As technology further diversified and more security threats emerge every year, more companies have begun to outsource their IT requirements. Outsourcing IT allows businesses to focus on their core tasks instead of resolving their day to day IT issues. Also, without necessary expertise, trying to solve IT problems can lead to higher costs compared to the service offered by a professional IT service provider.  

A professional IT service provider is often called a managed service provider (MSP). Since outsourcing has become an umbrella term for any service that you assign a third-party provider, outsourcing is sometimes used a synonym for managed services. Managed service is slightly different from an outsourced service.

Managed service providers take care of all your IT needs and not just a particular service or support. They actually act as your technological partners, accelerating your business. A good managed service partner operates as part of the same family as its clients, but provides a broader perspective of the business. Another important distinction of managed services and outsourcing is that managed services is a 'management' model and not a 'deployment' model.

A great analogy for this is a painter. Yes, a painter, as a simple example. A great painter can do his drawing from anywhere- in your office, their home, from a ship; it really doesn't matter. That’s because he has great artistic skills and can direct the right people to get his work completed on time. They have all the tools (paints, brushes, pencils, etc) and of course, great processes (techniques like effects, contouring etc)

The same is true for a managed service provider (MSP). A great MSP can provide their service irrespective of how and where the technology is installed. They can provide the service, on the premise or get hosted in a third part data centre though MSPs increasingly make use of cloud technologies.

Now you know what all it takes to become an MSP that is beyond outsourcing! The important thing is that one size fits all is not applicable for managed services and you have to do a thorough research before choosing an MSP as your partner.