Building a Hybrid IT Managed Services Model

Published 15/08/24 under:

IT teams are responsible for managing a range of critical business processes, from data centre infrastructure to cloud environments.

Keeping on top of changing security requirements, spiralling cloud budgets and the demands of stakeholders across the business is no mean feat.

If your business is growing, the additional push to effectively scale services can be an additional stressor, leaving your IT department scrambling simply to maintain business as usual, and potentially leaving other valuable opportunities on the table.

Even as the rest of your business grows, scaling your IT team may not be a simple task. Recruiting and retaining specialist personnel in a competitive market can be a huge challenge, leaving teams feeling like they don’t have the resources they need to achieve digital transformation objectives. Worse still, all the pressure can make for a stressful and unfulfilling work environment, increasing staff turnover and compounding recruitment challenges.

So how can you take the pressure off your IT team?

How a hybrid model can help

To meet the challenges of scaling complex IT requirements, businesses are increasingly adopting a hybrid approach – partnering with an IT managed services provider to supplement their existing internal resource.

There’s a long list of great reasons to consider a hybrid model:

• Access to specialised expertise: A hybrid managed services model allows businesses to tap into the skills and knowledge of a wide range of IT professionals, filling skills gaps in critical areas like cybersecurity, data analytics, or cloud computing.
• Cost savings: By outsourcing certain IT functions to a managed services provider, businesses can reduce the internal costs associated with hiring and training employees, purchasing hardware and software, and maintaining infrastructure.
• Improved efficiency: A managed services provider can help streamline your IT operations by providing access to advanced automation tools and standardised processes that improve efficiency and reduce the risk of errors.
• Scalability: With a hybrid managed services model, you can quickly scale up your IT resources as needed to support changing business requirements, allowing you to effectively maintain high levels of service as your company grows.
• Flexibility: A hybrid managed services model allows you to cherry-pick the IT services you need, freeing up your internal team to play to their strengths whilst ensuring all the bases are covered.

Getting your team on board

Outsourcing can feel like a threat to internal IT teams, and it’s understandable that introducing the idea of a hybrid model could cause some insecurity. In reality, though, bringing in third-party support can be a huge benefit to your existing team.

At the most basic level, managed services providers can reduce pressure on internal teams by taking care of the straightforward but high-volume day-to-day tasks that add to their workload without being particularly challenging or interesting. This leaves team members free to focus on more engaging areas, such as digital transformation projects or longer-term strategic work.

At the other end of the spectrum, a good managed services provider can make it possible for teams to tackle more advanced projects too. Where an internal team on their own might not have the skillset to experiment with AI or create hybrid cloud architecture, a little support from a specialist could give them the resources they need to make more ambitious ideas a reality. This not only benefits the business, but helps give your team the opportunity to develop their skills and try new things, increasing engagement and staff retention.

As with most things, a clear vision and good communication is key to ensuring that your internal IT department understands the benefits of adopting a hybrid managed services model. Setting the right expectations from day one can help your team adjust to the change, whilst ensuring a successful and productive partnership.

Making the shift to a hybrid model

If you’ve decided to move to a hybrid managed services model, it’s important to ensure that, like any project, you’ve charted a clear path forward.

At Kerv Transform, we’re experts at working with businesses to make the shift to a hybrid model as seamless as possible. We’ll work with you every step of the way:

Assess your current IT infrastructure:

Before you can adopt a hybrid managed services model, you need to have a clear understanding of your current IT infrastructure and the systems and processes that it supports.

Define your goals:

Once you have assessed your current IT infrastructure, you should define your goals for adopting a hybrid managed services model. This might include reducing costs, improving scalability, filling skills gaps or increasing reliability.

Plan and design:

Working with your managed services provider, you should plan and design your new hybrid infrastructure. This will involve identifying the systems and processes that your provider will take on as well as those that will remain in-house, alongside the communication processes to ensure everything runs smoothly.

Test and deploy:

Once your new infrastructure is designed, you should thoroughly test it to ensure that everything is working as expected. Then, you can begin deploying your systems in the cloud.

Monitor and manage:

Regularly monitor the progress of your transition to a hybrid IT managed services model, and make adjustments as needed. This may involve revisiting your roles and responsibilities, providing additional training to team members, or making changes to your governance policies.

Get ahead with hybrid managed services by Kerv

At Kerv Transform, our hybrid IT managed services help businesses like yours adopt a flexible, scalable, and cost-effective approach to their IT. From providing access to cutting-edge tools and technologies to supporting you to develop industry-standard processes, our expert team can support your internal IT department with the resources they need to shine.

To find out how we can help you develop a successful, cost-effective and scalable hybrid managed services model, get in touch today.