The Managed Service Model Brings Some Great Benefits
What Used to Be: Break-Fix IT
Businesses that struggle with technology management often cite a lack of resources or a lack of time as the cause. They might not have the funds to hire an in-house IT department or even a dedicated technician, and even if they do, they might not have the time to spend with general upkeep or the implementation of new solutions. And when general maintenance doesn?t happen, downtime is inevitable. It used to be the case that businesses would wait until their technology broke down and created downtime before problems were addressed, simply because it was not feasible for them to address them beforehand.
The downtime caused by break-fix IT is staggering and unnecessary. Instead, you can opt for the preventative and proactive nature of managed IT services, which ultimately saves your organization time and money that it would normally be spending on recovering from problems like hardware failure or security breaches.
What Should Be: Managed IT Services
The rise of the managed service model has allowed organizations to take advantage of technology management and maintenance services that were previously unavailable to them. Essentially, a managed service provider and a business will work together to establish a service level agreement. This service agreement determines what the MSP is responsible for, how much they are compensated for their services, and the timeline expected for services rendered. Basically, a managed IT provider can do just about anything you would expect an in-house IT department to do, but instead of paying multiple salaries, you pay a monthly fee.
Managed IT services can be used even if your business already has an established in-house IT department. If you ask anyone on your IT staff if they could use an extra pair of hands or someone to help out with their various tasks, they would probably thank you for thinking to ask them about it. Long story short, IT maintenance and management is an involved process with many moving parts, and it?s likely that even the most accomplished IT administrator is overwhelmed with work. You can make their life easier by bringing a managed service provider on board for routine maintenance or upkeep, if nothing else.
White Mountain IT Services can help you get started with managed IT services by providing a comprehensive network audit to help you determine where our services can be best utilized. With this type of information at your disposal, you can then make educated decisions about the future of your technology infrastructure. To learn more about what we can do for your business, reach out to us at (603) 889-0800.
