How Managed IT Services Can Solve Your Technical Resource Gaps

Today’s business growth is often driven by digital experiences. Companies need to invest in their IT infrastructure and team to account for the increased standards of digital experiences and escalating cyberattacks. Developing highly skilled IT teams and arming them with state-of-the-art tools can lead to overspending that eats into your profits, but underspending can expose your business to threats.

To help evolve without disruption, many companies employ managed IT service companies to act as an extension of their internal teams, augmenting their talent pool to plan, implement and manage specialized and time-consuming tasks without increasing headcount. These managed services companies benefit from economies of scale, enabling them to invest significantly in training talent and developing advanced tools to assist their client base. Your business can leverage these teams on a short-term basis to address immediate threats or on a long-term basis by integrating their support into your headcount plans.

Types of managed services

Depending on your needs, there are various types of managed services teams that can help fill your company’s gaps:

Consultation and planning services 

Working from your business priorities, consultants assess your current technology to find cost-saving opportunities and areas for increased investment. They can also create procedures, implement analytics improvements and conduct training to help optimize your team’s performance. Businesses often hire consultants when their expertise is stretched thin or too close to the problem to solve it effectively.

Who may not need consulting and planning services?

• Companies with a fully built-out in-house IT team covering all aspects of modern hybrid technical solutions
• IT teams with the time and resources to attend conferences and continuously stay updated with the latest technologies and methodologies
• IT teams capable of forming specialized task forces to audit and create intentional paths forward for the business’s technology ecosystem

Implementation services

Implementation teams install the hardware and software required for your plans to bear fruit. With today’s complex technological infrastructures—which often span multiple on-premises and cloud-based locations—experienced teams are essential to manage these complexities and support global implementations.

If possible, having an implementation team under the same roof as your consulting team often results in smoother execution because it helps to facilitate close communication and shared best practices.

Who may not need implementation assistance?

• If your systems require strict confidentiality, making external teams unsuitable
• If you have on-the-ground specialists covering your entire geographic footprint and specializing in modern hybrid solutions
• If you are a small business without critically sensitive data, built-in solutions from cloud service providers, cybersecurity vendors and collaboration tools may suffice

Management services

24/7 IT support is crucial to keep your business running smoothly, but relying on an under-resourced team can lead to burnout and jeopardize your operations, intellectual property and reputation. Over 60% of network failures result in at least $100,000 in total losses,¹ and data breaches cost on average $4.45 million.² Managed services can support your IT team by placing more eyes on critical operations, helping to safeguard your business.

Keep in mind, not all managed services teams are created equal. Some monitoring and response teams are staffed with IT beginners, while others are composed of experts armed with significant experience and best practices. Ask about a team’s certifications, references, processes and experience with comparable situations to find the best fit.

Who may not need monitoring and response support?

• If you have a 24/7 IT team with monitoring and alert tools and incident response plans for various networking and cybersecurity issues

Practical managed services applications

Networking: An optimized, supported network helps create fast, reliable and flexible customer experiences and operational efficiencies. Your business components—such as data centers, public and private cloud, offices and physical locations—are all connected by your network backbone, which requires planning and execution for peak performance. Managed services can help optimize your network, implement modern technology and prevent costly downtime.

Cybersecurity: Cyberthreats evolve continuously, so maintaining strong cybersecurity is crucial for protecting your business. Every digital or data-centric project should incorporate security measures such as robust tools, incident response plans and continuous monitoring. Additionally, compliance consultants can help businesses in highly sensitive industries meet specific legal standards, avoiding reputational damage and fines.

Collaboration and customer experience: Enhancing employee productivity drives business efficiency, while strengthening CX team procedures helps deliver stellar customer experiences and preserve your reputation. Managed services can focus on these areas, improving your technology, discovering data-driven insights and training your team to use systems effectively.

Tech stack consulting: Consultants analyze your entire technology ecosystem and procedures to identify improvements that align with your business goals. Their extensive knowledge of market-leading solutions enables them to recommend alternatives that enhance performance in critical areas while reducing costs elsewhere.

How to balance investment in managed services vs. my internal team? 

To avoid over-reliance on managed services, balance the workload given to managed services teams with internal IT development. Assess this balance by:

1. Ensuring managed services are held to specific deliverables and training sessions that provide your team with clear insights and processes
2. Evaluating your team’s understanding and execution of your company’s technology and procedures
3. Confirming your IT team has adequate system visibility through powerful reporting and monitoring tools such as the Black Lotus Labs^® cybersecurity monitoring platform and Lumen Digital networking performance analytics platform

Customize managed services with Lumen  

Unlike traditional IT consulting firms that primarily offer advisory roles, Lumen provides deep, hands-on expertise with proven best practices from thousands of engagements and 2,950+ certifications across network, collaboration, CX and cybersecurity.

You can customize our role to fit your needs anywhere throughout the technology lifecycle, including strategy, design, implementation and ongoing management of your applications and infrastructure. We pride ourselves in fostering healthy, collaborative partnerships by providing real-time analytics platforms, detailed documentation and exceptional account management.

Ask your IT leadership whether you have the necessary headcount and expertise to support your technology ecosystem effectively, or whether there are gaps that could be filled with a tailored managed services partnership.

Partner with Lumen today for expert managed services to help optimize your IT investments.

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¹Uptime Institute, 2022 Outage Analysis Finds Downtime Costs and Consequences Worsening as Industry Efforts to Curb Outage Frequency Fall Short, 2022.
²IBM, Cost of a Data Breach Report 2024, 2024.

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