Managed IT services help CIOs leverage the scalability, flexibility, and functionality of the cloud to drive growth and innovation while reducing operating expenses.

CIOs today are leading corporate efforts to migrate services to the cloud to leverage scalability, flexibility, and functionality. These migrations allow companies to exploit new technologies that are revolutionizing the way work is done, the products and services that can be developed, and the way to interact with customers in the moment of need.

Yet CIOs, even as they innovate and drive new technological innovation and collaboration, still need to worry about performance, security, and optimization of business systems for growth. Business continuity and development persist as vital markers of success for IT departments and their leaders.

That is why managed IT services continue to be the smart choice of forward-looking and forward-thinking CIOs. By shifting some IT services to outsourced platforms and professionals, CIOs are better able to use internal services for necessary innovation and product or service development.

Here are 17 reasons smart CIOs leverage managed IT services.

1. Cost control. With managed IT services, companies gain predictability in monthly and annual costs through fixed monthly fees for services. There is no variability in utility costs, staff training, security, and ongoing maintenance, as the outsourced provider instead manages all those services. You will also shift IT costs from large capital outlays to operating expenses.
2. Lower labor costs. Restrictive obligations burden many IT teams to maintain legacy systems, often with employees with niche skill sets that can prove disastrous if those employees leave or are out of the office due to illness or vacation. In addition, companies using managed IT do not bear the burdens of recruiting, hiring, onboarding, and training new additions to the IT team.
3. Future-proofing. Companies often struggle with the question of adoption. Do you become an early adopter, with the high risks and high rewards that come with technology innovation? Or do you wait it out until technologies and practices are more established and costs are lower? Managed IT services do not force such choices. Providers are on top of the latest innovations and can deliver new opportunities from new technologies more quickly, without your company bearing the costs of implementation.
4. Infrastructure Resilience. You want your systems to be available and functioning fully every minute of every hour of every day. For in-house IT teams, this can be a burdensome demand. Not so with managed IT services that are usually contractually obligated to deliver services at a high level continuously.
5. Centralization. A managed IT network structure allows for all your applications and systems to be centralized. It also allows companies to leverage technologies such as enterprise resource planning modules that capitalize on centralized data to provide real-time analyses and faster decision-making.
6. Convergence. Managed IT services rely on a convergence of connectivity. This means that employees working in satellite locations, on multiple devices and systems, and at different times, can all access the same data at the same time. There’s no need to worry about latency, translation, or connectivity when all employees can review, use, and input information in the same system at the same time.
7. Business continuity and disaster recovery. You need to have the assurance that your company can continue its operations in the face of natural disaster. Managed IT services rely on multiple data and application backups. This redundancy ensures that damage to your physical location will not affect the operational use of your systems. It means you can continue serving customers during disruptive occurrences while returning to normalcy faster. Managed IT services have intentionally designed resilience that maintains your business and the businesses that rely on your products and services.
8. Security and compliance. Today, every company feels vulnerable to attacks from external and internal players that can result in the loss of data, functionality, and proprietary information. IT leaders also worry about ransomware that can grind systems and businesses to a halt. Keeping company and customer data safe and secure is paramount. Whether it is protecting customer data, privacy, or tracking and traceability of foods, medical devices, and pharmaceuticals, regulators expect detailed information that can be accessed immediately. With managed IT services, you are investing in physical and digital security that is top-shelf. Managed IT companies worth their salt use the latest and best encryption, cybersecurity, monitoring, and reporting tools to detect and prevent attacks at the source. Take the worry away, along with the need for in-house expertise and monitoring for each system you oversee, by outsourcing to managed IT solutions.
9. Efficiency and competitiveness. To remain competitive today, companies need to reduce operational inefficiencies. With managed IT services, you will equip your employees with the tools they need to collaborate with each other, with supply chain partners, and with customers in ways that previously were impractical if not impossible.
10. Faster technological response. Customer needs and industries are shifting rapidly. New players that previously were not involved in certain industries are using new technologies in different ways to disrupt markets, gain market share, and drive nonresponsive companies into obsolescence. Once an opportunity is identified, it can take months to hire and train employees. Managed IT services let companies respond to new technologies faster, without needing to wait for capital expenditures to be approved, systems and vendors identified, new tools installed, and employees trained. You will save time and money and get to market faster with experience built into your managed IT solution.
11. Risk Reduction. Every business carries with it the burden of risk. Managed IT providers bear the burden of this risk, ensuring that companies are compliant with regulatory requirements and that technologies are available quickly. These providers remain agnostically focused on providing the best security and innovation to attract and retain customers like your company.
12. External expertise. It is vexing to many CIOs when expertise becomes costly. In some cases, the expertise lies with a few employees on niche systems. In other cases, companies pay a premium for outside consulting that makes it frustrating and expensive. Bringing such experience in-house is often not practical with sophisticated expertise that may be needed rarely or only once during system selection, installation, and training.

Companies that shift applications to managed IT solutions will save space and utility costs as they shift services to cloud-based platforms.

13. Green operations. With a reduction in the utility costs needed to operate and cool system servers, companies can leverage a marked drop in electricity and cooling expenses. This drop in utility costs lessens many carbon footprints with a migration to virtual tools.
14. Scalability. One of the trickiest educated guesses many CIOs have had to make is on the capacity for new systems. Select a system that is too small, and the company may be hampered in the future by technology that cannot grow at the pace desired by business leaders. Choose a system that is too big, and you are paying for functionality and capacity that may not ever be needed. Managed IT services work differently, embracing the need for flexibility expansion or contraction as companies evolve and new businesses, products, services, markets, or segments present themselves. Managed IT lets companies scale nearly immediately, ensuring they are ready to respond to new opportunities as they emerge.
15. Certification and training. IT training is highly variable and often system-specific. With managed IT solutions, you can be confident that your provider’s employees have the capabilities, experiences, and training on the systems you use and that they are committed to your needs. You will also gain from the experiences of other customers of a managed IT service provider; they have probably seen it before and understand any issues or questions you may have with your systems.
16. Leveling the field. Often, smaller companies find themselves on the sidelines due to their inability to respond as quickly as larger, more well established, and better-heeled companies. Managed IT services levels that playing field, giving your company the speed, size, flexibility, and capabilities of larger competitors.
17. New uses for IT staff. Your in-house IT staff is talented and committed to the enterprise. By freeing up internal personnel from the routine needs and demands of IT systems, those internal staff can be redeployed to other areas and projects that maximize their expertise, experience, and knowledge.

At Denovo, we offer extensive managed IT services. With our foundation services, we provide companies with infrastructure management, platform management, functional support, and disaster recovery. We work with multiple cloud services, including Oracle Cloud, Amazon Web Services, our own Denovo Cloud, or your on-site functionality.

Our software and consulting services allow you to eliminate hundreds of hours of technical work to get your managed IT services operational rapidly.

With Denovo, you will lower operating costs, improve efficiency, and incorporate multiple functions in a single support model. To learn more about how managed IT services can drive growth and innovation at your company, contact us today.

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