.png?width=200&height=59&name=IPTellogo-byline-2020-dark-v2-pnd-optimised-500%20(1).png "IPTellogo-byline-2020-dark-v2-pnd-optimised-500 (1)")
Is a managed service the right model for your business, or just one more contract to look after? The honest answer depends on your team, your sites and how much the network matters to daily operations. In this blog, we'll work through five questions IT managers and CIOs put to us, in their own words, and give a straight answer to each.
ICT Team: We Already Have One — Do We Still Need You?
Having an ICT team is the best starting point, not a reason to say no. A managed service works best alongside people who already know your business. We slot in where you need us: as the escalation point behind your Level 1 help desk, as an independent set of eyes on the network, or both.
Our managed services are co-managed. Your team keeps full administrative access, and both teams work from the same picture: Highlight, which shows device health, performance and anything still unresolved in real time, and one customer portal for requests, changes and reports.
That shared view is especially handy with multiple branches. Instead of logging in to each site to see what's going on, your people and ours look at the same dashboard.
Exactly how we dovetail depends on the size and shape of your team, which is why each engagement is scoped rather than sold as a fixed bundle.
Augmentation: I Want Extra Help, Not a Replacement
That's how we see it too. A managed service shouldn't be about cutting headcount; it's about adding capability. We take on the routine, process-heavy work (monitoring, escalations, patching and change control) so your people can spend their time on the projects only they can deliver.
What an external service adds is accountability. We deliver against a signed agreement with defined service levels, and we run ITIL-aligned incident, problem and change management with the tooling to match.
Everything is traceable. Changes, incidents and root-cause analyses are kept in the customer portal, and regular service reviews, monthly or quarterly depending on tier, walk through how the network performed, what broke, what changed, how capacity is tracking and what's next on your roadmap.
If your team would rather keep running day-to-day operations itself, the Enablement tier is built for that: we help with adoption, training and lifecycle planning, and leave monitoring and incident response to you.
Small Sites: I Only Have Two — Am I Too Small?
No. Our tiers are built around how critical your environment is, not how big it is. A business with two sites can start on Essential, which brings business-hours monitoring and incident response, guidance on firmware and a quarterly report, then step up to Advanced or Critical if its risk profile changes.
If your sites run Meraki, our Meraki Access service suits them well: switching, Wi-Fi and single-WAN MX appliances, managed from your own dashboard.
Most of the time you'll manage happily in house. What a managed service adds is cover that's hard to hire for: someone watching the network while your one IT person is on leave, and an escalation path when a problem goes beyond what they've seen before. Finding and keeping ICT staff isn't easy, so that cover lets you focus on running the business.
And when you occasionally need hands and feet on site, we can coordinate that too.
Critical Wi-Fi: Our Operations Stop Without It — Can You Help?
Yes. Wireless is one of our core specialities. Whether it's a hospital whose biomedical devices rely on Wi-Fi, a warehouse whose barcode scanners have to stay connected or a port moving containers, we design, remediate and manage Wi-Fi where downtime has real consequences.
Large-scale Wi-Fi is hard to deliver and harder to keep healthy. We're regularly asked to fix poorly performing wireless networks, and managing them afterwards is how the fixes stick.
Meraki MR networks fall under Meraki Access, and Catalyst access points with 9800 controllers under Cisco Campus Access. Where Wi-Fi is truly mission-critical, the Critical tier of Meraki Access adds round-the-clock cover for P1 incidents and ThousandEyes monitoring of the paths your traffic takes.
Wi-Fi issues often need someone on site with survey gear. We have a distributed team and the equipment to do it, and periodic Wi-Fi surveys can be built into your agreement to confirm the environment hasn't changed.
Pro-Tip: If Wi-Fi is critical, ask for a validation survey after any major fit-out, racking change or new building wing, not just at handover. New walls, shelving and stock levels change how RF behaves more than most people expect.
Mixed Estate: My Network Is Meraki and Cisco — Is That OK?
A double yes. Cisco and Meraki are our core, and plenty of networks run a blend of both, such as Catalyst switching on the main campus with Meraki at the branches. Our managed services are Cisco Powered and audited by Cisco each year, and a single agreement can cover both sides.
You choose the domains that match your estate: Meraki Access and Meraki Security and SD-WAN for the Meraki side, Cisco Campus Access and Cisco SD-WAN for Catalyst. Highlight brings them together, so the Meraki branch and the Catalyst campus show up side by side.
If there's some Aruba, Juniper, Fortinet or Palo Alto in the mix as well, our Non-Cisco Devices service brings it under the same service desk and reporting.
Managed Services Q&A: FAQs
What Is a Co-Managed Service?
It's a managed service in which you never hand over the keys: your admins retain complete access to your environment for as long as the agreement runs. Your team can still make its own changes, while IPTel takes on monitoring, escalations and whatever else you choose to pass across.
Which Service Tier Suits a Small Business?
It depends on how critical the network is rather than how many sites you have. A smaller business can start on Essential, which covers business hours, and our free business case assessment recommends a tier for you.
Can a Managed Service Include Wi-Fi Surveys?
Yes. Periodic Wi-Fi surveys can be built into a managed services agreement to check that coverage and performance still match how your sites are used.
How Long Does It Take to Get Started?
We start by finding out what you have, setting up our tooling, logging risks and agreeing what needs fixing, then transfer knowledge and formally accept the service into operation. That usually takes four to twelve weeks.
Managed Services Q&A: Summary
A managed service isn't the right fit for every business, but for many it's the simplest way to add capability without losing control. You keep your team and your access, choose a tier that matches how critical the network is, and step up as your needs change, whether you run two Meraki sites or a mixed Cisco and Meraki estate with business-critical Wi-Fi.
Need Help With Managed Services?
Still deciding? Answer a few questions in our free 10-minute Build Your Business Case assessment and you'll get a tier recommendation for your network along with the value at stake. If you'd rather talk it through, see our managed services, make an enquiry or email sales@iptel.com.au. If that's useful, get in touch with the IPTel team.