What’s the Math Behind Managed Services
In this article, we’ll talk a bit about managed services, the math behind them, and some advantages they have over using in-house teams for everything.
In the modern business world, no company handles all its problems and duties on its own. Sure, mega-corporations such as Amazon might have both the budget and the need to create an in-house team for everything – but you’re probably not Jeff Bezos, and you likely aren’t running a company quite the size of Amazon.
If you aren’t an owner of a multibillion corporation, you might want to consider soliciting managed services to cut operating costs and improve your workflow.
What Are Managed Services?
Every business is tasked with more than its fair share of administrative work, and as the scope of your business grows, so do the duties that you have to commit to. Scalability is one of the most prominent problems that small businesses face, as they’re not sure how to scale upwards without hindering their current workflow.
For such problems, there’s something known as Managed Services. These are outsourced services that simplify, streamline, and improve your internal and external operations – drastically cutting costs, all while improving efficiency.
How do managed services work?
Now, you might not be surprised to find out that there are many different managed services – but there’s only one way to go about it. If you want to improve your workflow – you hire a managed services provider.
There are many managed service providers, and you can even outsource your work to another country to save even more money. Once you hire a managed services provider, you effectively offload a part of the work onto them. They become responsible for administrating, managing, and executing the workload you provide them.
Managed services are ideal for administrative tasks and highly specialized tasks that don’t warrant creating a costly in-house team.
How much do managed services cost?
It depends on the services you’re looking for, just how big the workload is, and how much time your managed service provider will need to handle all the work.
In essence, the primary point of managed services is to save as much money as possible, which is why you should only unload the things that don’t require a specialized team rather than just giving them your day-to-day work.
Ideally, managed services won’t cost over $200 per person per month if you outsource your needs to a US managed services provider. However, that’s a pretty high estimate, as you can technically outsource overseas, which can cut the price down to as little as $30 per person per month.
Again, this is pure speculation, as the total price of your managed service will depend on how much work you have, what kind of work that is, and how long it will take your services provider to handle it.
The Many Benefits of Managed Services
A managed service is the go-to way to cut down on costs and improve your workflow without jeopardizing the quality of the work. So it’s safe to say that unloading some of your work to managed services is beneficial and in more ways than you might think.
The financial aspect
Firstly, there’s the cost. For example, say your business is growing, and you have gained a very specialized task that no one in your company is educated, experienced, or prepared enough to handle.
Hiring another person to do that specialized task would be pretty expensive, as even a part-time agent in-house can wind up costing a lot of money.
Sure, the cloud costs will be the same, and a managed service will require a small premium on top of the cloud costs instead of going with an in-house professional or team. But, with the many benefits and cost-saving features of a managed service, they’re far more affordable than hiring an in-house professional.
Competence and compliance
While on the topic of talent, it’s not just how much money you throw at the problem – it’s all about who is solving it and how. If you don’t hire a competent person to accomplish the specialized tasks, not only do you risk going over deadlines, but you may also get a substandard result.
Ensuring quality is just as important as accomplishing tasks, and you’d be surprised just how hard it is to find a good agent, especially if your budget is restricted.
A new world of professionals
Once you start outsourcing some of your work to managed services, you’ll find out just how many professionals there are worldwide and just how affordable they can get. Employing people overseas has also become a widespread practice, which means that if you play your cards right, you might get a full-time agent if you need one without breaking the bank.
In-House Vs. Managed Services
While managed services are beneficial and can be used for a range of things to save money and improve operations, hiring an in-house professional has its virtues. Picture this:
“You’re running an enterprise, and one of your customers is looking to spin a set amount of clusters, all of which cost a particular price.”
Now, doing this in-house has some fantastic benefits. Not only can you get someone to specifically interview the customer and find out exactly what they need, but it’s also probably going to be a lot quicker than utilizing managed services.
The cloud costs will be pretty much the same, but you’ll likely pay a premium on top of the cloud costs when you go with a managed service.
Be that as it may, while you’ll have to pay a premium on top of the cloud – that premium will give you a whole lot of benefits. Not only can you forget about your in-house professional calling in sick, leaving for the holidays, or recruiting externally – while a managed service is available 24/7.
Furthermore, going with a managed service removes a lot of responsibilities and tasks from your end. This means that the managed service provider will have to worry about upskilling, research, and all of the continual tasks a professional must perform to stay up to date with the market.
In Conclusion
Managed services are a blessing that comes courtesy of living in the digital age, cut costs and streamline workflow, making them the ideal solution for a wide range of professional problems. These days, you don’t have to scramble around to find a costly in-house agent to handle highly specialized tasks and duties – as a professional overseas is just waiting for an opportunity like that.