When outsourcing your IT, you have 2 choices: sign with a large corporation or partner with a smaller, local managed services provider (MSP). While bigger might seem better, that’s not always the case. But don’t both just manage IT?

While true, there’s more to IT than providing support for your network. In fact, partnering with a local MSP can often be the best choice for your business. But before you make that decision, it’s important to know the potential benefits.

Why Working with a Local MSP Can Benefit Your Business

1. Access to Local Expertise

Depending on the size of your MSP partner, their client base can span the entire country, making it hard to feel like a priority. But with a local IT provider, your success is directly tied to theirs.

That’s because local IT companies are invested in their community. By ensuring your company thrives, your MSP maintains a good reputation and increases their own chances of securing new business through referrals. This win-win scenario means that your local IT provider will commit to supporting you with high-quality services that meet your needs.

2. Personalized Service

The problem many companies face when working with MSPs is the faceless interaction. You only know your support team by the sound of their voices or through a screen. If you’re lucky. In reality, you are often:

• Repeating the same issue several times to several people
• Speaking with representatives instead of dedicated contacts
• Being routed through different teams to fix your issue
• Receiving less individualized attention
• Taking a back seat to larger clients

… which can make you feel like you’re just another cog in the wheel.

That’s the power of a local partnership – you get to know your provider. With a company like JMARK, we value the whole human because a partnership should be more than transactional. That’s why when you work with us, you receive a dedicated team of engineers you’ll come to know (and even love), as well as a client relationship manager who is more than happy to sit next to you during your meetings rather than on a Zoom call.

3. Faster Response Times

No one likes waiting for hours before getting connected to someone. With large MSPs who sometimes have 100s (and even 1000s) of employees, calling into their help desk can offer little resolve. And when downtime costs an average of $427 per minute, every second counts.

When you partner with a local MSP like JMARK, you’ll not only gain access to a roster of award-winning engineers, but you’ll also have service level agreements (SLAs) that guarantee response times based on the priority of the issue. That means spending less time on the phone and more time focusing on doing the work you’re actually paid to do.

4. Flexibility

Support is not a one-size-fits-all solution. Unfortunately, it’s what many larger MSPs try to offer. With so many clients to address, it’s hard to tailor solutions to their specific needs. While we understand the intention, we also know it’s not the best way.

Local MSPs give you the flexibility to pivot as new situations arise in your business. Because as your business grows, your IT should, too. At JMARK, we build out a 5-year technology plan that prioritizes your goals and creates a roadmap with the necessary resources to get there. That said, we also check in during quarterly business reviews to make sure your plan still aligns with your current goals. We understand that priorities change, and it’s important to support those changes with the proper IT strategy and infrastructure.

5. Community Support

Let’s be honest – having one IT professional located in your city doesn’t mean an MSP is “proudly located in the heart of [insert location].” Yet, it happens often, especially with larger IT providers. So what happens when your IT provider isn’t a part of your community?

The separation from your locale results in a lack of investment. Because how do you care about something or someone if you’re never actually there? When partnering with a local MSP, the team members you work with are residents of your community. From senior leadership all the way down to entry-level positions. These people frequent the same grocery stores. They attend the same after-school band concerts and sporting events.

They also care about making their community better. At JMARK, we make it a point to give back to our Springfield and Tulsa communities. Whether it’s through our partnerships with charities like Ozarks Counseling Center or attending our clients’ fundraising events, our support for your business and the community doesn’t end on Friday at 5 PM.

6. Enhanced Security

As new advancements like AI pose added threats, security has become vital in a business’s IT strategy. No one wants to get hacked. Because not only do you have to worry about downtime and the impact on your bottom line, but your reputation is in jeopardy as well.

This is why partnering with a larger MSP can do more harm than good. With cookie-cutter solutions, it can be much harder to identify where a breach occurred. And after one system has been compromised, it becomes much easier to penetrate other users who share the same generic infrastructure.

Partnering with a local MSP ensures you not only get access to customized security solutions but also have a team dedicated to proactively monitoring your network and solving issues before they become major problems.

7. Cost-Effectiveness

Price can often be a roadblock when it comes to outsourcing IT – especially when the service’s value doesn’t align. With large MSPs, you’re often paying for overhead costs as well as brand and marketing presence within your agreement. Likewise, the standardized packages may cause you to pay for services you don’t really need.

By partnering with a local MSP like JMARK, you eliminate those concerns. Local MSPs often give you better outcomes for your investment and personalized plans that offer more competitive pricing. This lets you only pay for the IT service you’ll use and also helps you scale your business as it grows – without breaking the bank.

Summary

When evaluating potential MSP partnerships, consider going local. Doing so offers:

• Access to local expertise
• Personalized services
• Faster response times
• Flexibility
• Community support
• Enhanced security
• Cost-effectiveness

Partnering with a local MSP like JMARK ensures you get the right technology and solutions for your business. Because, just like you, your IT experience deserves to feel unique.

The Bottom Line

Your business is an important part of your community. Why shouldn’t your IT be, too? When you choose a local MSP, you’re partnering with a company who cares about you. Because your success becomes their success. And when you both win, your community and the people that make it great will reap the rewards.

Ready to find your solution? Talk to one of our IT experts and see why 130+ CEOs, founders, and business leaders like you have chosen the JMARK Difference.