The Inside IT Scoop: Featuring a Q & A with Jonathan Parsons, one of JDL's Managed Services experts...
1) Many people are mystified by Managed Services, how do you describe what you do?
Managed Services essentially allows staff in an organization to focus on what they were hired to do and stop worrying about tech support issues. Far too often personnel are assigned tasks that involve maintaining systems that are large, complex, critical to business operations, and should be run by industry certified staff. By leveraging the expertise and experience of a managed services firm, businesses allow themselves to refocus on what they do to make money, rather than how will they get it done.
2) What common mistakes do you find with business owners’ concepts of Managed Services?
The most common problem involved with Managed Services is that the company often tries to replace their technical staff. While there are instances where this might be applicable, business owners and stakeholders still need to recognize that they still need on-site, day-to-day support for common IT tasks. They still need an IT presence to handle backup tape rotations, moving equipment to new offices, and helping to identify and troubleshoot problems at their sites. What is gained by the use of managed services is a team of experts focused on keeping the inner workings of a business running, much like the pit crew for a race car and its driver.
3) How does Managed Services make an impact from day one in a business?
From day one, greater visibility and stability is brought to an organization that uses managed services. They have immediate access to asset information for audits, patching schedules to keep their operating system software up-to-date, resources to efficiently deploy software packages and policies across the entire organization. They have tools with which to regain control of their technology sprawl and put it back to work for them.
4) Living IT on a daily basis as a profession and interest, what are the top 3 trending topics in your area of expertise?
The proliferation of mobile devices, such as smart phones and tablets, are becoming more critical to the business and more prevalent. For businesses that issue these devices to their employees, they need to be tracked for inventory purposes and standardized to meet business policies. Our manage services can cover those gaps in coverage that most services are just now beginning to realize exist.
Businesses, even governments, are starting to take a closer look at how their technology departments work. Budgets are being restricted, designs reexamined, and positions scrutinized. With managed services, business have to ability to tighten security, audit and automate tasks, bring their operations into compliance, and do it all with resources they already have.
5) On another note, do you have a favorite quote or quotes?
Learning and innovation go hand in hand. The arrogance of success is to think that what you did yesterday will be sufficient for tomorrow. – William Pollard
The people I distrust most are those who want to improve our lives but have only one course of action. - Frank Herbert