

• Internet Of Behavior (IoB)

This technology is one of the most recent in the market. Big companies are focusing on building relationships between customers, employees, and vendors, which is an asset. As a result, IT companies develop applications that interact with businesses and their employees through the internet. This technology aims to provide a platform where employees can partner with one another and exchange business data without interacting with it directly.

The internet of behavior is a concept borrowed from IoT with the focus now being people, which has been a significant gain during the COVID-19 pandemic. It’s expected that this technology will grow further in the future, with social platforms incorporating machine learning mobile applications that aid in personalization and behavior tracking. Additionally, it’ll leverage internet-based services that employ artificial intelligence (AI) ability for client experience creation and segmentation.

Having known the importance of tracking and learning customer and employee behavior online, managed IT service providers have endeavored to offer this service to improve the way businesses engage with employees and customers alike.

• Mergers And Acquisitions

As the demand for managed IT services continues to skyrocket, many managed IT service providers have been pushed to the limits. Moreover, most of these businesses are specialized, which means they might be limited in what they can do for their clients. The result is that many are opting to engage in acquisitions, joint ventures, competitive alliances, and other strategies that facilitate their economies of scale.

Large managed service providers (MSPs) have acquired smaller ones for industry or geographic expansion. On the other hand, small MSPs have resorted to key strategic partnerships to provide advanced services out of their specialization and complimentary to their area of expertise, such as security needs.

Even though expertise can be developed in the company premises, acquisitions and mergers help MSPs level up their services cost-effectively, improve their revenues, get into a new market, and gain a competitive advantage.

• Automation

Unlike the understanding of many people, automation isn’t meant to eliminate the need for human labor. On the contrary, it’s aimed at increasing the productivity of your employees and increase business output within the standard time frame. This is because after automating repetitive processes, your employees are free to focus on other responsibilities, which enhances productivity, saves time, and reduces human error.

Some of the processes you can opt to automate in your business include billing management, reporting, data processing, and data analysis. Additionally, you can automate customer-related services such as customer care. If you’re operating an e-commerce shop, you can ask the company that manages your website to automate the payment system for easy and effective self-service by customers.

• Blockchain

As the name infers, blockchain is a set of data that can be put together to form a chain without the need to take any data away or causing changes. This data is controlled through agreement and not by a single entity, which makes blockchain one of the leading and most secure technologies out there.

Once you’ve implemented blockchain technology, you don’t need third-party applications to supervise and authenticate transactions. That said, blockchain is a relevant technology that’s been widely accepted in banking and finance, not forgetting other areas of technology and business.

• Artificial Intelligence

AI is one of the technologies that require a massive investment in terms of money and labor. It aims to reduce the level of human reliance and involvement in an establishment. If your business is data-centered, you may need artificial intelligence solutions for data gathering. Moreover, machine learning algorithms can help you create solutions that are critical in parsing large amounts of data.

Computer vision monitoring, another form of AI, is widely used in social infrastructures to give efficient self-learning algorithms that can predict demand and help in decision-making without human intervention. For businesses to stay at the top, they’ll require intelligent tools that can read and analyze customers’ behavior and shifts to always be ready ahead of time.

Another area of intensive application of artificial intelligence is in health care, where remote intelligent assistance and assessment are on the rise. Moreover, using this technology, you can track the prevalence of diseases and monitor or track the recovery of patients. Additionally, AI is used to diagnose a patient’s symptoms and provide a prescription of medication. It makes remote health care management systems possible as well.

You can also use artificial intelligence on your website to attend to your customers’ needs. This is possible through the implementation of online chatbots. With a chatbot that monitors customer behavior and provides the required solutions, you may not need a human agent attending to your website 24/7.

• Cybersecurity

Keeping an eye on cyberspace for possible cyberattacks from hackers and malware is a daunting task for many businesses. As a result, it behooves many business owners to surrender security duties to professional cybersecurity service providers.

Implementing the latest cybersecurity technologies for many small businesses is a costly project, so managed IT services might be the best option. Managed IT services can monitor your organization’s internet connection to identify potential attacks and mitigate them early enough before they’re executed.

Moreover, cybersecurity requires a high level of expertise that many small businesses don’t have, which necessitates outsourcing the expertise and tools to managed service providers. Apart from securing your internet, MSPs offer protection to your business devices such as desktops, laptops, and mobile gadgets. Managed IT providers can accomplish some tasks remotely, such as installing relevant security software on your devices.

Wrapping Up

Soon, managed IT services might be the norm when setting up IT infrastructure in businesses. One of the fueling factors for this is the rate at which technology is changing, which not all business owners can handle well, so they opt for managed IT services. Additionally, modern technology is expensive, but with managed IT services, you can take advantage of it at a fraction of the standard cost.