by Carl Bunton 3 months ago 
Love it or hate it, technology has become an integral part of our lives. This applies to everyone, regardless of whether this is represented in the social media posts you scroll through day-to-day or the devices you use in your company.
IT and technology are another fitting example of this. It ensures your processes, services and data are always readily available. But what happens if something stops working?
We are not just talking about something as simple as a password reset, a corrupt file or a software update. Major downtime and system errors can result from a lack of monitoring and Cyber Security at any time, for any given reason.
Now, because of this responsibility, many could see IT Support and Monitoring as a burden. In this blog, we will cover a way we can turn that burden into a benefit for your business. Giving you a competitive edge over other businesses.
What is Managed IT Support?
The greatest solution to maintaining your IT within your business is to manage and monitor it. This is especially the case for Cyber Security but can also apply to simpler things such as monitoring how old the devices in your network are. As the saying goes, you cannot fight what you cannot see.
Managed IT Support provides your business with direct access to a Helpdesk, which is managed by a team of ‘tech experts’ who will get to know your systems inside out. It also takes a lot of pressure off businesses even if they have an in-house IT team member, as they can allocate their time on increasing effectiveness in the company, rather than monitoring it.
With Enterprise-level technologies, experienced IT Engineers can remotely access your devices and network. Dealing with issues quickly and effectively – whether you are in the office or working from home. This is why you must consider a lot of options while choosing the right Managed Services Provider (MSP) for you.
What is more, most MSP’s will utilise automation tools. These will provide ongoing monitoring and management of your servers and systems, allowing 24/7/365 monitoring. Furthermore, they can perform automated health checks and patching, and best of all fix issues before you are even aware.
An example of such a technology is EDR. You can check out an entire blog we made on what EDR is here.
Some MSPs like us also have a lot more to offer. We host a range of services under our flexible IT Support contracts such as the ones listed below:
This can be of crucial value to your business, as it is a centralised service. What we mean by this, is that if you have multiple third parties looking after each segment of your companies IT, the second something goes wrong, you will be on the phone to multiple people, and accountability might not be clear as to who will fix the problem. However, if you rely on an MSP like us at Solutions 4 IT, you will only have one number to call, no matter the problem.
The Benefits of Managed IT Support
By externally Managing your IT through trusted providers such as us, you can streamline your own business operations. Now, of course, there is the consideration of cost to point out, however, let us debunk why that is not such a hindrance:
- Firstly, if you would not pay external providers, you would still have to have an IT employee that could fill the role. However, there might be training needed, as well as periods of inactivity e.g., after work hours, employee annual leave etc.
- Secondly, paying an external provider or even an in-house employee is a lot less expensive in the long-term, than a fine from the GDPR after a data breach, or from a period of inactivity in your business after the servers shut down, for instance.
Furthermore, a benefit to mention is flexibility. If you have some in-house support, some MSPs like us will offer complimentary IT Services and a dedicated service ticketing board to allow your own team to work seamlessly with us.
This also makes it simple to monitor all devices across your network and escalate urgent tickets as required.
Additionally, our business systems are cloud-based for ease and are accessible through a web browser – making it simple for you to engage with us as required.
Tickets are prioritised to allow us to work on the most prominent issue for your business – delivering fixes and solutions for you as rapidly as possible.
Finally, a simple reason to monitor and manage your IT is that everyone else is doing it! A report from Zippia confirmed that Between 2015-2020, the number of companies that monitor their employee’s online activity increased by over 166%.
We all know the importance of staying ahead of the competition when it comes to business operations such as this. IT is no exception.
Looking after your IT can give you a competitive edge, making you stand out to customers all the more, for example, with certifications that we offer such as Cyber Essentials.
Conclusion
In conclusion, at Solutions 4 IT, we understand that IT can be quite a hefty responsibility to business owners and employees, however, we hope this article has broadened your options and hopefully, turned what could be a burden, into a benefit.
That is the end of our blog. We hope you have found this blog useful in making decisions for your IT in the future.
Thank you for reading!