What is Co-Managed IT Model

What are the Advantages and Disadvantages of the Co-Managed IT Model?

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Have you ever wondered what your company would look like if you decided to have Co-Managed IT support? Co-management will look different for every company, but services should be tailored to your company’s needs. IT support is becoming even more valuable to companies due to the shift to “Cloud Technologies” and the ever-increasing complexity of that technology. While the outcome for determining what level and type of IT support your company needs may not be straightforward, you can utilize this article to help understand the advantages and disadvantages of Co-Managed support.

What is Co-Managed IT?

Co-Managed IT services are a model that combines a company’s internal IT team with the availability of support, tools, and wide-ranging expertise of a Managed Service Provider. Co-Managed IT allows companies to customize their services and to determine what activities to keep internal and which to contract out. By creating a partnership between a Managed Services Provider and your company, you allow the internal support employees to focus on high-impact areas while outsourcing repeatable support tasks or augmenting knowledge gaps. This, in turn, saves your company from having to hire additional headcount while keeping the existing team focused on money-generating initiatives.

When to Consider a Co-Managed IT Model?

In a co-managed IT model, a company’s internal IT team collaborates with its managed service provider to distribute IT responsibilities. Co-management removes responsibility from your internal IT team, allowing them to focus on priority tasks and projects for the business.

Some of the reasons that motivate companies to consider implementing a co-managed IT model include:

Small IT team and time constraints: When an internal IT team is small, any changes in the demand for their services can result in disruption and will potentially lead to an overworked team and turnover. While companies may choose to hire additional personnel, the process generally is expensive and time-consuming which may not be justified for the temporary need for support.

Projects: IT projects are essential to the growth of a company but, they can become a burden on the people working in the department. Having a partnership with the right Managed Service Provider allows a company’s internal IT team to offload some day-to-day support workload or engage specific subject matter experts to ensure a smooth project delivery for your company.

Knowledge Gap: Even the most qualified IT teams might find that a particular task or problem lies outside their skill set. Co-managed IT services can offer expertise and knowledge to bridge the knowledge gap while assisting the internal IT team helping achieve their goal in less time and providing growth opportunities to your engineers.

Digital Transformation: Creating an IT strategy for a Mid-Market company can pose a significant challenge due to the scope of the effort and the number of departments that would need to be involved. Collaborating with your Managed Service Provider who can offer industry insights, utilize their experience working with your technology stack, and who can lend their expertise to planning, budgeting, and implementing your digital solutions will greatly reduce the pressures on the internal IT team along with expediting the project timeline.

Security: One of the most crucial areas of a company is the security of its IT infrastructure and digital assets. Co-managing your IT Security allows your organization to leverage best in class tools along with outsourced expertise to make sure you have an actionable plan and are mitigating your security risks.

What Are the Advantages of having Co-Managed IT?

Requiring 24/7 IT support: A major advantage of using a co-management IT model is that your company can offer after-hours support to your users. Often times business doesn’t end at 5 PM and you want your users to have the same support experience after hours as they do on-hours. Using a co-managed IT partner, you don’t have to hire staff for those off-hours requests.

Needing heightened cyber and network security: With the right Managed Service Provider, your company will be able to access security specialists who know how to keep IT assets protected and who can put together a comprehensive security plan for your team.

Wanting both internal and external IT assistance: Co-managed IT enables you to maintain your internal team while bringing in new people with additional experience either to fill a point in time gap, or to help provide expertise in areas where they may be a knowledge gap.

Needing a more cost-effective solution to staffing IT: Another advantage of the co-managed model is that companies can utilize their Managed Service Provider to reduce the cost of hiring, training, and maintaining engineers on staff. In a tight labor market, finding the right engineers is becoming increasingly difficult leaving your business without the coverage you need.

What Are the Disadvantages of Having Co-Managed IT?

Choosing a reliable Managed Service Provider: A co-managed services provider should function as an extension of the existing team and share both their knowledge and tools with your team. They must also have the strategic vision and flexibility to meet your company’s specific needs. This should always be viewed as a Partnership rather than the provider trying to take over all IT operations.

Potential disagreement between internal IT and managed IT: The internal IT team may feel threatened by the external team. An experienced Co-Managed IT Services provider understands their job is to assist and lift the internal team and to help support them in achieving the company’s goals.

Increased quantities of time and money: Although there are cost savings associated with co-management, your company may be responsible for paying the upfront fees for your new partnership. An experienced Co-Managed IT Services provider will provide detailed recommendations before onboarding and help the business budget for big-ticket items in advance.

Co-Managed IT support from PSM Partners

Managing IT resources can become overwhelming for companies. The co-managed IT services you need will depend on your business’s needs. So, how can you tell if co-managed IT support is for you? Companies that will benefit the most will want to have a partner that can assist with new internal projects, fill a knowledge gap the internal team may have, and if a company is quickly expanding – provide quickly deployable resources to meet the support demand.

Here at PSM Partners, we are a managed service provider that offers Co-Managed IT Partnerships. Our Partnership model is driven by our expertise, engineers, and transparency inherent in our service delivery. We believe working together to achieve success through technology for your organization is the ultimate goal.

You can call PSM at (312) 940-7830 or submit a contact form to learn more about how we can help you with your co-managed IT support needs. 

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About the Author

Picture of Taylor Friend
Taylor Friend

I am a dynamic and results-focused Marketing Coordinator at PSM Partners, recognized for my unwavering motivation, meticulous attention to detail, and unwavering commitment to achieving business objectives. Throughout my time at PSM, I have demonstrated remarkable expertise as the primary liaison for Microsoft and NetDocuments, rapidly establishing myself as a proficient point of contact. Additionally, by harnessing my inherent organizational skills, I have effectively elevated the quality of both our internal and external events.

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