While reduced IT expenditures are a potential benefit, many of our customers in Bristol, Bath and the South West want a managed IT services relationship for reasons that go to the heart of their business:
Typically, our customers do not have a full-time in-house IT expert on staff, yet their network and IT systems are critical to their core business. Ultimately, their ability to deliver revenue generating services or products to end-customers hinges on having a predictable, reliable, optimised IT infrastructure, 24/7.
Managed IT services is one of two broad approaches that you can take with your IT and network systems. At the other end of the service spectrum is the so-called ‘break fix’ model where you call an IT support provider only when there is an IT problem or failure. This approach could pose huge risks for your business and is often much more expensive in the long run. Here is why:
1. With a break fix model, you are vulnerable to sudden and unexpected failures like a server crash. You can’t plan or budget for that type of unpredictable failure. It happens and you are thrown into emergency mode.
2. The total cost of repairing any IT problem is usually more than if you have a proactive managed IT services relationship. This is especially true when you factor in the hidden cost of downtime, lost employee productivity, and potentially lost customer revenue. A managed IT services relationship anticipates potential failures and problems before they occur.
3. The break fix model results in a chaotic relationship with your IT support provider and the technology that supports your business. You are constantly putting out fires, waiting for the next failure, and operating in emergency mode.
Like for many businesses, technology is increasingly important to your productivity, operational efficiency, and ability to provide revenue-generating services to customers.
At the same time, the technology landscape is growing broader and more complex every day. All businesses should have qualified engineers looking over their IT systems and not any employees, often not qualified in IT, taking time away from their real job to address a myriad of tech issues. This way, one can only risk a massive IT failure throwing money out the door.
Every business needs the ability to focus on their core objectives without worrying about the reliability of the IT and network environment. Everybody wants IT that just works and a managed IT services relationship will bring you that.