Managed IT Services is where an organisation passes over the day-to-day management of its IT to an external IT company. Essentially, the external IT partner takes care of everything that it is contracted to do so, and the most common type of Managed IT Services is Managed IT Support. This involves the external IT company handling and resolving all first, second and third-line IT Support enquiries.

Basically, having a Managed IT Services partner on board can be a real help to small and medium-sized businesses that might otherwise struggle to gain the same level of technical expertise and IT response times inhouse.

With the increasing volume and sophistication of cyber attacks, a Managed IT Services solution can be immensely beneficial.

Most Managed IT Services providers take responsibility for an organisation’s entire IT infrastructure, allowing businesses to have full access to an IT department for a fixed fee each month. Here, a big part of their remit is also to defend against any potential IT threats.

So, what’s normally included in a Managed IT Services contract? Well, the following is a list of the most frequent services, although every contract should be tailored to meet the client’s individual needs:

- Remote and onsite IT Support
- Service Desk Support (IT Services Helpdesk)
- Housekeeping (preventative maintenance) and scheduled onsite visits
- Monthly reporting and yearly strategic reviews
- Regular penetration testing
- Proactive infrastructure management and monitoring
- Software updates and patch management
- Fully managed IT Security and data backups
- Third-party supplier management (including technology not supplied by the IT company)
- Licencing and Asset Management

Handing over the management of your IT to an outside party is a big decision. That’s why it is essential that a Managed IT Services partner should be a strategic partner who knows your business inside out, which is exactly what we specialise in at Agile Technical Solutions.

If, as an organisation, you decide to contract an external IT partner to deliver an IT service on your behalf, you are engaging with them on an Outsourced IT Services basis. Effectively, you hand over the day-to-day management of all your IT or just a portion of it. Usually, an Outsourced IT Services partner is brought in when the expertise does not exist inhouse or where an existing IT team is stretched in one or two areas. For example, an Outsourced IT Services provider may be contracted to offer an IT Services Helpdesk to deal with IT Support queries. Often, this is the preferred setup of many small to medium-sized businesses that need the expertise of technical engineers but may not have the capacity or finances to accommodate an internal resource.

Usually, Outsourced IT Services are provided on a fixed-term contract (typically two or three years, but this can be longer). However, the exact terms and payment arrangements can and do, vary.

It’s important to note, though, that Outsourced IT Services are not just about offering technical support and fixing problems. A reputable Outsourced IT Services provider should offer you more than this. They should be working proactively with you to lower the number of IT support queries by identifying ways to make your IT more robust and far less problem-prone. Ultimately, this will help your IT run smoother by defending your network and systems at the perimeter and fixing issues before they become a bigger problem.

Of course, Outsourced IT Services is not all about IT Support. IT Managers may enlist the help of an IT partner on a fixed fee basis to manage an IT project, which could be anything from installing a new network to putting in place a robust Disaster Recovery Plan.

With the help of an external Business IT Services partner, you can trim down your inhouse resources and hand over to external experts that act as an extension of your team.

Broadly speaking, Business IT Services tends to fall into two categories: IT infrastructure and IT software, with IT Consultancy Services running through both. So, let’s explore what these Business IT Services involve.

IT Infrastructure. As businesses grow, so do their IT needs and, therefore IT infrastructure. Traditionally, small to medium-sized businesses would have expanded their IT departments to deal with complex, high-tech hardware. However, today the landscape is very different. With the right Business IT Services partner, infrastructural tasks can be project managed externally by highly-skilled IT experts. Acting as a Managed IT Services provider, they handle the entire process from designing the best solution to implementation and beyond.

IT Software. If a business does not have a strong working knowledge of software and how it can be integrated with its network, instructing a Business IT Services partner is a good call. As software and hardware specialists, they work with companies to identify the best software solutions for optimum performance without compromising IT security and data backup. As experts in Business IT Services, they can help you weigh the pros and cons of different IT software options and identify the most cost-effective solution.

An outsourced IT Services Helpdesk works in much the same way as an internal IT helpdesk, in that employees log an incident or IT service request with a helpdesk technician. However, the difference with an external IT Services Helpdesk is that the technicians are situated remotely (at a different office) rather than inhouse. Basically, an IT Services Helpdesk offers direct IT Support for businesses looking to resolve IT problems as quickly as possible.

If you choose a reputable Professional IT Services provider, they will staff their IT Services Helpdesk with suitably qualified technicians who have at least three years in a comparable technical role. The benefit, of course, of using an IT Services Helpdesk is that the technicians, who support many different businesses, have a great deal of experience in resolving all manner of IT problems. This means that they have the knowledge and experience to fix issues quicker.

An IT Services Helpdesk contract will outline the type of IT Support offered, which could be first, second and/or third-line support. First-line support is where a user comes to first with an IT issue, and so a first-line helpdesk technician will respond to everyday IT issues and requests. Sometimes, an IT Services Helpdesk may escalate a first-line enquiry to second-line support. For context, second-line support is where an issue is a little more complex and needs a technician to spend a dedicated amount of time to fix the problem. Then there are third-line support issues. Thankfully, these are less frequent, but if they do occur, a business will want to resolve the issue as quickly as possible, which requires an experienced technician who has in-depth knowledge of a company’s software and network infrastructure.
It’s not all about responding to issues, though. In our opinion and experience, an IT Services Helpdesk should work proactively to reduce the number of incidents in the first place, which ultimately saves a business lost time and money.

Agile Technical Solutions offers the full range of Professional IT Services to businesses and schools in and around Essex and Suffolk. Working either on a Managed IT Services basis, as an IT partner, or as a specialist technology consultant, we help clients achieve success and transformation through their IT.

Our approach to Professional IT Services is simple. Before we recommend any of our Professional IT Services, we seek to understand exactly what a business needs and what it can reasonably afford. We work collaboratively with companies to identify what they would like to achieve from their IT. We also review their current IT setup to understand what works well and what needs changing. So you see, as well as being experienced commercial IT strategists, we’re also IT Security and Disaster Recovery experts. We believe that an IT solution should never be at the expense of data and system security, which is why strategic planning underpins all our Professional IT Services.

In terms of the individual Professional IT Services we offer, we have seven different services: IT Support, IT Security, IT Consultancy, Business Continuity Planning, Installation and Upgrade Management, Cloud Solutions, and Website Design and Hosting.

We take a blended approach to Professional IT Services, which means we work closely with you to cherry-pick the type and level of support you need. There’s never any upselling you anything you do not require – just sensibly priced IT products and services to help drive your business forward.