10 Reasons Why Consider Microsoft 365 Managed Services

Introduction

Companies around the world are evolving to the cloud, driven in part by end-of-support for legacy systems coupled with the growing demand for remote work capabilities. Microsoft has positioned itself as a leading cloud solutions provider, and regardless of the underlying need, Microsoft’s cloud technologies allow companies to remain flexible and competitive in a rapidly changing market.

Unfortunately for companies making a leap to the cloud, there’s a high level of complexity involved in a cloud migration, and many internal teams are not positioned to support an effective transition. On-premise companies hold onto age old systems that have carried them through the years, but end-of-support announcements are forcing them to weigh the cost of a cloud migration against the return on investment. Similarly, companies operating in the cloud face the challenge where internal resource constraints lead to difficult adoption, preventing their teams from understanding and unlocking the full potential of Microsoft cloud capabilities for their organization.

Luckily, Microsoft Managed Service Providers are here to fill that gap. In this post, we’ll provide 10 reasons to consider Managed Services for Microsoft 365, and how you can utilize these services to position your company for success.

Why are Managed Services Important?

In the IT sector, Managed Services allow you to offload the responsibilities of business administration and system management to a Managed Service Provider (MSP) that specializes in architecting cloud solutions to fit your needs. With Microsoft 365 Managed Services, you can allocate business critical IT systems and processes to professionals who specialize in cloud technologies, allowing you to focus on what’s most important – your business.

10 Reasons to Consider Microsoft 365 Managed Services:

1. Visibility Across All of Microsoft 365

Microsoft has developed a robust ecosystem of services that all integrate to provide enterprise level functionality that positions your team for success, but one look at the full scope of Microsoft services will leave many teams overwhelmed. With Managed Services, your team has access to subject matter experts who can help identify business needs and fine tune your service selection so you’re using only what you need.

Does your business need a content management platform coupled with a storage solution? MSPs can set you up with SharePoint and OneDrive to get you started. Are your backend employees spending too much time on manual legacy processes? The automation capabilities in Microsoft Power Platform might fit your needs. Are you taking your business to the next level with an end-to-end CRM solution? MSPs have certified professionals ready to execute that transition.

Don’t let the magnitude of Microsoft 365 discourage you from elevating your business. Choosing Managed Services gives you full visibility into the Microsoft toolset while ensuring you purchase the right solution for your business needs.

2. License Management

All great products come with a price, but with Microsoft 365, that cost can quickly be transformed into added value for your business. If you’ve ever had the pleasure of reading through one of Microsoft’s many license documents, you’ve learned at least one thing – Microsoft licensing is intimidating. Underneath every feature rich service there’s a license that enables it. If you’re not careful, keeping up with license costs can be a challenge, but more importantly, ensuring you have the right services enabled for your business is critical.

Managed services can set you up with the right licensing to fit your business needs, enabling the services that help drive collaboration, deliver results, and add value to your organization. Instead of reading through Microsoft licensing docs, these professionals can help you understand the difference between Office 365 and Microsoft 365 licensing, and you can get back to business!

3. Enterprise-level Security

4. Improved Employee Experience

Companies are only as good as their talent. Finding and retaining talented employees is one of the most difficult challenges leaders face in today’s market. Providing the right tools to help employees succeed in their positions is one of the top ways to retain talented people, and regardless of your business sector, technology places a key role.

According to Statistica, Microsoft 365 is used by over a million companies worldwide, with over 731,000 companies in the United States alone using the office suite software. Microsoft is an industry leader in business collaboration, and their offerings continue to improve. Managed Service Providers can help you keep up with these improvements, manage critical changes, and ultimately improve the experience of the employees that utilize these systems.

5. End-to-end Service Delivery

We’ve discussed improving employee experience, but managed services can be so much more with end-to-end service delivery. Not only can managed services assist in process improvement and manage critical systems, but they can also deliver these benefits end-to-end. Companies no longer need to spend internal hours and additional resources to create training materials, adoption strategies, best practices – the list goes on and on.

Allow Microsoft 365 MSPs to deliver end-to-end service to your organization. Service professionals who will gather and compile complete information about specific components into a single vantage point, correlate information and make it available to share throughout your business. Subject matter experts can remove roadblocks, streamline adoption, and drive collaboration, allowing your teams to take full advantage of Microsoft enterprise services.

6. Scale

Has your business ever experienced a bottleneck? Are you struggling to keep up with lead generation? Is your network lacking sufficient bandwidth to handle business traffic, or your data storages reaching capacity? These challenges can delay growth opportunities by discouraging potential customers or create internal challenges by impacting business efficiency.

Don’t let your business fall victim to these issues. Partner with a managed service provider to scale your business in real time, any time you need it. Microsoft 365 services provide services at scale, so your business can secure the resources you need, when you it. MSPs have the knowledge and expertise to help you scale your resources and avoid these challenges, keeping you competitive in the market. Don’t take my word for it – see what Infiyaz Ali, Group Chief Digital Officer at Sunshine Holdings has to say:

“Because we use Azure, our lives are so much easier when we have to work from home and collaborate. We don’t have to work with siloed systems or have trouble managing the needs of the staff and the customers.”

Infiyaz Ali

Group Chief Digital Officer, Sunshine Holdings

7. Minimize Downtime (Disaster Recovery)

Disaster recovery capabilities are critical, a sentiment echoed by many leaders across the globe, including Scott Sparvero, CEO at iland:

“With the rise in remote work and the frequency and impact of cybercrime growing each year, having a comprehensive disaster recovery strategy in place is critical to ensure organizations can defend, protect and quickly recover from data loss…”

Scott Sparvero

CEO, iland Internet Solutions Corporation

Disaster recovery strategies help mitigate the damages of equipment failure, or data breaches, and directly impact your ability to minimize downtime.

Most companies deploy integrated systems that work together to drive business forward. If one component fails to function properly it can create a cascading affect on the rest of your operations. That’s where MSPs can help. MSPs can keep eyes on your systems, identifying potential hardware or software issues that may need your attention. They can also support you in drafting a plan of action that maximizes your response to downtime issues.

8. Support On Demand with Strong SLAs

Speaking of support, with Manage Service Providers handling your Microsoft 365 services, you have immediate access to industry professionals who are equipped with the knowledge and skills to resolve issues impacting your Microsoft 365 services. This benefit reduces the strain on your internal IT and gives team leaders the assurance that they can focus on the tasks at hand – growing the business.

If your company doesn’t have an internal IT team to rely on, MSPs provide you with your own IT department that shows up on time, every time, right when you need it. And the best part? When they’re not working on your systems, they’re not on the clock.

9. Automated System Maintenance

Ever get that pesky pop up on your computer letting you know your PC must restart to apply updates, and you scramble to save documents before clicking on the ‘Restart’ prompt? Many people simply ignore the recommendations and forge on without apply these updates – a common practice that can leave your system exposed. Earlier this year, CNN Business published an article that stated:

“Microsoft is urging Windows users to immediately install an update after security researchers found a serious vulnerability in the operating system.

The security flaw, known as PrintNightmare, affects the Windows Print Spooler service. Researchers at cybersecurity company Sangfor accidentally published a how-to guide for exploiting it.”

If you’re not aware of the security implications, you can put your company at risk. Lucky for you, MSPs can help you stay ahead of these vulnerabilities, creating and enforcing group policies that automatically deliver updates to every endpoint in your organization, keeping your infrastructure safe from digital exploitation.

10. Managed Infrastructure

All the aforementioned items are either related to, or impacted by, your infrastructure. Storage, conferencing, security, disaster recovery, device management – all of these exists within the infrastructure model. Allowing MSPs to manage your infrastructure will position your business to take advantage of enterprise level security and collaboration, maintain data integrity and minimize downtime, as well as return time back to your employees who are responsible for driving your business forward. And according to an infographic released by Microsoft, these benefits keep stacking up. In this graphic, Microsoft notes:

94% of small businesses reported security benefits since moving to the cloud
82% of companies surveyed were able to reduce costs as a result of adopting cloud technology
70% of SMB were able to reinvest cost-savings from the cloud back into their business

Evaluating Managed Services for Your Business

In this article we looked at 10 reasons to choose Managed Services with Microsoft 365. Whether you’re struggling to understand the full scope of Microsoft’s ecosystem, or you’re looking to strengthen your security posture and take immediate action to improve your internal collaboration and processes, managed services are the way to go.

This is not an exhaustive list. The benefits of choosing Managed Services with Microsoft 365 extend well beyond this discussion. However, these points alone beg the question: What are you waiting for? Take advantage of these amazing benefits by moving to Managed Services for your Microsoft 365 deployment and join companies around the world as they lift the burden of IT and focus on driving their businesses forward.