Driving down costs, and increasing your access to expertise and services come with outsourcing.

Enterprise mobility is an increasingly complicated and convoluted space. With devices running the gamut from smartphones and tablets to wearables and scanners (and much more), you need lifecycle management that covers thousands of devices, variable contract statuses and diverse service plans. But how do you achieve this? Does your organization turn to managed services vs in-house support?

It’s not a new decision point. Exploring the option to outsource specific tasks — be it managing mobility, janitorial services, marketing or any other endeavor — gives businesses the ability to address key aspects while alleviating long-term costs associated with filling out internal teams.  For mobility, managed services cover everything needed to acquire, manage and support mobile devices, networks, applications and related systems needed to govern them. Managed mobility services also take on logistics issues, like device recycling, help-desk support, and expense/asset management.

As you can see, managing mobility encompasses a lot of areas and requires substantial resources. To do it effectively, companies have three basic avenues to choose from:

• Outsourcing — Partnering with a managed services provider (MSP) transfers the day-to-day responsibility to a third-party.
• Internally — If more control and addressing every detail is critical, businesses can also outfit a full team in-house to take on mobility management.
• Blended — Some organizations prefer a mixed-responsibility approach. They’ll entrust some of the work to a MSP, and keep more critical or sensitive duties with their own team.

At TRG, we’re capable of handling as much of your mobility management as needed — no matter how convoluted or complicated. Today we’re examining the key factors that go into your decision regarding managed services vs in-house support.

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The Three Pillars of the Managed Services vs In-House Debate

No one solution will be a perfect fit for every business. When weighing managed services vs. in-house support, you need to consider what drives your productivity and the state of your own infrastructure. In general however, the decision whether to go with a third-party for managed mobility support or build out a team internally will hinge on three broad factors.

Cost

The average salary for an IT professional is nearly $80,000. Assembling a small team (it’s not a one-person job!) to coordinate device rollouts, application and software upgrades, monitor network health, security and more could easily (and quickly) mean a substantial long-term investment. Even then, you’re likely to run into expertise gaps for developments not covered by your team, and this doesn’t account for other expenses such as benefits, onboarding time, or the difficulty in retaining personnel.

With an MSP, you sidestep all of these long-term personnel costs while also ensuring you’re tapped into the latest technology developments and trends. In addition, many MSPs provide options to bundle hardware with services and analytics into a predictable monthly payment. Well-positioned partners can leverage economies of scale and turn long standing relationships with OEMs into favorable pricing, opening up further savings.

Services

We touched on this under costs, but to cover all the knowledge and expertise needed to organize and manage a substantial fleet you’ll likely need to expand your IT team to the point that it breaks your budget. With an MSP, you get access to a vast network of experts and specialists with no extra cost.

Remember, every device must be properly configured, deployed and managed. New solutions and tech are being constantly developed. Methods and tooling for overseeing, safeguarding, and replacing devices need to be optimized. Can your internal team handle the breadth of services needed, while lessening the risk of disruption and internal constraints? An MSP provides a complete technology lifecycle management.

Maintenance

With an in-house team, your biggest strength is having people on site to take on issues as they arise. However, how many people do you need on this team to provide 24/7 assistance? Are you able to staff every hour of every day? What happens if there is a cyberattack on the weekend, or if a system malfunctions during the evening?

With a MSP, you get consistent, all-the-time coverage. You can identify the location and status of devices at all times. You can get proactive planning and continual monitoring tools, like an asset management portal, to coordinate your technology fleet. You can unlock decision-guiding analytics and reporting. Do you process payments? A managed services partner can implement PCI compliance and heightened security support to make sure you and your customers are protected. Covering all these difference-making components in-house is simply untenable.

Dive Deep into More Details: Need more reasons to consider managed services? Get insight into five key considerations that make the case for a MSP.

Turn to TRG for the Best in Managed Services

TRG is a global end-point managed services provider focused on enterprise mobility, point of sale and payments. More than that, we’re one of the best in North America. For consecutive years (2021 & ‘22), we’ve been recognized as one of the “Elite 150” — a provider with extensive managed services portfolios weighted toward midmarket and enterprise customers.

We’re changing the landscape of mobility for our clients with vision and capabilities that are second to none. Our comprehensive suite of lifecycle management services provides a one-stop solution that remains agnostic across vendor, lifecycle stages and services needed.

You need holistic managed services vs in-house solutions that often come up short in driving your ROI and ability to remain flexible in an always-changing environment. With more than 10 million devices under management and more than 5,000 customers, TRG delivers results with proven expertise.

Connect with our team today to today to talk tech — our natural second language — and propel your mobility management to new heights.