Understanding the role and services of a managed service provider (MSP) is crucial for modern enterprises aiming to optimize their IT infrastructure.
MSPs offer a range of services that can significantly enhance a company's efficiency and performance.
This article explores the various types of managed services, the specific roles MSPs play in global enterprise connectivity, and how they can streamline and scale business operations.
A managed service provider (MSP) is a third-party vendor tasked with remotely managing a company’s IT assets and corresponding infrastructure.
The capabilities of an MSP vary widely. Some vendors specialize in areas like cybersecurity or cloud computing, while others generalize to offer holistic support.
MSPs are attractive to companies because they offer high-quality services—often bundled with hardware and software—at a lower cost than it would take for customers to employ in-house resources.
The different types of managed services MSPs offer include advisory, sourcing, implementation, expense management, ongoing support, and lifecycle optimization.
MSPs offer expert advisory services to help businesses develop effective connectivity strategies for multi-location enterprises. These services include designing robust infrastructure and guiding companies in making the wisest technology decisions. This ensures businesses adopt the most appropriate and cost-effective solutions.
MSPs assist enterprises with technology sourcing for hardware, software, and connectivity resources. MSPs leverage their industry connections to secure competitive pricing, ensuring that every location receives top-tier connectivity without wasting in-house resources. This support helps enterprise teams save time and reduce costs associated with procurement.
MSPs provide comprehensive implementation assistance to ensure new systems are deployed and configured smoothly. They focus on seamless integration with existing infrastructure, minimizing setup time and avoiding disruptions to business operations. This service ensures that businesses quickly leverage new technologies and maintain productivity.
MSPs offer ongoing connectivity support to maintain optimal enterprise technology performance. This includes continuous monitoring, regular maintenance, and prompt troubleshooting. By proactively managing connectivity support, MSPs reduce downtime and ensure reliable network performance.
MSPs offer Technology Expense Management (TEM) services. They provide comprehensive visibility into invoices, inventory, and expenses. This includes expense validation, dispute resolution, AP/GL feeds for payment, and automated bill payments.
MSPs handle invoice management by receiving, loading, validating, and exporting allocations for payment. They also proactively dispute incorrect fees, process renewals, manage inventory, and validate expenses to secure carrier credits. TEM oversight results in significant cost savings for multi-location enterprises.
MSPs assist businesses in optimizing the lifecycle of connectivity solutions. They evaluate and recommend the most effective technologies and practices, ensuring that companies benefit from the latest advancements. Additionally, MSPs save enterprises during renewal periods by negotiating better terms and identifying opportunities for efficiency improvements.
MSPs play a crucial role in ensuring seamless global enterprise connectivity by bridging the gap in expertise and technology that many enterprises lack. They provide the necessary flexibility, scalability, and innovative solutions to meet the evolving networking needs of businesses on a global scale.
MSPs bring deep knowledge of legacy systems, navigate regional regulations and compliance requirements, and assess local vendor reliability. They also understand cultural preferences, which can significantly impact the procurement and implementation process.
By leveraging MSPs, enterprises ensure that their global connectivity solutions are state-of-the-art and precisely aligned with their unique goals. MSPs handle the time-consuming burden of ensuring multi-location connectivity, allowing in-house teams to focus on their core operations and strategic goals.
Let’s explore how MSPs meet specific enterprise-level requirements.
MSPs offer valuable expertise when enterprises need to upgrade outdated systems and migrate them to the cloud. They recommend the most appropriate cloud model and associated vendors based on goals and functionality.
Whether public, private, hybrid, or multi-cloud, the most suitable solution meets the desired scalability and security conditions for global expansion.
Unplanned outages are detrimental to business continuity. MSPs maintain data centers for performance and availability at peak operating times. They also monitor and secure DCs to flag potential issues like storage utilization, cyber vulnerabilities, and bandwidth shortages.
MSPs have the knowledge base to implement next-generation connectivity solutions. Harnessing 5G gives enterprises enhanced reliability and faster data speeds to improve the application of video, collaboration tools, and IoT devices.
MSPs also assist with integrating IoT devices into current infrastructures and ensure their communication with edge devices for informed decision-making.
Safeguarding global enterprise networks requires a level of security posture most businesses can’t handle on their own. MSPs implement comprehensive security measures, including firewalls, intrusion detection, encryption protocols, and zero-trust strategies.
They also conduct regular vulnerability assessments and audits to flag and patch weaknesses.
Maintaining compliance at regional and local levels is a challenge. MSPs have in-depth knowledge of these frameworks, helping enterprises navigate the challenges of GDPR, HIPAA, and other regulatory frameworks.
They possess the ability to implement data protection measures, conduct privacy assessments, and maintain detailed audit trails.
An enterprise's technology needs evolve as the business grows. MSPs offer guidance on scalable solutions and how to identify the key performance indicators (KPIs) that determine these changes.
Adding users, integrating new assets, or expanding into fresh markets require IT to support these changes. MSPs manage these updates so the business may prioritize other areas.
When in-house teams manage global enterprise infrastructure, the administrative costs and complex skills required increase expenses. Overseeing the multitude of vendor relationships places an additional burden on internal resources.
The average enterprise uses 367 IT apps and systems. Managing contracts, coping with billing issues, circumventing redundancies, and optimizing the technology lifecycle is a lot for in-house teams to navigate on top of their primary duties.
Advantage removes the stress of lifecycle management, considerably reducing the time in-house teams waste when they need to work on other things.
As a leader in global enterprise connectivity, Advantage’s experts streamline vendor management, consolidate resources, and optimize assets for maximum operational efficiency without inundating in-house teams.
MSPs provide a broad spectrum of services, from cybersecurity to cloud computing, making them a cost-effective solution for managing IT assets.
Key services like cloud integration, data center management, 5G and IoT advancements, cybersecurity, compliance, and scalability are essential for maintaining global enterprise connectivity.
Third-party experts ensure seamless global connectivity by offering advisory, sourcing, implementation, expense management, ongoing support, and lifecycle optimization.
Advantage's holistic approach to enterprise connectivity management reduces administrative burdens and optimizes resources, allowing in-house teams to focus on strategic goals.
Discover how much time your team will save managing every aspect of enterprise connectivity. Contact the experts at Advantage today!