How to Choose an MSP: Why Your Business Needs a Certified One

A managed service provider (MSP) is an outsourced IT department that handles all your company’s IT support needs and is available in an instant. An MSP is an external company that manages your IT infrastructure and systems. That means your entire company’s data is managed, monitored, and remediated 24/7/365.

At Sagiss, we divide our managed IT services into three main buckets:

• Managed security services
• Managed cloud services
• IT support services

It’s important to review an MSP’s services portfolio to ensure it aligns with your business requirements.

If you’re already familiar with the concept of an MSP, you’re likely considering whether an MSP is the right fit for your business.

One of the first things to consider is how fast you are growing.

If you are experiencing rapid growth, you might need to outsource. The same might be true if you’re making some state-of-the-art changes. Midsize businesses often rely on MSPs due to complex IT environments and limited internal resources. If you don’t know anything about IT and you haven’t changed anything in your technology as your business has grown, it is time to at least bring in a consultant to look at your network. Before choosing an MSP, it’s crucial to evaluate your current IT setup to understand your hardware, software, and systems.

Hiring someone internally is a process—it can be done but with an MSP, you will have immediate access to skilled technicians. MSPs bring specialized expertise to support your IT environment. When you partner with an MSP, you are hiring a group of experts to handle your technology while you worry about your other business needs. MSPs contribute to operational efficiency and help you achieve your business goals. An MSP can help address both current and future needs as your business evolves.

What are the benefits of a managed service provider?

When selecting a managed service provider, there are several key factors to consider to ensure you make the right choice for your business. Customer satisfaction is a crucial indicator of an MSP's quality and reliability, often measured by metrics like Net Promoter Score® and Customer Satisfaction scores.

Partnering with a quality MSP is the best option for businesses struggling with IT. Yet many companies aren’t aware of the value that managed service providers provide. It's important to choose an MSP with a proven track record, demonstrated through references, case studies, and industry-specific experience.

A quality MSP should be viewed as a strategic partner who collaborates with you to support your overall business goals and ensure ongoing success. High quality customer service is also essential in your MSP relationship, as it ensures reliable communication, transparency, and long-term ROI.

To maximize the benefits, make sure you have a clear service level agreement in place to set expectations for service standards and performance. When evaluating MSPs, assess their technical expertise, including their skills, certifications, and ability to handle various IT challenges effectively.

Data security

The technology landscape is ever growing. From laptops to tablets and smartphones to wearables (smart watches), the many ways hackers can wreak havoc is ever growing as well. With this rapid expansion, data protection has become essential for managing and securing organizational data across all devices and platforms.

That’s why is—and always will be—the number one reason to switch to an MSP.

Security doesn’t just mean preventing risks, threats and attacks though. MSPs like Sagiss offer HIPAA compliance for clients like doctor’s offices. HIPAA regulations are of great importance when it comes to managing data from the healthcare sector and many other types of businesses. MSPs play a crucial role in protecting sensitive data through robust security protocols that help prevent unauthorized access and data breaches. They ensure privacy standards are met when personal information is used and accessed. HIPPA compliance and training ensures that MSPs know the correct way to handle your data. Security protocols are also vital in ensuring compliance requirements and meeting industry regulations relevant to your business.

Additionally, security awareness training for employees is valuable in strengthening your organization’s defenses against cyber threats. Beyond just security, MSPs help ensure business continuity through comprehensive backup solutions and disaster recovery planning, minimizing downtime and safeguarding critical data.

Cloud infrastructure expertise

There are three types of cloud structures:

• Public cloud — The most common type of cloud computing, the cloud sources are owned and operated by a third-party cloud service provider and delivered over the internet.
• Private cloud — A private cloud consists of cloud computing resources used exclusively by one business or organization.
• Hybrid cloud — A hybrid cloud is a type of cloud computing that combines on-premises infrastructure—or a private cloud—with a public cloud. Hybrid clouds allow data and apps to move between the two environments.

MSPs manage cloud infrastructure across these structures to support virtualization, storage, and computing resources, ensuring seamless migration, optimization, and security.

Note: Credit for the definitions of the cloud structures above are courtesy of Microsoft.

All three cloud structures share one basic principle: They deliver hosted services over the internet. They are all designed to enable businesses to create virtual machines and hosted applications instead of building and maintaining physical hardware.

While each cloud has its own perks, they do overlap in the benefits they provide:

• Elasticity: Businesses can scale their network up or down on demand. Effective network management and maintaining reliable network infrastructure are crucial in cloud environments to ensure performance and security.
• Data backup and disaster recovery: Cloud based data backup and disaster recovery solutions give businesses the power to have built in safeguards that save time and money, and can be managed by third parties.
• Automatic software updates: Security and software updates () can be pushed to the client whenever/wherever, all while freeing up the business to tend to more important things, like running the day-to-day operations. MSPs also assist with transitioning software from on-premises environments to the cloud, streamlining the migration process.
• Increased collaboration: Access, edit, and share documents anytime, from anywhere with your team using cloud-based workflows and apps like Microsoft’s 365 and SharePoint. These services also have real-time file updates so collaboration is seamless. MSPs support end user systems and manage customer environments to ensure smooth operations and secure access across devices.

Implementing business intelligence solutions is another benefit of cloud services, as MSPs can design and deploy business intelligence solutions to automate workflows, enhance data analysis, and improve operational insights.

Return on investment

Every business owner wants to maximize efficiency, but sometimes efficiency means nothing when systems are slow, email doesn’t flow, or networks have frequent outages.

Sagiss’ managed services provide efficiency in ongoing, proactive maintenance. Evaluating an MSP's future performance—by looking at references, reviews, and historical support—can help ensure you receive ongoing value and reliability. To use an ancient proverb, time is money. If a business can save time (and money) by not having to work through hundreds of support tickets or worry about IT worries, that’s more bottom line to spend elsewhere. MSPs also offer tailored solutions that address your unique business needs, ensuring your IT environment is managed effectively. By preventing data loss and ensuring reliable IT operations, MSPs directly contribute to your company's success.

Certified MSP vs. internal IT

Partnering with an MSP may look expensive when considering only the sticker price of the service. But partnering with the right certified MSP offers far greater value than the price tag would suggest. (Also, partnering with an MSP is far cheaper than the average cost of a data breach, now at $4.24 million!)

MSPs, or managed IT service providers, are companies that deliver outsourced IT management and support, handling everything from network security to infrastructure maintenance.

And for many companies, MSPs are a better choice than an internal IT department. An internal IT team can provide dedicated, in-house expertise, but MSPs can supplement or even replace internal teams to ensure system reliability, security, and scalability.

To be clear, we are deliberate in comparing internal IT to a certified MSP.

There are few ways to guarantee quality, but your odds are much better when selecting a certified MSP as opposed to just picking an MSP at random. Certified MSPs are equipped to manage comprehensive IT operations and IT management, including proactive oversight, strategic planning, and day-to-day IT functions.

When you’re looking for a certified MSP, it helps to know which certifications to look for. The Cyber Verify from MSPAlliance is a great certification to seek. Less than 1% of the global MSP community has achieved a AAA Cyber Verify rating, so any managed service provider with this rating is in elite company.

The right certifications are third-party endorsements that an MSP maintains a certain level of standards. Compliance considerations and adherence to industry best practices are also crucial, as they ensure your MSP can meet regulatory requirements and deliver secure, effective IT management.

Below are the main points to consider when weighing the value of a certified MSP over internal IT. When evaluating potential providers, be sure to assess their support structure to ensure they can deliver reliable, responsive IT support when you need it most.

Points of failure and knowledge

Small companies may see no problem in relying on only one person to handle all the IT needs. On most days, this setup may work.

But running lean creates problems when the one-person IT department is sick or injured. The situation is devastating if the person quits without notice or without having the opportunity to pass his or her knowledge on to someone else. MSPs provide helpdesk support and efficiently handle support requests, ensuring that technical issues are addressed promptly even when your in-house IT is unavailable.

Even the best intentioned solo IT person likely lacks the time to maintain network documentation in addition to keeping everything working properly.

But the right MSP is prepared to have someone else fill in if your dedicated tech is sick or quits.

Also, certain situations are too much for one person, such as a infection of emotet or some other type of threatware. The right managed service provider will be able to temporarily scale up to help out until your issues are resolved. Rapid response to critical issues is essential to minimize downtime and maintain business continuity. Also, the ability to temporarily scale up is one reason co-managed IT is a great option for larger companies. MSPs' services cover a wide range of needs, including technical support, backup solutions, and ongoing system monitoring to ensure your IT infrastructure remains reliable.

Control and admin rights

Whoever handles your IT also has access to your company's critical data, including but not limited to payroll information, HR documentation, and crucial contracts. An internal IT employee looking at these items presents conflicts.

Of course, there are obvious concerns with a third party having access to that same data.

That's why we'll repeat our point above about certifications: An MSP with the proper certifications (like the Cyber Verify from MSPAlliance) has been vouched to be trustworthy with your data and systems.

If an MSP has gone through the trouble of getting certifications, you know they place value in these credentials and will not keep around employees who can't be trusted with a client's assets.

Motivations

A competent MSP is motivated to innovate and improve processes. This focus encourages growth for both your company and the managed service provider itself.

Internal IT, on the other hand, has incentives to maintain the status quo. Changing processes or growing employees (users) brings more opportunity for systems to break.

Growth is often a negative for internal IT, because growth increases IT’s responsibilities. The IT department may not be equipped to handle the challenges that growth brings, especially if your company is having trouble finding the funds to invest into the resources IT needs to keep up with your growing business.

MSPs are motivated to improve processes because they juggle multiple clients. Anything that helps an MSP save a little time and effort with one client can be applied to all clients, thereby increasing the value of the newly discovered efficiency. In addition, MSPs play a crucial role in maintaining smooth business operations by ensuring your IT environment is optimized and reliable, supporting the continuous functioning of your entire organization.

Training and career path

If you have an “IT department,” then IT is not your core business.

The unfortunate truth is that IT employees (and their development) are often not priority for most companies. When the development of IT employees is neglected, those employees stagnate and eventually become a liability because they are not able to keep up with the ever-changing demands of IT and security.

But IT is at the core of an MSP’s business. If an MSP hopes to stay in business, it must invest in the development of its employees. This includes providing training on the management and security of mobile devices, ensuring staff are equipped to handle mobile access, device management, and data protection policies within your organization.

Costs of internal IT

In many cases, partnering with an MSP makes more financial sense than creating your own internal IT department. The cost of a fully-burdened (salary, benefits, PTO, etc.) IT employee may cost your business more than outsourcing your IT responsibilities to an MSP.

Creating your own IT department gets even more costly when you consider the costs acquiring and maintaining the software, hardware, and training your internal IT employees need to perform their duties. Additionally, ensuring reliable backup solutions and comprehensive management of your IT systems is essential for business continuity and protection against data loss or downtime.