Managed services involve outsourcing business tasks to vendors, such as finance, technology, and customer service. This can save money and resources, but choosing the wrong vendor can have negative consequences.
Managed services is a term used to describe different types of business tasks that can be outsourced to various vendors, allowing a business to divert money and resources that would normally be used to manage those same tasks in-house for other purposes. Under the best conditions, managed services help companies increase profitability while still successfully managing essential tasks. There are three main areas where managed services can be especially helpful: finance, technology, and customer service.
Outsourcing financial tasks is easily one of the most common examples of managed services. In this scenario, a customer contracts with a service provider to take on tasks such as managing the company’s payroll, preparing and submitting invoices, and even processing payments. This allows the company to manage its financial affairs with fewer employees, saving a lot of money in terms of wages and benefits. At the same time, payroll and other services keep pace with changes in government regulations that can affect the company’s tax records, minimizing the potential for accounting issues that lead to audits and possibly fines.
Technology outsourcing is an increasingly popular form of managed services. Small businesses can hire independent services to maintain their internal networks, troubleshooting problems with servers and workstations, locating and implementing new hardware and software on networks, and generally monitoring and managing all activities that occur on customer networks. Many providers manage routine tasks for a monthly fee, while also handling other tasks such as a network migration for an additional fee.
Customer service is another example of managed services support that companies can use as a means to limit staff but still remain responsive to customer needs. This approach involves outsourcing the company’s customer service component, providing customers with contacts who can answer questions about service issues and issues. Service providers offering customer care solutions also provide assistance in obtaining technical support, receiving information about certain products offered by the company, creating a new account or changing an existing account.
While the potential to save a lot of money is inherent in using managed services, choosing the wrong vendors can seriously hinder a company’s progress. For example, an unresponsive technical support provider when systems are down could negatively affect the ability to receive and process orders or manage internal tasks that end up costing the company a great deal of money and time. Likewise, an ineffective customer service provider can damage existing customer relationships to the point where those relationships are severed beyond repair.
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