Downers Grove, Ill., Oct. 25, 2011 – Organizations that rely on managed services providers for some or all of their information technology (IT) needs are reaping significant annual costs savings, according to a new study published today by CompTIA, the nonprofit association for the IT industry.

The new CompTIA study Trends in Managed Services reveals that among current users of managed services, 46 percent of firms have trimmed their annual IT expenditures by 25 percent or more as a result of their shift to managed services, including 13 percent that have slashed annual IT expenditures by 50 percent or more. An additional 50 percent of organizations have saved between 1 percent and 24 percent in IT costs annually.

“This is compelling evidence that managed services, even when implemented on a small scale, can deliver significant cost savings, freeing up cash for other business needs,” said Carolyn April, director, industry analysis, CompTIA. “More importantly, these savings are accomplished without impacting the availability and reliability of the technology solutions the company relies on to conduct business.”

Indeed, the CompTIA study reveals that 89 percent of current managed services users are very satisfied or mostly satisfied with their experience. Performance and uptime; agreeable contract terms; a secure environment; and the flexibility to easily and quickly add new services all contribute to customers’ satisfaction.

Another critical factor is good communication between the customer and their managed services provider (MSP). Among companies that are highly satisfied with managed services, three-quarters say their MSP provides regular activity reports on all of the steps they take with the customer’s IT environment, including documenting any problems averted to keep the customer up and running.