What are Managed Services?

Managed services let you offload specific IT operations to a service provider, known as a Managed Services Provider. The managed service provider assumes on-going responsibility for monitoring, managing and/or problem resolution for selected IT systems and functions on your behalf.

Wizard IT’s Managed services solution offers services such as alerts, security, patch management, data recovery and backup solutions for different client devices: desktops, notebooks, servers, storage systems, networks and applications. Offloading routine infrastructure management to an experienced managed services professional lets you concentrate on running your business, with fewer interruptions due to IT issues.

Just like larger companies, small businesses need technology to operate efficiently and to compete effectively. But as reliance on IT grows, the resources to support an increasingly complex IT environment may not. In many small businesses, IT resources are scarce, and can be quickly overwhelmed with the day-to-day responsibilities of keeping the IT infrastructure that the business depends on up and running.

If you fall behind in keeping up with things such as backups, patches and security, the odds are that you’ll face an IT outage or another problem down the road that will negatively impact your business. For instance, if your e-mail server, customer relationship management system, financial application or network goes down unexpectedly, you face substantial productivity and revenue losses as a result.

We will act as an extension of your IT department, taking care of routine IT infrastructure monitoring and management around the clock—freeing up your IT staff to focus on higher-value projects. By proactively monitoring and maintaining your systems, Wizard IT can help you avoid many technology problems in the first place. Should an issue occur, we can troubleshoot and resolve it more efficiently.

Unlike traditional outsourcing situations, where you surrender complete control of your IT assets, you decide what you want the service provider to take care of, and what you want to handle. You retain full visibility into the process and management of your systems. In addition, the MSP subscription model gives you more expense predictability than a consultant-type time and billing model.

Managed services are provided on a subscription basis. Depending on the services required, pricing is usually based on the number of devices, with different packages priced at different levels. We also provide customer support onsite when required.

Basic services often start with a monitoring service, which notifies you of problems, which you resolve on your own. At the upper end of the spectrum, we offer fully managed services that cover everything from alerts through problem resolution.

Typically we would perform an initial assessment of your current IT environment and management requirements to help you decide what services and service levels you need.