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Before starting your business operations, you'll need the IT infrastructure necessary to support your processes deployed within your office premises as soon as possible.
However, your SME might not have the core capabilities needed for setting up said IT infrastructure in the first place.
In these cases, outsourcing the managed on-site infrastructure setup service from a third-party managed service provider is an option.
With an on-site infrastructure setup service, a managed service provider will dispatch a team to your company’s premises and set up the IT software and hardware necessary to facilitate your business operations.
These include local area networks (LAN), Wireless Application Protocol (WAP), and other types of connections that are fundamental to the business processes of a modern organisation.
For example, a trading company needed to centralise its document management on a single platform to support its business processes.
AFON IT helped this customer resolve its need for a solution by implementing SharePoint, a collaborative platform from Microsoft that centralised the shared documents in a secure yet accessible manner.
With an on-site managed infrastructure setup service, IT infrastructure deployment in your office premises would go smoothly and quickly, enabling your SME to commence business operations as soon as possible.
Opting for a cloud-based IT infrastructure over an on-premises equivalent could be an excellent choice for your SME, as you can save on high initial capital expenditures (CAPEX).
To access them, outsourcing the managed cloud infrastructure services of a third-party managed service provider is necessary.
This involves them taking responsibility for your cloud-based computing, data storage, network and IT assets.
By engaging managed cloud infrastructure services with a managed service provider, you can leave the task of managing and maintaining your cloud assets to professionals with relevant expertise in cloud computing.
Your in-house IT team wouldn't have to spend resources and time learning to deploy and manage cloud infrastructure. This frees them to focus on the core value proposition of your SME.
Some managed IT service providers may also offer other managed cloud infrastructure services. These include virtualisation for apps, software, operating systems etc.
Engaging managed cloud infrastructure services from a managed service provider is also a quick way to enable remote working capabilities for your SME.
Click Here To Find Out The Five Trends That Will Define Remote Working This Year.
For example, a rapidly growing software development company with work-from-home (WFH) arrangements for their entire workforce required all employees to use company-issued laptops for work.
This meant they needed a way to automatically enrol and deploy company-issued laptops to their employees with centralised control of the business applications installed on them.
AFON IT assisted the software development company in achieving this by deploying Microsoft InTune managed services - a cloud-based mobile device management (MDM) and mobile application management (MAM) solution.
With InTune, the client had the cloud-based IT infrastructure necessary to deliver company-issued laptops directly to the residences of their employees, with authorised applications, disk encryption, and data access policies automatically installed.
Microsoft Azure is one of the current most popular cloud platforms for businesses in Singapore. To learn more about what it is and how implementing it can benefit your business, click the image below.
Certain third-party managed IT service providers may be vendors and/or resellers for business software platforms on a software-as-a-service (SaaS) model.
This means you'd only need to pay a monthly or annual subscription fee to the managed IT service provider and get access to the business software you need for your business operations.
Such business software can include productivity suites such as Microsoft Office 365, collaboration platforms such as Microsoft Teams, or ERP software such as Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central.
For example, a manufacturer suffered disruptions to its workflow and internal teamwork due to the COVID-19 pandemic and needed an IT solution to improve collaboration within its workforce.
AFON IT resolved the workflow disruption issue by implementing the Microsoft Teams SaaS collaboration platform for this customer. This platform provides teleconferencing, chat and other collaboration tools it needs to maintain business continuity.
With a managed SaaS service, the managed IT service provider would ensure that all updates, security patches and upgrades are remotely downloaded and installed once they become available.
This ensures that you'll always get the most up-to-date version of any SaaS product you're subscribing to without having to dedicate any resources or personnel from your in-house IT team to keep it updated.
Knowing that your SaaS systems are guaranteed to be secure, up to date and performing optimally also gives you peace of mind. This is important for a business and ensures you can dedicate your SME's resources wholly towards value generation.
To find out more about how a managed SaaS product such as Microsoft Dynamics 365 for your business can boost your overall productivity, click the image below to download our resource.
Businesses and organisations of all sizes today are keenly aware of the dangers of cybersecurity threats to their IT infrastructure. Thus, managed security is one of the most popular services managed IT service providers offer.
Outsourcing your SME’s IT security needs to a managed IT service provider can be a more cost-efficient option than investing in building security capabilities in-house. This is especially so since you can direct your resources towards innovation and business growth instead.
Managed security services involve the third-party managed IT service provider identifying vulnerabilities in your IT infrastructure. The service provider will then create a plan for addressing them with a range of security management and risk prevention services.
Managed IT service providers can also offer security awareness training as part of their managed data security services. These services can equip your workforce with the knowledge to protect themselves from external cybersecurity threats.
For example, after a trading company lost half a million to scammers through an email address spoofing scheme, they engaged AFON IT to provide security awareness training to their employees on preventing a future occurrence.
AFON IT further assisted this customer in strengthening their email security by implementing threshold limits and providing email monitoring and support services.
Other managed data security services that managed IT service providers may offer include:
In the worst-case scenarios, having backups of your critical business data is crucial for ensuring that your SME can recover from hardware failures or compromised IT systems.
Yet, ensuring regular backups of your data can take a significant amount of time and attention from your in-house IT function.
To ensure that your SME has the security of regular data backups without diverting too many resources or personnel, consider outsourcing managed backup and recovery services to a third-party managed IT service provider.
These services include scheduled automatic backups and audits to ensure proper data storage.
Managed IT service providers offering managed backup and recovery services typically have dedicated personnel who bring specialised expertise in backup and recovery techniques to the table.
With these experts managing your backup and recovery procedures, you can be assured that your critical business data will be safe.
And in worst-case scenarios such as IT systems failure or natural disasters, such managed backup and recovery services will ensure that your company can return to normal business operations promptly.
For instance, a business in the oil & gas industry suffered a ransomware attack which caused significant damage to its network and IT infrastructure.
This was partially because the business had no protections for its servers and workstations and no firewalls for its network. On top of that, their on-site backup had also been compromised by the attack.
To protect itself against a future attack, the oil & gas company engaged AFON IT to beef up its network security and provide robust, managed backup and recovery services.
AFON IT implemented an off-site backup to safeguard the critical business data of the customer, on top of other managed services. This improved the security of the company’s IT infrastructure as a whole.
During normal business operations, your employees will inevitably face issues with the software or hardware they use daily.
Resolving these IT issues is part of the duties of an in-house IT function. However, outsourcing managed IT support services to a third-party managed IT service provider to cover this business need is another option.
With managed IT support services, your employees can call a remote help centre operated by the managed IT service provider for assistance with any IT issue.
It also means that your company won’t incur the higher costs of maintaining an in-house IT function simply to provide IT support. This allows the money to be invested in other business functions to drive productivity and growth. It also frees your existing IT team to support the growth strategy of your SME instead of burdening them with IT support tasks.