Businesses come in many shape and sizes, from sole operators to companies with hundreds of employees. Business IT support can improve efficiency for businesses looking to save time and resources by outsourcing their IT support. In this guide, we discuss the signs you should look out for when deciding if your business needs IT support, the benefits of having a Managed Service Provider, and how to choose the right IT partner for your business.
How to decide when your business needs IT support
One of the most obvious signs that your business needs ongoing IT support is when network problems, hardware breakdowns, or software issues are occurring frequently. These problems impede your staff from doing their work effectively, could potentially delay your business from meeting crucial project deadlines, and can cost you a substantial amount of time and money to fix when they occur. The best way to approach these problems is to prevent them from happening in the first place, by looking for signs that your business requires IT support.
So, here are some telltale signs that you are ready to partner with an IT company on an ongoing basis.
- Files are not stored and accessed from a central location. This is a huge problem for businesses, and can lead to poor version control, lost data, communication problems, and different people working on different files, which often leads to costly mistakes.
- Calendars and emails are not talking to each other. Nothing is more frustrating than not being able to set and keep calendar invites with your staff and clients, or being in a situation where your calendar or emails are not syncing between different devices.
- The business doesn’t have a file backup system. If your business files are not stored in a secure location and backed up frequently, this could have costly implications for your business in the event of a local disaster (i.e. fire or flood) or a security breach (i.e. losing your laptop or a break in to your premises).
- Staff are spending time fixing IT problems. The more time your staff spend dealing with IT issues, the less time they spend doing their work, which leads to inefficiencies. Pay close attention and listen to your employees, as this may indicate you are ready to upgrade.
- Scrambling to get professional help when things go wrong. If you frequently find yourself in a situation where you are having to contact IT companies on an emergency basis to solve problems, this may be a sign that you need ongoing support.
These are just some of the potential indicators that your business needs IT support. So be sure to look out for these and other signs. If you notice one or more in your business, its time to start looking for an ongoing IT partner.
What are the benefits of a managed services provider?
Typically, many small and medium sized businesses do not have the financial resources to hire a full time IT technician to implement, maintain and service their internal IT systems. The salary expenses are high, and there may not be enough workload for a full time role. And while it can be tempting to ask one of your more IT savvy employees to set things up and solve problems when they occur, when things get really technical, you could run into trouble.
This is where Managed Service Providers come in. A Managed Service Provider is a partner company to which you outsource all your IT processes, functions, maintenance, and support. Working with a Managed Services Provider has lots of great benefits:
- Reducing costs. By partnering with a Managed Service Provider, you only pay for the services you use, meaning you can avoid paying a costly full time wage for an IT technician(s).
- Freeing up employee time. With a professional IT company managing all your systems, your employees can focus on doing what they do best, without expensive disruptions and downtime.
- Always available remote support. A Managed Services Provider is always available to quickly fix and resolve issues if they arise, and they can do this quickly via a remote connection to your computers and network.
- Setting up your systems. Your IT provider can set up and optimise your servers, network, printers, and individual computers to work seamlessly and sync with each other from the beginning, preventing problems in the long run.
- Monitoring and prevention. With your IT provider constantly monitoring your systems, they can preventatively respond to issues before a problem occurs, thereby improving your efficiency, and decreasing any potential down time.
- Data backups and recovery. By setting up automated and offsite backups, your IT partner can ensure you are protected from local disasters, file and data loss, and can recover and access your files quickly in the event of a problem.
- Internet security. Your IT partner can set up high grade internet security, protecting your business and your employees from cyber attacks, phishing, and other threats which could harm your business.
Using a Managed Services Provides frees up business owners and managers to focus on growing their business, instead of spending their valuable time troubleshooting network and computer issues. A Managed Services Provider offers greater flexibility and control in how your business operates. For small and medium-sized businesses, they can be a very effective and reliable way to manage IT infrastructure, bringing specialised skills and knowledge that your business may not have. So let’s now look at how to go about choosing the right Managed Services Provider for your business IT needs.
How do you choose the right IT partner for your business?
So you have decided you are going to partner with a Managed Services Provider for your business IT. How do you go about choosing the right company for you? There are a few really important things you need to do when selecting the right IT partner.
- Always choose local. Your IT provider does not have to be next door to your offices (because after all, remote support is available), but they need to be within a reasonable proximity (and preferably not interstate or overseas). This way, if a serious problem occurs, or something goes wrong with your hardware, you can get this resolved quickly and in person.
- Look for an advisor and not a supplier. When selecting an IT provider, do your due diligence and spend time talking to them about your business needs. Pick the company that takes a genuine interest in your business and is willing to be an extension of your team, rather than just an external provider. Look for IT partners that have long term relationships with a select number of clients, rather than large companies with lots of short term clients.
- Responsiveness is key. When your business relies on its IT systems to operate, downtime is one of the biggest challenges you face. This means that your IT provider needs to be responsive. They should proactively monitor your systems and prevent problems from occurring, while also fixing problems quickly when they do arise. Good IT providers will commit to resolving issues within 24 hours, with around 80% of problems typically solvable within only a few hours.
A lot of businesses are reaping the benefits of switching to Managed Services Providers for their business IT support. If you’re considering making the switch yourself, contact us and let’s have a conversation about your business IT needs.