Imagine you work for an accounting firm without any IT professionals on staff. Although you’re officially employed as an accountant, you’re fairly tech-savvy, so you volunteer to handle everyone’s support needs. However, as the firm takes on more clients, acting as tech support on top of your regular job duties starts to get stressful. Some of the firm’s clients are also Fortune 100 and 500 companies that need assistance in dealings with insurers, so they have high-level compliance and cybersecurity requirements.
The scenario you’re imagining unfolded in real life for a client of ours. For that accounting firm, partnering with Stratosphere Networks for managed IT services and our Managed Security Service Provider (MSSP) offering made life much easier for the staff member who previously handled tech support. He was able to devote more time and energy to his accounting responsibilities.
That case study is just one example of how outsourcing IT can drive productivity within your organization. Partnering with a managed service provider (MSP) can potentially help you and your in-house staff accomplish more in the same amount of time in numerous ways.
In addition to lightening the workload of in-house team members who handle tech support, here are some other examples of how outsourcing IT can boost productivity.
1. Automating mundane tasks.
With our Platform as a Service (PaaS) solution, we can make time-consuming tasks like upgrades, software management and critical system monitoring automatic. One of our clients – a global firm based in Italy with their North American headquarters in Illinois – was growing rapidly and didn’t have the resources to keep up with their increasing IT needs. We deployed our PaaS offering, and now their in-house IT team can get more done thanks to automation as well as access to other advanced tools and features. You can read the full story here: Automated Solutions Provider Case Study
2. Ensuring quick disaster recovery.
Having robust disaster recovery and business continuity solutions and services on your side can make all the difference when a catastrophe occurs. One of our former clients, a private practice located in a hospital, credited the Stratosphere Networks team with saving their livelihoods when a flood threatened to disrupt their operations. Our team rapidly rerouted their phones to another floor and recovered their data. Ultimately, they didn’t lose any electronic medical records or even have to cancel any appointments.
3. Identifying and implementing new technologies that empower remote workers.
Now that working from home has become the norm, outsourcing IT can help businesses ensure they have remote work solutions in place that allow their staff members to stay productive no matter where they are or what type of device they’re using.
For example, we helped a nonprofit organization switch from an on-prem PBX to a cloud phone system. Our consultants also determined that going serverless via SharePoint and OneDrive made more sense for the client than replacing their old server, which would have led to a capital expenditure of approximately $20,000.
In addition to saving quite a bit, they’ve enjoyed greater efficiency and productivity for their workers as a result of the cloud phone system and serverless environment. Here’s the full story: Containing Costs and Increasing Security and Accessibility by Migrating to the Cloud and Going Serverless
4. Rapidly restoring operations after security incidents.
Data breaches can bring your business to a screeching halt. That happened to a client of ours that suffered a ransomware infection that encrypted their servers. Fortunately, our team resolved the issue quickly with our incident response services. First, our security analysts instructed the client to shut everything down to stop the spread of the infection. Next, we dispatched our Computer Security Incident Response Team (CSIRT) to the site and worked with the client’s IT team to establish a temporary quarantine network.
From there, we brought their machines back online one at a time to deploy our security solutions, triage and remediate the threats. Ultimately, we completely restored the client’s business operations in just two and a half days, and they now leverage our MSSP offering to proactively prevent future breaches.
Here’s the story in detail: Security Incident Response for HVAC/R Industry Warranty Solutions Provider
5. Streamlining the process of shopping around for new IT solutions.
Digital transformation – the process of adopting new technologies to improve business processes and meet changing consumer expectations – has become mandatory for any business that wants to stay competitive long-term. However, there’s a seemingly astronomical number of solution suppliers out there, and selecting the right one for your company can be extremely arduous and time-consuming.
However, working with an MSP can streamline the shopping around process considerably. For instance, our IT consultants researched, vetted and oversaw the implementation of various solutions for a health insurance agency that sought assistance with digital transformation and cloud migration. Without our guidance, the client would have had to deal with more than 20 different salespeople and 40 meetings.
In the end, we saved them a significant amount of time. You can read the story in detail here: Health Insurance Agency IT Support Case Study
These are only some of the ways outsourcing IT support has increased productivity and efficiency for our clients. Overall, relying on an MSP for IT and cybersecurity services makes a lot of sense for organizations looking to spend less while still maintaining high levels of performance.
If you’d like to learn more about the potential benefits of outsourcing your IT support, we’d be happy to answer any questions you might have. Just give us a call at 877-599-3999 or email sales@stratospherenetworks.com.
