What is an MSP? How Can it Help Your Business?

Let’s get back to basics and tackle a few common questions. What is an MSP? How can it help your business? MSP stands for “managed service provider.” It is the outsourcing of services to specialist companies. Outsourcing is a great cost-cutting move. Let’s go and see why MSPs can be an advantage for your company.

What Can an MSP or Managed Service Provider Do?

An MSP is outsourced IT services. This means you are handing over the reins of your IT system to a team outside of your office. Here’s what MSPs can do:

• Manage IT infrastructure
• Add cybersecurity hardening to your IT systems
• Offer technical support to your team
• Manage user access on systems
• Offer fully managed system outsourcing

MSPs also offer remote storage and servers, and can provide SaaS (software as a service). MSPs can supply hard-to-find IT skills and expertise to prevent problems that may happen on a client’s system, or give assistance to users.

Benefits of MSPs or Managed Service Providers

There are a lot. Not only will an MSP make your IT support system better, you get to cut costs too:

• Fill in for in-house staff if there are shortages
• Cover for in-office disasters
• Data backup management to prevent data loss
• Scalable—add resources little by little, or temporarily
• No need to compete for limited qualified IT experts
• A staff of highly qualified people available to everyone
• No need for an office for your IT team

An MSP can be a replacement for your IT department entirely, or provide a service in a specific niche. Like technology, MSPs continue to evolve and can provide their skills anywhere around the world. This means everyone gets cutting-edge technology at a very reasonable price.

The Tools That MSPs Use

An MSP can provide the right know-how and resolution to their customers, but gone are the days of simple phone support. MSPs use specialized software to make it all happen.

RMM, or remote monitoring and management, is a set of tools that allows an MSP to maintain your IT system even when the technician is off-site. They can automate processes, provide remote assistance, and perform remote installs or updates. They can also use these tools internally to connect to the MSP’s bank of techs, making sure the problem is looked at by multiple specialists. RMM tools also include automated processes that monitor tasks such as system updates and network performance.

PSA, or professional services automation, is another set of tools in the MSP’s arsenal. The MSP uses it to supervise in-house employees and service the clients’ staff. PSA tools oversee the distribution of work to techs, record the time spent, and track the resources that were used. All of this data then flows through to billing.

Conclusion

The movement of more work into the remote field has brought MSPs to the forefront of IT servicing. The ability to do nearly everything your IT system needs without a physical presence is a great plus in the new normal. All these skills and all these tools from an MSP, available for a cost far lower than a specialized IT team in your office—MSPs are here to stay and can provide the solution we need today. If you are considering outsourcing your IT, we want to show you what Boom Logic can do for your company. Let’s talk.