For many manufacturers, supporting their own in-house IT departments is an impossibility. Not many managers have the time to source, train and implement IT staff and strategies when they’re busy making sure that their product is being made and shipped on time.
Some try - and find balancing the time, energy and cost to be extremely challenging. Basically, unless your manufacturing company is very large and you have a lot of free time and money, outsourcing your IT services is the sensible option - and here are 3 reasons why.
It’s cost effective
There are two ways using a Managed Service Provider (MSP) can save you money. Firstly, an MSP can give you more control over your monthly operating costs. Whatever IT package you choose from your vendor, the cost is split into equal monthly payments, making sure you can easily keep track of your predictable outgoings.
Everything you need will be included in your plan - maintenance, software, repairs and all overheads - so you’ll have no nasty surprises.
Secondly, savings are seen over the longer term. In the short term, it is possible that trying to run your own IT team will work out cheaper - but when you add the cost of long term maintenance, upgrades, training staff on new soft or hardware, your costs start to increase exponentially. Having one flat rate every month can save you thousands of dollars over time.
You’ll regain focus
Your IT staff will tell you that most of their time is taken up with either routine maintenance and admin work or trying to recover systems fully to get your manufacturing back online as quickly as possible. Neither of these options are what you really need them to be doing - they should be pushing online marketing, looking for ways to improve the way your business works.
Choosing to outsource to an MSP means that your employees can focus on these more important things, confident that everything else is being taken care of by experts. MSP packages can include services like stock management and monitoring - meaning the re-ordering of the stock you need can be done automatically with no wasted time - saving you even more money.
Improved security
Any MSP you choose will have top of the line security in place both for their in house servers and on the cloud. Their reputation depends on keeping your manufacturing data safe so you can rest easy knowing you’re completely covered. An MSP can also act as your BDR making sure that should your system fail, downtime will be minimal. Most MSPs work proactively - monitoring your systems to spot issues that can be dealt with quickly before they turn into huge problems.
Manufacturing companies have to meet a lot of data handling, privacy and production regulations. This is something a specialist MSP can help you do. Specialist MSPs can also help you constantly monitor and track your goods after they leave your premises, and with the majority of manufacturing thefts taking place outside plants, this can be invaluable.
Most manufacturers only have their goods checked at borders between states or countries - so having an extra layer of protection in place can ensure your goods get to where they’re going safely and your losses will be significantly smaller.
If you’re looking for more information regarding managed service providers and how they can benefit your business specifically, call Stratosphere Networks today at (877)599-3999 or fill out a contact form. Ask for one of our IT specialists; they will help you determine a plan and services that best fit your individualized needs.
