All-Inclusive vs. Co-Managed IT Services: Which Option is Right for Your Business?

After you’ve decided that you need the benefits that managed IT services can bring your organization, you still have another question to ponder. Which managed IT services option is best for my business:  all-inclusive or co-managed?

But first, let’s make sure that there’s no confusion about the terms all-inclusive and co-managed.

All-Inclusive Managed IT Services – An outsourced company takes care of everything from proactive IT and cyber security management to reactive support and incident response.

Co-Managed IT Services – An outsourced company takes care of IT and cyber security management and advanced reactive support, while your internal IT staff responds to end user support requests and onsite technical repairs. The exact scope of services can be customized to fit your needs and the tasks you want your internal team to retain.

Before we go into why one option might be better than another, you should note that all managed IT services companies are different. The services and packages may have similar names, but the process for service delivery and results varies widely.

In this article, we're discussing VC3's specific approach to all-inclusive and co-managed IT services. We'll cover:

• What You Get with Both All-Inclusive and Co-Managed IT Services Options
• All-Inclusive Managed IT Services Are for You If You Want to...
• Co-Managed IT Services Are for You If You Want to...
• The Main Difference Between All-Inclusive and Co-Managed IT Services

What You Get with Both All-Inclusive and Co-Managed IT Services Options

Bring Calm to the Chaos

Filling in the gaps in your IT capability with the right team will enable you to do IT right. When IT stops being noisy and instead hums along, you can turn your technology into a propeller for your business goals.

IT Strategy Consulting

We can’t get the results you’re expecting without looking ahead and being proactive, which is why both all-inclusive and co-managed IT services include the services of a Technology Advisor. Your Technology Advisor collaborates with you to plan out IT improvements, vet new technologies, and align IT initiatives with your business goals.

Rely on a Scalable IT Foundation

If you’ve been held back because your IT foundation can’t handle growth, you can expect that to change as we develop and implement an IT roadmap with you that’s focused on improving the performance of your network. When the foundation is there, you can use it to meet your stretch goals.

Access to a Wide Range of IT Specialties

With all-inclusive managed IT services, you get access to a comprehensive skillset. So whatever issues you need help with are always in someone’s wheelhouse.

Ramp Up Your Security Posture Rapidly

More and more companies are finding themselves in a position where they need to up their level of cyber security fast. You can accomplish this with both all-inclusive and co-managed IT services.

How this looks will depend on your unique situation and the condition of your IT network, so don’t confuse fast with easy. Cooperation and investment on your part will most likely be required.

Quick Response and Lots of Communication

We can only speak for VC3, but whatever blend of IT services you receive from us will be delivered in a timely manner, and you'll be looped into what’s happening. So many people we talk to say they’re so tired of hearing excuses or radio silence from their IT provider. That doesn’t happen here.

All-Inclusive Managed IT Services Are for You If You Want to...

Stop Thinking About IT

If you’re an executive who just wants IT to work and not have to be involved in the day-to-day, then all-inclusive managed IT services are for you. At VC3, we take care of whatever comes up. You'll still be involved in future planning, approving purchases, and things like that -- but every issue won't need to cross your desk.

Empower Your People to Get Help When They Need It

Your people will be more productive and happier when they know that they will get help when they need it. No more saving up their issues until the IT comes into the office, or having someone else put in a support request on their behalf.

Fast support desk response at VC3 is delivered by personable technicians who know how to ask the right questions. Any employee can contact us at any time.

Let Go of the Burden of Recruiting, Hiring, and Training IT Staff

It takes resources and skill to successfully recruit technology professionals. However, you no longer need to worry about that when you have all-inclusive managed IT services.

Free Your IT People (If You Have Them) To Focus on Applications

If you have IT people who are Management Information Systems (MIS) specialists or software developers, bringing on all-inclusive managed IT services will free them to focus on their tasks instead of being pulled into routine IT and security management tasks. In fact, they will be more successful because they can build your apps on a solid IT foundation.

Co-Managed IT Services Are for You If You Want to...

Keep Your Internal IT Staff

You can set your internal IT staff up for success with co-managed IT services. They can focus on helping your people and devote their time to their specific area of expertise while having resources available for escalation and collaboration.

Access the IT Specialties You Don’t Have In-House

At VC3, most co-managed clients have their internal IT staff take care of support requests from users, and our team takes responsibility for ongoing IT and security management and escalated support issues. The services they get are delivered from multiple teams that represent a wide variety of IT specialties.

Divide and Conquer With a Custom Managed IT Services Solution

With co-managed IT and security services, we work with you to divvy up responsibilities in a way that works best for you. But, of course, it all depends on the expertise and bandwidth of your team. So we continually review things and identify when an adjustment is needed.

Build Redundancies Into Your IT Department

With a small in-house IT team, you’ve automatically got a gap when someone takes time off. When you have co-managed IT services, you know that the IT management ball won’t get dropped.

In the case of an emergency or a situation where you suddenly find yourself without an IT manager, you can shift service delivery to fill the gaps.

Supplement Your IT Team with Help Desk Support

We have a few clients for whom we only provide remote service desk support for their users, hardware inventory management, and employee onboarding/offboarding. This works best for companies with high functioning IT systems and an expert staff to handle IT and security management.

The Main Difference Between All-Inclusive and Co-Managed IT Services

The main difference comes down to frontline end user support.

With all-inclusive managed IT services, any end user can get support whenever they need it. With co-managed IT services, the internal IT staff typically handles frontline end user support -- but they're not all on their own. Internal IT staff has full access to our team if they're stuck and need to escalate an issue.

So, Co-Managed or All-Inclusive?

Changing how you resource IT is a big decision, but hopefully, this article has helped you process what you’re looking for and points you in one direction or another.

Now all you have to do is decide if VC3 is the right IT partner for you. Here’s what one of our clients says about working with us –

“One person can’t stay up on the technology and understand everything. They’re only as good as what they know. I appreciate VC3 has many levels of employees, from the individuals who come in to lay the cable, to the people who understand the software, to the people who understand all the hardware components, to virtual CIOs who understand the whole gamut of what’s new in the industry and how those new features or systems blend back into what we do, or how it can benefit us.”

- Joe Joswiak, CFO, Chino Basin Watermaster

Get in touch to explore how VC3's managed IT services can turn your IT chaos into calm.