When your company needs IT support beyond what its in-house team can cover, you have plenty of options to find the IT staff solutions you need. Managed IT Service companies are partners who act as a consulting resource and work with you to strategically cover your IT needs, and IT Staffing companies help put people to work under your directive.
Here we’ll look at five considerations that determine which type of provider will be best for your operation.
Services Available from Managed Services Providers
Practically any type of IT service that can be deployed remotely is available from managed services providers, even services that may occasionally involve the short-term deployment of staff to your location.
Just like IT staffing companies, managed service providers handle general IT support for businesses. That can include keeping the website running and troubleshooting issues to keep your operation running smoothly.
Managed service providers often leverage strategic advantages over staffing companies because they take a comprehensive approach to aspects like your cyber security. They can help you set up cost-effective cloud services, or create an effective disaster recovery plan.
There are only two services that are not commonly available: forensic IT that involves deploying forensic specialists to your site for an extended time, and services that rely on writing unique code for an app or engineering unique hardware. However, your managed service provider can almost certainly help you find another provider for these services. Nearly any other service you might need is relatively easy to source.
Times When Managed Services Providers Deploy Staff
The typically less than 1% of issues that a service provider’s diagnostics don’t resolve remotely is why your service plan may include a provision for onsite service. Sometimes it takes human hands on-site to do the work that needs to be done.
Circumstances that may necessitate on-site staff may include the deployment of new hardware in the office, system migration, or hardware troubleshooting & repair.
Disaster Recovery: Ideally Done by Managed Services Providers
Both onsite staff from IT staffing companies and remote staff at managed services providers can create disaster recovery plans. But receiving a plan from the latter is generally more cost-effective.
Designed to facilitate business continuity in the wake of catastrophic events that sideline or destroy an IT system, disaster recovery planning is a necessity across all major industries. Small businesses that have one location, as well as mid-size operations with a handful of sites, are most at risk for non-recovery if a plan is not in place.
The block of time between being offline and out of business can be frightfully narrow — just a few days, in some cases. Being out of contact with clients, customers, and business partners is a fateful fallout that could signal the untimely end of a business. Yet, another nightmare come true is known as the most fatal of disaster-spawned death blows: catastrophic data loss.
The loss of data for active projects or customer accounts can easily put companies on a fast track to the point of no return. Even if the data can be successfully recovered, the hours or days it could take may be significantly damaging and expensive.
Most plans have four basic provisions: offsite data storage, emergency backup hardware, an alternate business location, and emergency backup staff. Managed IT Service companies can help you strategically prepare for potential disasters by putting critical IT infrastructure in place. This way your business back up and running again quickly after an IT disaster.
Full-Scale IT Networking: Ideally Received From IT Staffing Companies
There are indeed times when managed IT services can replace IT staff solutions that would perform the same work onsite. However, in addition to programs for building a network model, and then testing, operating, and maintaining the live network, constructing a network that connects multiple nodes requires at least one network technician.
Minus service providers that offer comprehensive networking services, IT staffing companies are the most economical source for assistance. If you work with a staff provider that specializes in matching permanent hires with companies that need them — and that’s you. You can get help building your networking department, too.
Identities of Staff Deployed by IT Staffing Companies
Given the multitude of gainful, secure, in-house job opportunities in the IT industry, why would some work for IT staffing companies when job engagements are often brief and not promised to be constant? Why would certified specialists take the career path of nomads, toting the personal tangibles of their job life from one business to another in a box?
When they need IT staff solutions, it’s a line of curiosity companies naturally entertain, but one that’s often cut short of being satisfied, as the fast-paced process of securing hired hands quickly puts it in rearview. Despite what their general name and line of business might imply, IT staffing companies are for from hamster wheel employment mills, and those who work for them usually do so for a common sense reason that takes fair advantage of the situation.
IT staff solutions from IT staffing companies are generally rendered by three types of staff. First, there are newcomers to the field, who view temporary stints of work as opportunities to gain experience, particularly in things that can’t be taught, such as variance in company culture, expectations of productivity by staff size, and how well job descriptions match jobs.
Second, are staff who have more experience, often desire a permanent gig, and hear offers from clients of the staffing company. Even if you need someone for a short-term engagement and aren’t looking for a permanent hire, you’re unlikely to get less than the best from them. Excelling at temporary assignments is what gets them to their next long-term prospect. They sense that a new horizon has never been closer to their feet, and they know what it means to be efficient at proficiency.
Third, are senior workers, approaching retirement from various distances. Some likely received buyouts, but will work until 62 or 65. Others may have done what most younger workers can’t afford to: decide an employer’s former culture had better mental weather, and resign for peace of mind. If they seek out table-talk and are patient listeners, they may offer something that younger staff haven’t earned yet: aptitude as mentors. Long-term work, where the culture is more relaxed and reactive than punctilious and proactive, lets the mentoring shine.
When you receive IT staff solutions from IT staffing companies, these are the three general types of workers you can expect to receive, regardless of their IT specialties.
Choosing Your Approach
Bringing in staff from IT staffing companies to do IT work, or potentially replacing IT staff solutions with managed IT services aren’t always different approaches to the same problems. Often, they’re most often different approaches to different problems. And knowing which solution to bring to which problem is what will set your company up for success.
The bottom line is that an IT staffing company will put experts under your command, but managed IT service companies are trusted partners. If you’re in need of IT services in Los Angeles or beyond, it’s best to start with a free consultation with NIC. Contact us today to get started.
