Co-managed IT vs. managed IT: which one best suits your business? Choosing between the two can be challenging, especially if you don’t know the perks and downsides of each. Here at SOS, we’ve dove deep into the pros and cons of co-managed and managed IT to help you choose the right services for your business.
What Is Co-managed IT?
Many business owners believe they have only two options when it comes to IT: having an in-house IT team on their payroll or outsourcing IT to a managed service provider (MSP). However, co-managed IT is the third option. Co-managed IT involves an in-house team managing some IT aspects in your business while a third party covers other IT elements.
For instance, your in-house staff might handle cabling, software installations, and updates while using an IT service provider to examine information security on your IT network to comply with legal obligations.
In short, co-managed IT combines in-house and outsourced IT services. It’s the ideal solution to an overwhelmed in-house IT team.
What Are Managed IT Services?
Managed IT services involve outsourcing everything IT-related to a third party, from network security assessment to hardware maintenance and cloud services and management. The managed service provider is your IT department—no in-house IT staff.
The MSP proactively handles your information technology assets and provides employees with the IT tools necessary to do their jobs.
Pros of Co-managed IT
Using co-managed IT services benefits your business in various ways:
Implementation Starts Immediately: With co-managed IT services, you won’t invest in training IT employees (which costs money and consumes time) to perform the tasks you want to be done. As soon as you schedule and pay for the IT service, the MSP starts the job immediately. This will reduce time in completing certain jobs.
Co-managed IT is Cheaper than Managed IT: If your business is on a tight budget, co-managed IT services are more affordable than managed IT. After all, you will only pay for services your in-house team can’t handle, unlike managed IT, where you pay for complete IT services.
Keep Your In-House IT Team and Maintain Internal Control of IT Assets: If you want to maintain internal control over your IT assets and at the same time support your in-house staff, co-managed IT is a great fit. You get to keep your internal IT staff and help them when overwhelmed. It’s a win-win in our opinion.
Cons of Co-managed IT
Potential Conflict Between the MSP Team and Your in-house IT Staff: Tension may exist when the MSP IT team interacts with your IT employees. This could be because of misconceptions of the co-managed IT team will take away their job, which is not the case. Most businesses hire MSPs to support overworked IT employees or do tasks your internal team can’t accomplish, maybe because of limited resources or a lack of necessary skills.
You’ll Need to Train the Internal Staff: You’ll need to train your internal IT team whenever you introduce new workflows or tech processes, which can be costly and time-consuming. With fully managed IT solutions, no worrying about training employees because all IT-related tasks are outsourced to a third party.
Pros of Managed IT
Eliminates the Pressure of Handling Your IT Infrastructure: Fully managed IT services eliminate the responsibility of managing your own IT tasks. Focus on other core business activities and let your MSP worry about IT processes. With fewer management responsibilities, you get more time to improve your business.
No IT Staff Costs: Managed IT services eliminate the costs of hiring and training in-house IT employees. You will only pay a monthly fee.
Better Risk Evasion: Managed IT services can improve how you evade risks. Threats are constantly evolving. MSPs stay on top of the latest privacy regulations and current security trends. This ensures your IT network and infrastructure are up-to-date and well-maintained.
Cons of Managed IT
More Expensive than Co-managed IT: You pay for full IT services in your business, which is more expensive than paying for specific services with co-managed IT.
Less Control Over the IT Team: The MSP has full control of your IT department, which can be difficult for some people.
Not All MSPs Are Available Locally: Depending on the MSP you hire, onsite visits to fix hardware issues may or may not be feasible.
Overall, if you already have an in-house IT team who is interested and available to learn more about managing your IT then co-managed IT is the one for you! As well as this, if you want to avoid training costs for current employees and if you’d like to support your current overwhelmed employees, co-managed IT is the one for you!
However, if you want to outsource all IT-related tasks in your business and free more time to focus on other core activities and have an inhouse team and a budget that will support the hiring of managed IT workers, managed IT is the one for you!
If you want to learn more about how SOS Group can help you contact us today.