Managed services is a method by which a third party can help a company become more proactive, even predictive, in terms of technology to keep a company productive by limiting downtime. However, managed services goes beyond the scope of preventing failure and allows companies to utilize technology to foster growth and anticipate problems that arise with adding new people and additional hardware. For example, a company that monitors networks can anticipate the requirements for a company adding 20 employees in the next three months, limiting potential network downtime. In other words, a managed services company provides effective business solutions using technology but does not advocate using technology for technology’s sake. Our job is to keep productivity up by limiting downtime and anticipating problems before they arise.

Why is managed services increasingly becoming a popular business solution? Many tools that were only available to the Fortune 500 companies are now essentially available to smaller companies. For instance, an application that allowed a company to effectively monitor a network cost $250,000 less than ten years ago. Advances in technology have allowed the smaller companies to enjoy many of the benefits that only the industry giants could afford. Though these tools are much more affordable, they still require a certain amount of expertise and resources to operate, manage and maintain.