Managed IT Services are the technology solution of choice for large businesses, but many small- and medium-sized businesses remain resistant to considering this approach. Below are five reasons you may want to change your mind.

Reason #1: You need to control costs. In today's economic environment, overall budgets have been slashed, with IT spending often being among the deepest cuts. But that doesn't reduce the demand for IT services. As a result, you have the same IT needs with fewer resources to meet them. If you're not accustomed to a regular, monthly fee for IT services, it may seem as though Managed Services costs more. But in the long term, the savings from avoiding lost productivity and customer and employee dissatisfaction more than pays for the service.

Reason #2: IT complexity is increasing. The breadth of information technology a company requires places small- to mid-sized businesses at a distinct disadvantage. Equipment and software are constantly upgraded in the market, and new IT-related specialties are emerging in a variety of areas, from telephony and messaging to secure remote access and virtualization. It's difficult for small businesses to maintain the in-house expertise necessary to properly manage these new technologies.

Reason #3: You're more dependent than ever on IT. At the same time, companies have become dramatically more dependent on IT in the past few years-and without the proactive monitoring and management of critical systems, an increased use of IT can lead to increased outages and greater loss of productivity.

Reason #4: Your existing solutions are inefficient. Even a business with some dedicated IT staff can't always handle the various IT breakdowns that are bound to occur. Some of those breakdowns are avoidable with advance warning, but staff is almost never monitoring systems 24/7. So when there's a problem, it's unexpected. Employees have to wait in line to receive help, and worse - customers have to wait to receive service.

Reason #5: You need to maintain compliance. More and more companies are finding themselves subject to regulatory and industry standards compliance, from Sarbanes-Oxley, to the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), to the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standards (PCI DSS) - and most small businesses don't have the resources to fully understand all of these requirements, let alone comply with them.

Of course, the best reason to consider Managed IT Services may be that IT isn't your specialty. If managing IT infrastructure has absolutely nothing to do with the mission of your business, why wouldn't you outsource it to an expert?

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