As a business leader, you are accustomed to weighing all of the options when it comes to an important decision for you business. In any business today, technology is the backbone.
Whether you want to be sure that your customers can place an order or that your internal users can fill one, technology keeps everything moving.
Many small and medium-sized businesses don’t have the luxury of an internal IT staff and many find themselves struggling with technology as a result.
When evaluating the IT support options, there are really two choices: break/fix and managed IT support.
Break/fix is the more traditional model of IT support. Something breaks (a device, server or other piece of your IT infrastructure) and you call either a local computer service provider or your on-retainer computer service folks.
When you sign on with a managed IT provider, you agree to a steady monthly fee for comprehensive care and service of your IT infrastructure.
You may be wondering why people choose managed IT.
I work at Kelser, a managed IT provider. We get this questions from potential customers regularly, so I’m writing this article to provide answers. (Don’t worry though, I’m not here to sell you on using managed IT, just to give information in an honest, straightforward way.)
After you read this article, you’ll understand 5 key advantages to managed IT support and will be better informed so you can decide whether or not it is a good solution for your organization.
Again, I will provide just the facts, so you can have the information you need to make this important decision.
What Is Managed IT?
Just so we are all operating from the same basic understanding, managed IT is a proactive, comprehensive approach to technology support. It involves ongoing care and maintenance of all of the different elements of your technology infrastructure.
Related article: What Is Managed IT? What's Include? What Does It Cost?
What Are The Benefits Of Managed IT Support?
As with any service, there are pros and cons to managed IT support. Here are five key advantages:
1. Proactive
When you choose managed IT support, you sign an agreement for continuous care and maintenance.
Much like regular checkups at the doctor (or the auto mechanic) ensure that complex systems operate in the most efficient way possible and that issues are diagnosed before they become too complex, managed IT looks out for the overall health and efficiency of your infrastructure to spot and mitigate issues before they cause extensive downtime for your organization.
2. Comprehensive
Managed IT provides care for all of the elements of your infrastructure to keep your technology safe, available, and efficient.
When all of your systems are monitored, backed up, and kept up-to-date there is less opportunity for gremlins to get into the works and cause problems. And if one sneaks in, it is much easier to quickly remedy the situation.
3. Predictable
Rather than face unexpected expenses (and potential delays) when something goes wrong, managed IT works to eliminate surprises.
In addition to paying the same fee each month for regular service, managed IT providers also provide expertise to help you plan and budget for equipment upgrades and large-scale projects that fall outside your regular monthly service agreement. This minimizes surprises and makes planning more effective.
4. Accessible
Managed IT provides small and medium-sized organizations with access to experts that would otherwise be out of reach. It’s no longer enough to have an “IT person” or a small internal staff because every infrastructure, no matter the size, needs the same level of care just on a different scale.
Every organization needs cybersecurity. Every organization needs email. Every organization needs a physical or cloud-based server. Every organization has devices that need to be kept up to date.
Related article: 7 Characteristics Of Successful Cybersecurity Policies
Every organization needs someone to help them plan the IT infrastructure that will help them achieve their goals for today and for the future. And, that’s just for starters.
5. Cost-Effective
While every organization needs the same skills, every organization doesn’t have access to the same resources.
For many small and medium-sized businesses, managed IT is often a cost-effective alternative, providing them with access to technical experts and skills that they could not afford to fully fund themselves. Instead of hiring all of the IT talent they need internally, they can pay less and have the services they need at a fraction of the cost.
Related article: What Is Co-Managed IT Support? How Does It Work?
Is Managed IT Support Right For You?
After reading this article, you are better informed about the advantages of managed IT support.
You understand five key benefits managed IT support offers. It is proactive, comprehensive, predictable, accessible and cost-effective.
At this point you may want to learn more about break/fix IT support.
Or read this article to find what managed IT includes in detail and how much it costs.
If you are thinking that managed IT support might be a good solution for your organization, we encourage you to check out several providers to find one that is the right fit for you.
We take this advice so seriously that we’ve even done some of the research for you. Check out this article that compares publicly available information from the internet about IT Direct and Kelser. Or visit our Learning Center for more comparisons and other general interest IT articles.
If you have already done your research and are exploring managed IT options, find out whether Kelser might be a good fit for you! Click on the button below, fill out the two-question form and one of our experts will get back to you within 24 hours (often much sooner).
