How Managed Services are helping to redefine the Modern Workspace

Historically when you thought of a modern workspace it conjured images of sleek office furniture and clean, clutter-free spaces. Places where employees would gather and collaborate, and maybe enjoy the perks of a casual, people-friendly atmosphere. These spaces fed the culture that was the modern way to “work smarter, not harder”. As the workforce creeps into the end of 2021 organizations are faced with the reality that the way people go to work has changed. There has been a cultural shift, and “the great resignation” is evidence that things will never be the way they were before. In this changing culture, managed services have taken a front seat in helping organizations redefine their work spaces.

What are Managed Services?

Managed services take many forms, and in today’s modern work culture the most popular is managed IT. Some organizations are challenged to provide the necessary services to provide a productive, decentralized workspace without being able to justify the high cost of specialized skills. These services often help to fill the gap and allow companies to provide the services needed to support a modern work culture.

For example, for a company to have a website, they must first have a server for hosting, then they need that website to be built and maintained by a developer, they need content to be written and updated regularly, and they need the maintenance and network security to keep it going. To do this, the company needs to purchase expensive servers, pay developers a premium to create the site, and purchase solutions that provide the security and necessary systems to keep the website up and running and provide a fail-safe in the event of failure. Each of these requires specialized equipment and skills. A much more attractive alternative is to find a managed solution, a company that can provide cloud hosting, development, and maybe even a content management system, so now your employees only need to learn to make edits to the website within this system, leaving the heavy lifting to the highly skilled team of IT professionals provided with this managed solution. Some other examples of managed services are:

• Network security services
• Cloud communications & telephony services
• IT support and call centers
• Printing and document handling

How can Managed IT help organizations prepare for change?

In the light of the “Big Quit” that erupted following the pandemic, more and more organizations are realizing the value of the employees they have, and retention has become a priority. This sometimes means higher pay or professional development opportunities, but more and more it’s simply striking a balance between happiness and work. Over the last 2 years, we learned that working remotely is not only possible but it’s also proven to create a happier employee and that results in higher productivity. Remote work also means more productivity overall, as the flexibility for each employee increases. So how can managed IT help?

Managed IT services can provide the missing pieces an organization needs to provide a cohesive, decentralized work culture. An employee can access network-dependent services via a Virtual Private Network, or communicate with their team using a cloud communication service, or even send a document to the printer of a colleague or co-worker. Providing all of these services requires a specialized set of skills that are often hard to come by. An organization’s ability to provide these services is critical to its success in providing a hybrid work environment. Even companies who do not or can not support a hybrid or remote work culture are finding they need services like these to stay competitive and continue to do business in today’s decentralized business world.

What are some of the best practices for building a successful modern workspace?

Modernizing or digitally transforming your workspace is a process that can involve every aspect of your companies workflows, processes, and people. Conduct a  comprehensive review of all of the organization’s workflows and determine where you can improve or optimize. There are key services needed to accommodate a decentralized workspace, and these should be considered in the review.

Managed IT Services

• Providing a reliable network on which your team can work is critical, and in a decentralized, modern workspace keeping it secure can be expensive and complex. Managed IT Services can provide the skills and expertise to give you peace of mind.
• Remote network management and monitoring provide a stable and secure virtual space. This core part of a modern workspace includes the necessary services to maintain a healthy network, such as patch management, virus protection, and firewalls. Letting the experts manage your services can save you on costs, and give you confidence that the right skills are in place to manage and maintain your core network.
• Email protection can help keep everyone on the network safe, stopping phishing, spoofing, and other attacks before they can harm your network.
• Backup services provide redundancy in the cloud, making backup and recovery more affordable and practical. Helping you define a solid backup strategy, and managing that process is another way managed services can help you reduce costs, and provide efficiency.

Cloud Communications

• Leveraging cloud-based services, such as cloud PBX and RingCentralMVP, you can seamlessly integrate all of your communications. Cloud communication services reduce costs, increase productivity, and enable communications from anywhere, on any device.
• Full integration allows your team to take telephone calls from anywhere. Working from home 3 days a week?  Utilize the same “office” number for all of your team’s workspaces.
• Video conferencing services provide the ability to meet, collaborate and share across teams. This could be entirely remote, or a hybrid meeting in a board room.  Need to switch a phone call to a video conference and share your screen? Your managed service can provide this seamless integration, reducing costs for you.
• Chat and direct messaging services will increase your team’s productivity, and help everyone stay present in the workday while projects stay on track.

The most important last step is to empower your teams by providing the appropriate professional development to make sure they can stay connected and optimize their own work experience. Above all, your transition should keep your clients, customers, and staff as the central focus of your adaptation. People are the center of the modern workspace, and providing ways for them to work efficiently and be productive is what will ultimately lead to success.