Small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) often struggle to keep up with technology and managing their networks. It can be complicated, requiring significant time, effort and staff. Thanks to managed network services, the SMB market can get a lot of help in several key areas.

Beating the Competition

Diverting too many resources to managing your network can result in less focus on serving customers and keeping a competitive edge. IT personnel should be focused on moving into new markets or improving experiences for your customers. Failing to at least match the competition in certain areas is a good way to fall behind.

The CompTIA “Fifth Annual Trends in Managed Services” report pointed out that the global managed services market, which included managed network services, was set to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 12.5 percent. It is projected to top out at $193 billion in 2019.

Achieving Operational Improvements

An increasing number of providers are offering managed network services to address several SMB challenges:

• Keeping current. Managing the growing demands of mobility, security, hardware, app performance, guess access and bring-your-own-everything can be overwhelming. Managed network services allow you to stay focused on managing the business while leaving network management to a trusted provider. Management can be purchased as end-to-end or as a complement to your personnel.
• Cost controls. By using managed network services, SMBs can also control OPEX and CAPEX. Some upfront capital expenditures can be shifted to operating expense as management often reduces the need for some hardware. This, in turn, allows you to more easily predict your IT costs on a month-to-month basis and improve the bottom line of your business.
• Staffing issues. SMBs often don’t have a lot of staff in the IT department, so when things go wrong, those all-hands-on-deck situations can turn into a lot of extra hours. Such incidents can impact employee morale and potentially increase turnover of critical talent. Managed network services can reduce this burden, improve overall productivity and allow IT personnel to focus on higher value projects.

Getting Started

Those who want to get started with managed network services will do well to talk to eXemplify, a Verizon platinum partner that has access to a wide range of options in the field. With top-notch support operations, and a range of successful projects previously launched, eXemplify has the experience and the materials to help you build the managed network services you want in place.