MSPs (Managed IT Service Providers) are pretty familiar with the terms Managed IT Services and Professional Services. But being an end customer or at the receiving end of the chain, not necessary that you know about this. As people who are a part of the IT Services Industry, we, being IT Service Providers have all heard about Managed IT Services but what about Professional Services? A fairly new term, isn’t it?
The concept of Outsourcing IT services – a subject that many still find beneficial but scary. When your resources are limited or you do not want to shell out a lot of money on hiring people and physical infrastructure, then there is no better option than outsourcing.
But it may or may not be the right choice for everybody. One, because your requirements get sufficed with the 1-2 people that you have in your organization. And secondly, trust is a huge factor – You have to trust the company or the third party that you are outsourcing to.
But the kind of IT Service that you would want to outsource – Managed IT Services or Professional Services, depends entirely on your need. And for that, you need to know the difference between the two
Managed IT Services:
The one that many of us are already familiar with. Managed IT Services is the routine tasks that all IT Companies undergo daily. It includes network mapping, regular patch management, backup management, maintenance, etc. to ensure the good health of the devices under monitoring.
MSPs give you services that you need to ensure your IT Network is up-to-date and safe. This falls under a term called, NOC. NOC Services stands for Network Operations Center, this is from where the Network of clients are managed.
In addition to the points mentioned above, here is what you can expect when you have outsourced your Managed IT Services:
24×7 Support: Most MSPs and Master MSPs will give you constant support. Depending on your needs, you can choose the number of hours, choose the number of engineers that you want to work for you.
Manage Active Issues and Alerts: Constant support from your IT Service Providers means the engineers will not only monitor but can also manage active issues and alerts and remediate them for you.
Patch Management: Patch Management means keeping the OS up to date with the latest updates.
Backup Management: Infrassist provide complimentary backup monitoring services to identify incidents or problems that arise in customer environments. Our backup solutions will help create more efficient, healthier, and agile backup and recovery for your customers.
Antivirus Management: Securing the IT Network Infrastructure with daily checks and updates and a thorough scan.
Vendor Liaison: Partnering with an IT Service Provider eliminates the fuss of dealing with the vendors as most of the service providers do it for you.
Professional Services:
Professional Services do not include routine tasks. These are usually ad-hoc (one-time) projects which usually consist of tasks like Migration, Automation of Scripts, consultation, audits, and much more. Let’s dive into some of the tasks or categories you can include under Professional Services.
Consulting: Some will provide you with implementation and consulting services and some will provide you only consulting services, depending on your need. You pay the full cost of the project once and that’s it. No recurring monthly costs.
Ad-hoc projects: Ad-hoc projects are one-time projects. For example, if the end customer wants to migrate his on-premises services to the cloud, he just needs to pay the full amount of the service and that would be it. You pay, your project gets done, and that’s it. The association ends then and there. Maintenance and support for anything after that, would be an issue. Which is why you need to set things clear with your prospective IT Partner on whether you will be given any kind of post-project support or if anything goes wrong, whom can you contact or approach and how the costing for that will be calculated etc.
Automation: These can come under Managed Services and also Professional Services. Managed IT Services include automation within the RMM Tool and when it comes to Professional Services Automation, it could include the usage of tools and services such as Power BI, Power Automate, creating custom scripts to fulfil needs and carrying out custom integrations using API etc.
Modern Workplace: Professional services help you build a modern workplace. The routine Managed IT services tasks do not entail or help in building the end customer a modern workplace. It usually follows the procedure and process that the team is using currently, which could be – following the traditional methods or the newer ones too.
Final Difference and Verdict:
Managed IT Services include monitoring, managing, and troubleshooting your existing IT Network and is an ongoing daily procedure. But when it comes to Professional Services, it is like a one-time project like a Migration for example.
So, if your requirement is for constant monitoring, go for Managed IT Services and if your requirement is for one-time projects, go for Professional Services.
About Infrassist Technologies Pvt. Ltd.
Founded in 2015, Infrassist is a Master MSP that leverages technology to empower MSPs. Their mission is “To provide our MSP customers deliver robust and reliable Infrastructure management and security services. To deliver service excellence with Integrity leading to predictable outcomes. To build a team with passion, commitment, and relentless customer focus.” Infrassist Technologies Pvt. Ltd is ISO 27001:2013 certified company and they have partnered with 75+ MSPs globally and have a team of 50+ skilled engineers. Their vendor partners include Cisco, Citrix, Fortinet, Microsoft, Kaseya, SolarWinds, Sophos, AWS and ConnectWise, to name a few.
To contact and know more about them, visit their website www.infrassist.com or send an email to [email protected]
