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Four Common Mistakes Made During a Transition to Managed IT Services

by Eva Gilbert

A transition to managed IT services is an excellent way for a business to procure the best talent at the lowest cost. Nevertheless, the actual process of transitioning can be a challenge. In addition to numerous best practices that should be followed, there are also some common mistakes that many businesses find themselves dealing with.

1. Letting Critical Employees Go

Some businesses fully transition their in-house IT team to a managed IT service -- and this can be a very successful journey. But when some in-house staff will be required, it's preferable to let non-essential IT employees go rather than the critical employees. It's tempting for a business to remove a high-powered and expensive systems administrator and rely upon a help desk employee, but this will cause issues over time. The ultimate goal of managed IT services is to replace and automate day-to-day operations, not the most skilled network and systems engineers.

2. Transitioning Too Early

Managed IT services often come with brand new technology. Transitioning to this technology early or abruptly can lead to significant business disruption. Employees should always be trained on the transition before it actually occurs, and they should feel familiar and confident with software before it's deployed. Otherwise, employees will enter into the managed IT service contract with an already negative perception.

3. Not Transitioning Enough Services

Because a transition is a tumultuous time, it's often best to transition the entire architecture at once -- if that is the ultimate goal. Transitioning a system piecemeal will simply cause sustained disruption and confusion. Many companies switch to managed IT services for backups, security systems, document storage, infrastructure, and identity services. All of these can be integrated into a single system and transitioned to at the same time, rather than one at a time.

4. Forgetting About On-Premise Infrastructure

Most managed IT services today are managed remotely -- and many of the services that are being managed remotely are cloud-based. This can make it easy for a company to forget about their on-premise infrastructure. Most commonly, companies may find that their Internet access cannot support the amount of bandwidth they now require. They may also find that they need to upgrade their physical workstations for better connections with their remote services.

Easing the transition between in-house IT staff and managed IT services will provide a more stable foundation for many years to come. Through a managed IT service like TEC Consulting Group, companies will be able to focus on their own IT initiatives without having to worry about their day-to-day tasks; however, they'll still need to provide their managed IT service direction and goals if they are to be successful.

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