5 Reasons to Hire A Managed Services IT Provider For Your Practice

By: Daryl Smith on December 28th, 2021

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5 Reasons to Hire A Managed Services IT Provider For Your Practice

Practice Continuity

Every dental office needs some kind of IT support. But many dental offices are too small to afford the salary and benefits of a full-time IT employee, never mind an entire information technology-focused team.

But what can you do instead of hiring? Outsource.

Sixty-four percent of businesses use some form of outsourced managed service, according to CompTIA’s 2016 Buying Guide for Managed Services. Your dental office can be one of them.

Investing in a Managed Service Provider (MSP) allows you to focus on your organization while your service partner configures your IT systems. But that’s not all; leveraging the expertise and experience of a managed IT service provider has other advantages to practices of all sizes. 

In this article, we’ll review five key reasons to partner with an MSP to streamline your dental office operations.

1. RECEIVE 24/7/365 DENTAL IT SUPPORT

The perceived benefit of having your own internal dental IT support staff is that they are always available to take care of any and all technical issues that may arise. But what happens when a problem occurs in the middle of the night or on the weekend? That's why you need managed IT services!

Managed IT service providers are staffed 24/7/365 to solve any potential issues that could come up. Some issues can’t wait until Monday morning to be solved, and even if they could wait, you would risk your team’s efficiency and hinder their ability to get work done. When you have dental patients needing your care, sometimes waiting is just not acceptable.

Comprehensive, round-the-clock support safeguards your operations and ensures that issues are addressed as quickly and effectively as possible. Empowering experts to monitor your dental IT systems will allow you to maintain focus on the most important tasks on your team’s plate — taking good care of your patients.

2. SCALABILITY WITH YOUR DENTAL PRACTICE’S GROWTH

One of the main reasons an MSP is less expensive than hiring your own internal staff for dental IT needs is that they are completely focused on developing and managing the most efficient IT operations. They strategically ensure that you only pay for what your practice needs. But those needs will not stay the same.

As you and your practice grow, your dental IT needs will change. Adding a new member to an internal IT team can take time, and can certainly be very costly. Partnering with an MSP with a wide range of skills and capabilities will ensure that you’ll have the support you need as you grow.

The difference between scaling your dental IT support infrastructure and revisiting your strategy with an MSP and internal team is night and day. Your dental IT partner simply has far greater resources than you do to plan for updates and maintain efficiency within operations. Adding, reallocating, or reducing resources or capabilities is as simple as placing a phone call to your partner.

3. CUTTING-EDGE STRATEGY AND FLEXIBILITY

As just covered, managed IT service providers can more easily divert resources and brainpower to what you’ll need in the future. They will be working to stay at the forefront of the dental IT industry, readily prepared to keep their IT systems and data ahead of the game. And when you work with an MSP, your processes and data will integrate with their internal systems.

Importantly, managed IT service providers tend to provide dental IT infrastructure built with a proactive mindset. Rather than creating a reactive environment where the key is addressing problems, smart MSPs plan for the near future and long term, designing infrastructure that will prevent problems — for them and for their customers.

Operating at scale for many customers, an MSP must maintain flexibility to easily dedicate resources to what their dental clients may need tomorrow. And they’ve thought long and hard about the best way to build and integrate systems. To support that mindset, managed IT service providers also work with internal and external partners, as well as other vendors, in order to provide the best possible features or products to their clients.

4. GREATER SECURITY AND PROACTIVITY

For many dental practices, security is easily the most important reason to have dedicated dental IT partners monitoring and managing their network and systems, and with good reason. According to Symantec, 43% of cyber attacks target small businesses — businesses that may house lots of critical data, but that may not be able to fund intense internal security measures.

As your dental practice grows, your risk and the potential consequences of a security breach will increase in tandem. Because they're hosting other companies’ IT systems, managed IT service providers are heavily invested in security. They are spending a great deal of time researching security trends and implementing best practices. By proactively adapting and adjusting their security processes, they ensure that your data (and your patients’ data) is protected.

5. COST AND TIME SAVINGS

In an in-house-only structure, greater capability often means spending more time and money. But this kind of investment can be very inefficient and expensive. Consultants specialize in key business needs because they understand that they can offer better support for these needs and charge far less than it would cost an individual dental practice to accomplish the same tasks.

The dental IT industry is one of the greatest examples of this benefit in action. Infrastructure is incredibly costly. IT trends change at warp speed and can create a whirlwind of confusion for those who are unfamiliar with them. It’s virtually impossible for an in-house IT team to manage their company’s systems and keep pace with changing best practices.

Working with an MSP gives you access to high-quality resources when you need them, without making any substantial investments. And without the burden of maintaining your operations and learning the latest in dental IT management, you’ll be able to invest that time into developing your competitive advantages.

WHAT YOUR DENTAL PRACTICE NEEDS IN A MANAGED IT SERVICE PROVIDER

From proactivity and scalability to advanced security and investment value, partnering with an MSP is the ideal choice for many dental practices.

But within the dental IT industry, there are many MSPs to choose from. How do you know which will maximize your value today and prepare for your practice’s growth?

Download our Managed IT Provider Checklist to learn if you’re making the best choice for your practice.

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