According to CPA Trendlines, there are big accounting firms and small accounting firms, with not much in between. In fact, there are four primary firms that generate half the industry revenue and jobs, but the remaining firms in the U.S. are considered small businesses.

Interestingly, all of these firms rely heavily on technology to provide increasingly cloud-centric services to clients. There is certainly pressure on smaller firms to offer the same services as large firms. The question to consider is how a small firm can compete with the large providers, who can afford to staff an IT team to maintain their internal information architecture.

The answer for the average CPA firm seeking to compete in this environment is by leveraging a managed service provider. For details on how managed services can help:

What is a Managed Service Provider?

A managed service provider allows even the smallest CPA firm access to a team of trusted technology professionals that manage the agency’s IT infrastructure. Managed service providers provide 24-hour monitoring and maintenance of your computer software and hardware.

Managed IT service has moved far beyond the old “fix it when it’s broken” model. Instead, managed service providers partner with your firm, helping you stay on top of backups, patches, security, and the increasingly challenging demands of maintaining an effective technology network. This service is preventative in nature; instead of relying on a tech team that comes in when something is wrong, a managed service provider is tasked with keeping technology from ever failing at all.

Five Things CPA Firms Don’t Know about Managed Service Providers

1. MSPs help accounting firms stay secure. The digital world changes quickly, and security threats are constantly evolving. An MSP can keep your data safe. MSP best practices ensure transmissions through the cloud will remain secure; the latest threats will be detected and remediated quickly.  To learn more about cybercrimes and related concerns,buy the book ‘Easy Prey: How to Protect Your Business From Data Breach, Cybercrime and Employee Fraud’

2. MSPs help CPAs mitigate risk by providing backup and disaster recovery services. Getting back in business and recovering data is a business imperative for CPAs; MSPs can ensure your success.

3. Managed service providers can serve as your sole IT team or work in tandem with your existing team. In fact, CIO suggests that it is the latter and not the former that is the typical model found in many businesses. In companies with an existing IT team, partnering with a managed service provider frees up the internal IT team to work on strategic projects while trusting the MSP to daily network maintenance.

4. Managed service providers can do more than monitor your network. CIO says all industries are turning to MSPs to host email, manage customer relationship platforms, and data storage and backup, along with network monitoring.

5. Managed services are affordable. Typically, 24/7 monitoring of your technology infrastructure includes remote monitoring and the prevention of issues before they occur. This creates a budgeted expense that helps deter any costly surprises caused by failing technology. These services are typically priced as a flat rate subscription service.

From a comprehensive assessment of your network to continual monitoring, upgrades, and the latest security improvements, an MSP can help CPAs compete in today’s technology-driven world.

To find out more about how managed service providers can help your CPA firm: