Does Your IT Support Actually Prevent Problems?

You may want to save money and rely on reactive IT support – but it is really more cost-effective? Get the facts before you decide.

There’s no decision more crucial than who you’re going to work with to get the best computer services. Whether you need it for inventory, or email, or whatever else, the computer has slowly become a more and more necessary part of your business.

Your contacts started to prefer emails over snail mail and typed pages over handwritten notes. Whereas today you can’t imagine an office without at least a dozen computers, not so long ago one was all you really needed to get the job done. That is, when it was working.

Dealing with a broken computer was tedious, to say the least. Maybe one small part of it didn’t work right, or maybe it just stopped turning on altogether. Either way, it meant having to get it repaired, sooner rather than later, or else aspects of your day-to-day business would be held up.

That’s why it’s essential that you find the right IT services company. The best technology support minimizes downtime, increases productivity, and makes sure that you can always function at your absolute best.

Unfortunately, this is easier said than done. Finding the right computer services company means sifting through all the providers that currently offer it. To find the best option for a manufacturing firm like yours, you first need to know what to look for.

By The Hour? Or Every Month?

One of the key differentiators to consider when finding a potential IT support provider is whether they offer hourly support or a flat-rate monthly contract. The former often appears more cost-effective than the latter – depending on the month, you may only need a few hours of support, right?

As compelling as this line of thinking maybe, it’s not really founded in reality. Just consider how monthly, managed services have grown in popularity over the past decade when compared to conventional hourly support.

What Is Reactive IT Support?

Call it whatever you like, but it’s essentially “hourly IT support”. This is the traditional style of outsourced IT services, which works by fixing your computers once they’re broken.

In a nutshell, when something goes wrong — data loss, hardware failure, virus, etc. — you then get in touch with your support provider and have them fix it. This strategy no longer works for firms today. If you still use this method of IT service, you risk downtime that can slow you down.

Disadvantages include:

Impermanent Solutions

When they’re charging by the hour, they’re encouraged to focus on billable hours. It doesn’t benefit them if your tech is working the way it should. You could find yourself repeatedly calling them to help with a problem that never quite gets resolved.

Rapid Escalation

A minor computer problem can quickly turn into a disaster. This is especially true today with the increase in cybercrime like ransomware. What starts out with just one malicious email can spread throughout your entire network, locking down your data, and your operations.

Further Delays

It could take days to fix your problem – in the meantime, your employees won’t have access to the data they need to continue working. You’re simply “bleeding money” by the minute.

Cost Of Downtime

Your support provider starts charging you after you’ve already lost work time – time spent on repairs or updates can add up fast.

Inaccurate Budgeting

It’s impossible to predict how much to budget for IT services. You can’t know what will happen or how expensive it might be.

What Is Proactive IT Support?

On the other hand, services arranged via a monthly contract are also known as “Managed Services”. This is the modern model for IT support, offering a range of vital solutions to your firm all for one monthly rate. With fully managed support, you know that you are supported and protected 24/7.

From active monitoring and patch management to responsive on-site and Help Desk support services, fully managed support takes care of everything you need.

Benefits include:

Freedom Of Focus

You can finally focus on running your firm and not on IT worries. Your third-party support provider will minimize or eliminate downtime that could hit your bottom line.

Simple Support
Your tech support can be provided remotely without a technician visiting your office. There will be instances that require in-person care, such as hardware replacement. However, most of what affects your day-to-day operations can be worked on remotely

Easy Budgeting
You’ll benefit from a flat-rate payment model, allowing you to budget your tech more effectively. You’ll be able to plan for growth far more easily and with greater peace of mind.

Cost-Effect

Tech maintenance from a third party is more cost-effective than relying on break/fix solutions, especially when you consider the lost revenue from downtime.

With proactive IT support services, the burden of technology is removed from your shoulders. That means you don’t have to sit around worrying if an issue will pop up and derail your productivity. With a managed services provider, you benefit from knowing that challenges are not only acknowledged and resolved quickly but are also proactively accounted for to minimize potential disruption.

With IT playing a major role in how you operate, taking a gamble on support is a major risk. With a reactive approach, by the time you reach out for assistance with an issue, it may be too late. Downtime stops operations dead, which is exactly what a proactive service model is designed to alleviate. Proactive support makes sure issues are resolved quickly and with care so that disruptions are minimized.