It is becoming increasingly less popular for businesses to manage their entire IT services internally these days. This is largely down to the cost, skill shortages, and risk associated with doing so. And a new successful model is emerging: co-managed IT.
Many have opted for the full managed services route, or if they’re a small business, simply relying on a single person as their go-to IT employee.
You might find that you own, or work in, a businesses that maintains an internal IT department. If this is an affordable option for you, and the work that your IT team does is indispensable, then you’re in a very strong position.
This is because according to a recent investigation by the Boston Consulting Group into digital talent, there is a significant skills shortage in the IT sector – a deficit that could exceed 80% by 2021.
This, of course, brings its own challenges including raising salaries in line with market demand and investing in the personal and professional development of your IT staff, in order to ward off competitors.
However, in business (and especially IT), it’s easy to fall into a comfortable routine when you have a dedicated internal team. Teams sometime fall into the habit of relying on ‘tried and tested’ knowledge and methods that have always worked.
After all, ‘if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it’. Right?
Not quite. The problem with this is that technological change by its nature, is not static.
What was the most efficient method of doing things 6 months ago might not be now – or perhaps it still is – but without being open to new ideas and innovation, you’ll never know.
It can also lead to your IT team becoming bored and productivity therefore taking a nosedive. And this could lead to staff looking for new opportunities away from your business – potentially for competitors.
Whether it’s an attachment to legacy practices, a lack of professional development opportunities for your team, or a lack of funding and IT budget – without fresh impetus, you run the risk of stagnation.
This mindset is often unconscious, and it isn’t strictly limited to the IT sector. But to grow and succeed as a business, you need to embrace innovation.
What Constitutes Innovation?
Innovation for innovation’s sake is a waste of time and money – so identifying whether there is need for innovation in your business is crucial.
Real innovation is the significant improvement, or even removal, of existing processes. Automation is an excellent example of this via the removal of unnecessary manual processes.
A co-managed approach to your IT services is also a great option – but what exactly is co-managed IT?
Innovation and Co-Managed IT
Co-managed IT (ComIT) is a collaboration between an external party, such as managed service provider (MSP) like Neuways, and your existing IT arrangement. The role of a ComIT service is not to replace an internal IT team, but to augment and enhance their existing skill set.
It essentially works as fusion of talent. ComIT combines the knowledge of your existing team, which knows best as to how your business works, with the cutting-edge expertise of an external managed service provider. This can give your team fresh technical insights that may have not been previously considered, or had the capacity to learn.Neuways currently provides co-managed IT to a range of customers that already have an IT department. What this enables our customers and their IT department to do is to focus on the critical, day-to-day business activities.
For example, if you’re paying a senior IT technician to handle complex work, you cannot have them applying patches.
In this case, Neuways would handle the backing up of your data, applying patches, and other high volume manual tasks.
It’s also an excellent option if you’re missing expertise in a particular area of IT or cyber security. Co-managed IT is about the sharing of knowledge. This is where our experts would step in to help your team achieve goals that are currently out of scope.
To talk to Neuways about co-managed IT, give us a call on 01283 753 333 or email us at hello@neuways.com.
