A recession can pose unpredictable and diverse challenges in the corporate world. To manage rapid change and ensure your company stays afloat, it can be advantageous to look into working with a managed service provider.
When an economy goes through a recession, many businesses must make significant adjustments to remain operational. This can be quite challenging, especially for smaller organizations. Although many people focus on the negatives that come with a recession, there’s also plenty of room for opportunity.
Navigating the right choices during such a sensitive time can be challenging, and some businesses may need a little help along the way. With the help of managed service providers (MSPs), companies can get the support they need to move forward. This can also reduce costs and find paths to progress in an era where growth can be difficult.
When hiring an MSP, you’re outsourcing a variety of services and tasks. This can help reduce costs in key areas throughout an organization. Going through a recession can take its toll on any business, but there’s plenty you can do to prepare for the worst without sacrificing your company’s growth. It’s essential to learn how to navigate economic downturn while simultaneously guaranteeing the success and future development of your business.
What are managed services?
A few key characteristics of MSPs stand out among others, such as their remote capabilities and numerous services regarding IT infrastructure, cloud services, and more. From an all-encompassing view, MSPs deliver a range of services surrounding IT. This is something many SaaS organizations have to deal with. In the context of a recession, MSPs can help reduce overhead without having to sacrifice the services and infrastructure you need to keep operating.
Some standard services provided by MSPs include:
- Technical support for staff and clients
- Upholding cybersecurity requirements
- Actively managing IT infrastructure
- Managing client accounts
- Outsource necessary hardware and manage it
Managed services can also deliver on storage and server needs through cloud technology, which can heavily reduce costs compared to standard server rooms. Handling all these aspects in-house can be quite costly, and when presented with a hurdle such as a recession, MSPs can be a lifesaver for small and large companies alike.
The benefits of MSPs can have a ripple effect throughout an organization. It allows you a level of flexibility that can seep into many other business processes. It’s common for organizations to play it safe during a recession. It’s a time of immense uncertainty, but by freeing up some of your finances by outsourcing tasks through MSPs, you can take advantage of a variety of business opportunities.
How can managed services improve business outcomes?
By working with an MSP, you can reallocate funds and company time to other tasks that can propel your company forward. It can help you determine and address operational inefficiencies, minimize initiatives that don’t serve your current situation, and restructure your workforce. This not only gives your company more opportunities to grow but also makes you more adaptable to what’s to come during a recession.
It’s known that cloud services can offer substantial time and cost savings for an organization, and MSPs take this one step further by managing it all for you. Outsourcing is a common practice, recession or not. Especially during a time when reducing costs is vital, managed services can help with many different pain points. Through optimizing a company’s workload and costs and retaining essential security and data management, MSPs are a go-to choice when working through an economic recession.
In our modern era, organizations need to be able to adapt and maneuver with short notice. Managed services can provide ample support for this. An MSP’s services can help build and sustain long-term relationships with clients, engage in everyday problem-solving, and deliver support where your business needs it most. Similarly, this added flexibility can give your business the flexibility you need to take advantage of certain opportunities that arise during a recession.
Using a recession to your advantage
There’s no question that economic recession gives way to a wide variety of business opportunities. An event like this forces an immense amount of change. It may be necessary to reduce costs in various ways to keep business going. However, it can offer you new marketing, sales, and social opportunities within your industry. The opportunities a recession provides a growing business can vary depending on your industry and target market, but some tend to be more universal than others.
1. Watch and react to consumer behavior
Whether a recession is brewing or it’s in full force, consumers will react quickly to an economic downturn. This gives you clear insight into what to expect from their interests and spending habits. It allows you to adapt to what they need the most. People’s lifestyles and choices will change overnight. Certain aspects of consumerism will see a downturn, but areas such as necessities will see an increase in spending.
2. Expand your target market
There’s always the chance of a recession leading more people to need your services. You want to be ready to adapt quickly, as your competitors will be doing the same. A recession is a great time to expand your marketing as it can introduce you to an entirely new demographic of customers.
The success rate of this can vary depending on the industry, so it’s vital that you understand the potential reach of your services before investing too much money into a new target market.
3. Less expensive advertising
It’s no secret that advertising can become much cheaper during a recession. This is because many other businesses cut ad spending during a downturn, making paid advertising more affordable overall. You’ll also encounter less competition during this time. If your company can capitalize on active advertising during a recession, there is a great deal of opportunity to develop.
Managed services are a multi-faceted topic that comes with a broad range of benefits for organizations. From cloud services to remote management and an improvement in the efficiency of your business, MSPs can deliver long-term benefits that’ll sustain your business throughout an economic recession.
You can learn more about how managed services work by reviewing some of our case studies and see how CloudHesive can help you navigate a recession in thrive.
