Did you know that 15% of most companies’ IT budget goes to managed services?

Aside from this 15%, most small businesses spend upwards of 50% on upgrading IT infrastructure, over 30% on IT and data security, and at least shifting around 10% due to the need of prioritizing IT projects.

All of these budget allocations and IT buzzwords can seem overwhelming, which makes us ask the question, perhaps managed IT services are a better choice?

Keep reading to find out the difference between outsourced IT services and managed IT services.

What Are Outsourced IT Services?

If we’re going to analyze what outsourced IT services are we’d have to talk about a rather large variety of tasks which, actually, includes managed IT services and hospitality IT solutions.

Basically, you’d be hiring an external source to do what an internal IT department would usually do. These services are usually just delivering IT business processes and supporting business functions.

The most notable characteristic about outsourced IT services is that they operate with a break-fix mentality, only once something needs servicing or fixing, do outsourced IT services make an appearance.

What Are Managed IT Services?

The focus of managed IT is slightly different because they offer an entire array of management tools in order for businesses to offload IT processes.

These tools can be anything from IT training for your internal staff to monitoring IT processes and providing support.

In actual fact, what happens is you allow managed IT services to take over a small part of your business and then use their skills and specialized expertise to help you navigate towards achieving business goals. These business goals are usually discussed with the MSP at the start of the contract.

The most notable characteristic of managed IT services benefits is that you make the choice because you want access to specialists who know their field so well that they can run that part of your business better than you or your staff.

Outsourced Vs. Managed IT Services

Let’s have a look at the deliverables for each of these services, in that way, we can get a great overview of the differences between the services that each two provide.

Outsourced IT services usually include:
  • Technical support
  • Support for external and internal communications
  • Data recovery and management
  • Email and server management
  • Infrastructure installation and support
  • Security for business integrity
  • Web development and application support

Managed IT services usually include:

  • Strategic network management
  • Planned network security and network activity monitoring
  • Ongoing maintenance
  • Comprehensive end-to-end IT implementations

Can you see the notable differences between the two?

Outsourced IT services are usually a tactical approach and a short-term solution whereas the best managed IT services need to understand buy into your business goals and strategy to perform their function. If you’re looking for a solution, hit a search engine and type in MSP near me or IT services near me.

Making The Right Choice!

Ultimately, making the right choice is about understanding your business goals and your overall strategy. You know the vision for your business, which option is going to help you get there? Will it be outsourced or managed IT services?

Do you need someone to help with hardware repairs? Or do you need a provider to grow, strategically, with your business?

We’ve given you the tools that you need to make the right choice!

If you need more IT advice, head on over to our tech section, we’ve got you covered.