Why Make The Move To Managed Services?
If you are one of our clients, chances are you’ve heard us talk about “managed services.” However, you might not know what the term means.
In a nutshell, a managed services plan provides you with unlimited, comprehensive technical support and network management for a low, fixed monthly fee.
It gets the most out of the IT services you pay for, and eliminates the “Oh my gosh, we’re down” problems and costs for a small business.
A managed services plan lets you get a handle on your IT costs, usually at a fixed monthly fee, and also provides you with a much more comprehensive and up-to-date IT system.
Managed services delivers a network and computer system that’s dependable, stable and allows you to comply with regulatory compliances.
Control costs
In any business, it’s important to be as cost-effective as possible. IT costs are especially important, since poorly managed systems cost way more than they’re worth.
It’s essential to have a system that works with your budget, but doesn’t compromise on quality.
Managed services is the most feasible and practical way to accomplish that, especially in the long term.
Manage complexity
The constant evolution of hardware and software used in your business can really impact your bottom line. Companies with limited resources may very well find themselves left behind as technology moves ahead.
With Managed Services, you are able to enjoy the advantages of the latest IT solutions at a fraction of the cost – enabling you to provide the best possible service to your clients.
More dependable infrastructure
For a small business, maintaining an in house IT system can be tedius and time consuming.
With limited staff, the business owner or owners typically get stuck being the “computer guy” for the company - robbing the business of the owner’s talents for sales, marketing and customer service.
Companies run the risk of stretching resources too thinly, which can compromise the quality of your service or products.
Managed services provides you with a stable and dependable computing infratructure that’s dedicated to meeting your specific needs in a cost-effective manner.
Maintaining compliance
With the marketplace becoming more and more competitive, meeting different regulatory compliances has become a fundamental need.
From Sarbanes-Oxley to the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), smaller companies can often find themselves lost. It’s managed services that helps these companies not only fully understand the requirements of these regulations, but also comply with them.
Small companies typically don’t have the resources to research what their requirements are for email archiving, for example. Under a managed services plan, services such as email filtering and archiving are included in the monthly cost.
If you want to know more about how managed services can directly benefit your day to day operations, please do not hesitate to give us a call – we’d be happy to sit down and discuss a custom solution that works for you.
Feature article by: Frank Wright
How To Prevent Downtime On Your Network
Ryan Seymour is a service technician and PC hardware specialist with Tech Experts. |
With the national average of computer related repairs at $95 - $125 per hour, a troubled economy, and so many security vulnerabilities lurking around the Internet, getting downtime on networks to a minimum is becoming the number one goal of Computer/IT support companies like Tech Experts.
Preventing downtime on your network starts at square one: Who provides your IT support, and what do they have to offer to ensure you’re getting a high quality support at a reasonable cost to your business. With the right kind of IT support, your employees can focus on their own work and maintain a high level of productivity, without the hassle of downtime.
Using a service company to manage your network can be done in a variety of different ways, but for the most part, there are two main forms of service: Break-fix, better known as pay as you go, or managed service protection (MSP). So the big question is: Which is right for your company?
So what are the key differences between the two? We’ll start with the break fix approach.
This is the standard service model – when something breaks, you call your service provider and they repair it. For some companies, particularly smaller networks, this works very well. The costs are relatively low, but every time you have an issue, there’s a cost involved. Oftentimes, you’re reluctant to call for support for what seems to be a “minor” issue. Instead, you save them up to combine service visits. The problem comes in when what seems to be a minor issue is really something more significant.
On the other hand, we have the managed service model. This type of service delivery plan is designed to provide a high level of IT support to a company at a fixed IT budget, so there are no surprises.
Typically, a fixed monthly price negotiated by the IT support company and the client. There are usually different levels of support, starting from basic support of servers, workstations, and network devices, all the way on up to fully managed networks.
The highest level of support typically gives the business “whatever it takes” support, meaning that whenever you have an issue, it’s taken care of, and again the price stays as agreed. It’s always in the best interest of the managed service provider to maintain maximum uptime for your network.
Managed service provides full network maintenance, and proactive management, reducing the number of future issues, which again keeps your network uptime maximized, which ensures productivity is at the highest level possible.
There’s usually no minimum or maximum number of users, which provides scalability for your network, giving it room to grow in the future. No matter how large your company might grow, your managed service provider will provide peace of mind in keeping your network up and running at full proficiency.
Lastly, there is typically a hardware replacement plan in place. Because the MSP is monitoring your network at all times, they actually create a “map” of the entire infrastructure, which gives the company the age and health of the equipment on the network. In most cases, you’ll have insight into which hardware needs to be replaced ahead of time, which lets you budget for equipment upgrades.
Overall, I think a managed service is the way to go. It provides the business with peace of mind that the entire network is being monitored, recurring issues are prevented, costs and hidden fees are eliminated, and network growth is scalable and affordable.