Adopting a hybrid model of in-house and outsourced IT allows charities to address challenges with resourcing, removes significant HR overheads, accelerates IT strategy, and mitigates against staff frustration with IT support caused by unplanned absence and changing priorities.
In this blog, we explain what co-managed support is, the benefits, and how to ensure you can get the best model that suits your organisation.
What is Co-Managed IT Support?
Co-managed IT support is a hybrid model of IT service delivery that combines both in-house and outsourced IT support. In this model, you retain your own IT staff, while also partnering with an IT Managed Service Provider (MSP) who take care of part or all of the IT Service Desk (Helpdesk), day-to-day IT operations and maintenance of your infrastructure. The MSP can also provide additional resources, expertise, and strategic guidance to keep service levels on track.
Why Co-Managed is a good fit
Charities and nonprofit organisations face unique challenges and opportunities when it comes to IT. You need to maximise the impact of your mission, while also complying with regulatory standards, managing donor and stakeholder expectations, and operating within tight budgets and timelines. You also need to adapt to the changing needs of your beneficiaries, staff, and volunteers, as well as the evolving technology landscape.
This means limited IT resources internally are often reactive only, which in turn stifles the team’s personal development (which can lead to staff leaving), and slows down progress of the IT strategy / IT improvements roadmap.
A co-managed IT support model helps address these challenges in the following ways:
- Cost-effectiveness: Reduce your IT costs by only paying for the services and solutions you need, rather than hiring and training more IT staff or investing in expensive hardware and software. You also benefit from the economies of scale and best practices of an MSP, who can offer you lower prices and higher quality than if you were to source them yourself.
- Flexibility: Co-managed IT support can help you scale your IT capacity and capability according to your changing needs and goals. Teams can grow during busy periods or as projects are delivered, and shrink during quieter times such as holiday periods, to consistently keep the resourcing at the right level.
- Expertise: This model allows you to leverage the specialist knowledge of an MSP that your in-house IT staff may not have. An MSP can help you design and implement IT solutions that align with your charity’s mission, as well as provide you with current best practice for IT governance and compliance.
- Control: Co-managed IT support can help you maintain control and ownership of your IT operations and assets, while also benefiting from the support and guidance of an MSP. You can decide which IT functions and tasks you want to keep in-house, and which ones you want to outsource to the MSP.
- Efficiency: Co-managed IT support can help you free up your internal IT staff to work on more strategic projects, rather than spending time on routine and repetitive tasks that can be handled by the MSP. You also remove the significant HR overheads of day-to-day management and professional development, unplanned absences, holidays, or churn turnover, by passing this to the MSP to manage as part of the service.
How to Plan Your Co-Managed IT Support Model
If you are interested in adopting a co-managed IT support model for your charity or nonprofit organisation, here are some steps you can take to plan and execute it successfully:
- Assess your current IT situation: Conduct a comprehensive audit and analysis of your existing IT infrastructure, processes, and staff. Identify your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. Determine your current and future IT needs and goals, and prioritise them according to your mission.
- Choose a suitable IT Managed Service Provider: Research and compare different IT MSPs in the market. Look for one that has experience and expertise in working with the nonprofit sector, and that shares your values. Check their credentials, reputation, and references, and ask for a proposal and a quote that matches your IT needs and budget.
- Define the scope and terms of the partnership: Negotiate and agree on the scope and terms of the co-managed IT support model with the MSP, and document them in a clear and detailed contract. Specify the roles and responsibilities of each party, the services and solutions to be provided, the performance indicators and targets, the communication and reporting channels, the escalation and resolution procedures, and the termination and exit clauses.
- Implement and monitor the co-managed IT support model: Implement the co-managed IT support model with the MSP. Ensure a smooth and seamless transition and integration of your IT systems and staff. Monitor and measure the results and outcomes of the co-managed IT support model, and provide regular feedback and suggestions for improvement to the MSP. Review and revise the co-managed IT support model periodically, and adapt it to your changing needs and goals.
Watch our video case study with WaterAid here to find out how they adopted this model, and the benefits it brought to their internal IT staff and wider organisation.
How we can help
Smartdesc are charity IT experts and ACEVO partners, helping nonprofits get more out of technology by implementing more cost-effective, secure IT systems. One of our core values is our relentless commitment to solutions that deliver the very best outcome for our customers.
We can implement a co-managed IT support model that builds a collaborative, supportive relationship between your in-house IT team and external staff, sharing knowledge, skills and experience and building team spirit. Speak to us today to find out more.
