Managed IT Services

Serving The Greater Lousiville, Kentucky Region

Managed Services is when you outsource the management and operation your IT infrastructure to an outside Managed IT Service Provider.   The Managed Service provider can run your entire IT operation, or a portion of it.   The idea is that you benefit from getting a proactive, fixed rate, multi-skilled IT vendor in place that can deal with all of your IT infrastructure on an ongoing basis.

Managed IT Services have become increasingly popular due to the constant barrage of new technology appearing in the workplace. In the past, running an IT operation was about maintaining some servers, keeping the network up, and making sure workstations were running properly. It also meant showing up quickly if there were problems. Nowadays, other elements have crept in, such as: major ongoing security requirements, the integration of employee smart phones to the operation, remote access, and the overall critical dependency on a smooth IT operation by most businesses.

Does this mean we replace current IT personnel? From our experience, this has NOT been the case. Usually, in the case of most small businesses, if they do have an IT person, they are completely overwhelmed and pushed to the limit of knowing *everything* that is required of their job. We find ourselves doing managed services on “parts” of the IT enterprise and often-times working hand-in-hand with those same IT personnel to support their infrastructure.

Below is a list of the different requirements and roles that BluegrassNet fullfills when it comes to Managed Services:

• Help Desk
• Systems Monitoring
• Systems Management
• Systems Security
• Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery
• Managed Backups
• Cloud Data Storage
• Hardware Procurement and Deployment (Workstations)
• Change Management

Managed Service vs. The “Break-Fix” Mentality.

Probably the biggest benefit of this Managed Services movement is moving beyond the “break fix” mentality, into the pro-active maintenance and fix mode. In 2017, you will notice that if something goes down, it can oftentimes have profound effects on the day to day operation of your business. In the break-fix days, it would not be unusual for a server to be down for a day before the consultant showed up to make necessary repairs. Why put up this when a Managed Service Provider like BluegrassNet can remotely monitor the machines and hopefully resolve little problems before they become big problems and result in downtime?   The answer is that you no longer have to, it’s just a matter of moving away from the break-fix mentality and into the pro-active mindset.

More Benefits Of Managed Services

• Reduced costs: by moving to a fixed cost arrangement, the cycle of surprise expenses for the most part comes to an end. It’s easier to run a business when you know what to expect in terms of IT expense instead of getting hit unexpected bills.
• 24-hour monitoring: The Managed Services provider can also help manage things like Internet slowness/outages, printer problems, phone issues, cell phone deployment and integration, even websites sometimes. Knowing that you have this type of service is tantamount to having three IT guys instead of one.

Additional Managed Service Benefits:

• Increased operational efficiency
• Lower IT costs
• Quick access to high level enterprise support
• Minimized downtime
• Takes the hassle out of constantly dealing with IT issues, you focus on your business!
• Easier IT personnel transition

How do you hire a Managed Service Provider?

It’s simply a matter of picking up the phone, and calling BluegrassNet to speak with an experienced representative.   During that introductory phone call, our representative will ask some brief questions to make sure we have a basic understanding of your operation.  Then we should follow up that call with a meeting to do some more detailed discovery.  This should happen at the customer site so our technicians can determine the true scope of the engagement.  Based on this process, we will generate a quote for you.   Our number is:  502-589-4638.   Ask for someone in “Managed Services” and explain why you are calling.  They will direct you to the right person.  We look forward  to hearing from you.