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Managing different IT vendor relationships and contracts presents a substantial challenge for businesses with multiple locations.
Juggling diverse service agreements and maintaining consistency in service and support across various providers requires keen attention, strains internal resources, and inevitably leads to financial and operational inefficiencies.
Embracing single-source IT solutions offers a streamlined approach to these challenges. This article provides insight into how simplifying IT management can be incredibly smart for businesses with a range of locations.
Difficulty managing multiple vendor relationships and contracts
We can't overlook the increased administrative burden of invoice management. Managing vendors in-house requires intensive resources, as every vendor introduces a unique set of service agreements and operational standards.
Consider a finance team with over 30 global offices using different vendors. They must process and reconcile dozens of invoices each month, each with its own billing cycle, pricing model, and potential for billing errors.
The strain on internal resources, financial discrepancies, and inefficient communication cause recurring operational delays and inconsistencies.
Challenges in achieving seamless integration
Relying on small teams to achieve seamless integration in a multi-vendor IT environment is fraught with challenges. Issues stem from the inherent communication barriers between diverse IT systems with distinct protocols and interfaces.
When a business uses separate managed service providers for upgrading old legacy systems, cloud systems, CRM implementation, or cybersecurity, the lack of a unified protocol prevents enterprise systems from syncing correctly. This inevitably leads to network disruptions like delayed customer responses or compromised data security.
Higher overall costs due to lack of consolidated pricing
One of the primary cost drivers in multi-sourced IT environments is the lack of consolidated pricing.
Enterprises find themselves in weaker positions when negotiating with multiple vendors separately, missing out on the potential savings telecom expense management providers get with their collection of accounts. They lack the negotiating power to get a better rate and also pay for redundancy through overlapping services that offer the same benefits.
As a result, costs associated with this process escalate quickly, as additional support from external consultants or specialized tools is needed, and any benefits gained from handling individual providers in-house are lost.
While individual vendors might seem to offer competitive rates, the aggregate cost in a multi-MSP setup is higher.
Difficulty managing multiple MSPs
Most managed service providers don’t service every aspect of enterprise connectivity, which leads to hiring several managed service providers for one project.
Fragmented approaches to connectivity service management create additional hurdles for in-house teams. Third-party management is resource-intensive for small IT teams, leading to inefficient time use and company-wide operational delays.
Working with holistic connectivity MSPs opens the door to rates that aren’t otherwise available when you’re only negotiating on behalf of one company compared to dozens.
Simplified vendor management with a unified point of contact
A partner covering every pillar of enterprise connectivity simplifies vendor management by acting as a unified point of contact. A company partnering with this kind of partner MSP no longer needs to coordinate with multiple vendors for different IT needs. Instead, small IT teams work with one entity that understands its entire infrastructure.
What’s better? All vendors and contracts are accessible from one place instead of through a catalog of contact information in outdated spreadsheets. Unified management leads to easier budgeting and cost control as consolidated pricing models replace multiple, varied invoices. It also enhances operational efficiency and reliability due to the cohesive handling of all IT services.
What are the advantages of consolidating IT MSPs?
Partnering exclusively with one managed service provider for enterprise connectivity offers several valuable advantages for multi-location businesses, including:
- Cost-effectiveness
- Consistent service quality
- Simplified vendor management
- Streamlined integration and efficiency
A primary point of contact for in-house teams reduces overall expenses by consolidating services for a discount and streamlining management to save internal resources.
This approach ensures uniform performance and support for all IT operations and eases the complexity of handling multiple provider relationships. Working with one primary MSP for IT fosters system reliability and rapid response times with proven processes and skilled experts.
What consolidating MSPs with Advantage looks like
Consolidating IT connectivity with Advantage drastically reduces costs and management complications. On average, Advantage reduces the number of telecom providers from 20 to just 8 per office. What's more is the 20-40 percent cost savings in telecom, network, and cybersecurity.
Enterprises save approximately 300 man-hours annually otherwise lost on provider research, ineffective contract management, communication technology sourcing, and negotiating with providers. In some cases, Advantage will increase providers for certain locations to improve connectivity or secure the best possible rate for that location.
Advantages’s cost-negative approach passes the administrative expenses of technology lifecycle optimization onto providers. In addition to reducing monthly billing costs through better rates, clients don’t pay monthly service fees when they optimize the complete scope of telecommunications services.
Finally, a partnership with Advantage offers something other MSPs neglect, leaving clients to rely on in-house teams or pay for third-party developers—it breaks the mold with comprehensive implementation support.
Conclusion: Consolidate enterprise connectivity with Advantage
A consolidated approach to enterprise connectivity expense management, support, and implementation offers significant benefits. With this consolidation, multi-location businesses achieve substantial cost savings, consistent quality, simplified management, and efficient integration. These benefits are crucial for enterprises with multiple locations.
Partnering with Advantage’s global telecom connectivity experts leads to operational improvements, saves money on services, and ultimately pays for itself.
Stop holding IT teams back and start experiencing the benefits of holistic IT support; contact Advantage to optimize your business’s telecom services as part of a holistic approach to global enterprise connectivity management.