Is a Managed Service Provider Model Better for IT Support?

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Managing technology for your business requires you to have IT support in place to help you navigate repairs when they inevitably occur. The level of support you receive from a managed service provider support model can make a difference in ensuring your business stays up and running with quality tech. 

Break-fix IT support can be a costly option for technology management. It can result in a lot of downtimes, which just pile on the costs and loses customer loyalty. Managing your IT doesn’t have to be done last minute when it breaks down. You can manage your tech through a managed service provider without breaking the budget. 

What is managed service provider for IT support, and how is it better than the traditional break-fix model? 

Why Break-Fix IT is Not Sustainable

Break-fix IT is an option for many businesses because it seems to be a more affordable option. There may not be a budget to have in-house IT support, and break-fix companies will often work hourly. The problem with break-fix IT support is that general upkeep is not an option, and downtime can be spread out over longer periods. 

When your business can no longer access the tech needed to operate, downtime occurs, and your business loses productivity and costly downtime. Your customers will have to wait for services which can increase your losses and damage customer loyalty and reputation. Proactively managing your technology can be better than simply waiting until the last minute to make repairs or replace your tech. 

What is a Managed Service Provider?

A managed service provider is an IT management model that was created to address the challenges of managing tech with a break-fix model. Managed service providers, or MSPs, are a proactive technology management option providing companies with services to help care for and manage their tech. They focus on proactive prevention and real-time maintenance and support.

Managed service providers can provide support plans to fit each company’s needs and unique challenges. They can provide helpdesk support and 24/7 monitoring to protect your network, manage risk and compliance, system and software maintenance, and manage server configuration and management. The way the maintenance is set up with a service level agreement allows each company to pick a level of service. This enables you to get what you need without having to worry about the expensive upfront costs that come with break-fix IT support.

If your company has an IT department, managed service providers can still provide value by providing additional support, upkeep, and maintenance. It allows your IT team to focus on other projects and provides you with a piece of mind knowing your tech is well cared for all around. 

Choosing which IT support model works best for your business can be a challenge, but it doesn’t have to be. Proactively caring for your technology can save you more money and prevent issues down the line. WheelHouse IT helps businesses flourish no matter the level of IT needs. To learn more, reach out to us at 954.474.2204. 

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5 Ways Managed IT Services Boosts Your Business Growth

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More businesses are discovering that managed IT offers an effective alternative to keeping a robust IT department on staff. Even better, business owners have come to realize that using an MSP’s IT services boosts their company’s growth. Take a look at five of the ways that using managed IT services can go the extra mile and improve your business’s outcomes.

What Type of Business Needs Managed IT?

Simply put, small, medium, and large businesses can benefit from managed IT services. Of course, small and medium teams tend to need managed services the most because they have the biggest gaps in IT knowledge on their teams while simultaneously having the smallest budgets to work with to achieve their goals.

Any business that needs specialized outcomes over a short or medium time should seek managed IT services.

How Do I Know My Business Needs Managed IT Services?

The symptoms of a business that needs managed IT services are easy to spot. Consider each of these signs that your company could benefit from an MSP’s services:

  • Your IT workers lack knowledge in an area that is needed for a short-term project (adding servers, configuring security, developing the company website)
  • You can’t count on your hardware to function all the time
  • Your business loses significant amounts of work time due to IT failures
  • You have a short-term IT project to complete that does not necessitate hiring a new team member

These are some of the most prominent signs that your business needs to invest in managed IT services. MSPs that provide IT services give you the flexibility and scalability you need to fix up your existing system or prepare for valuable expansions.

How Managed IT Services Can Boost Business Growth

Using a managed IT provider to help your business is not just about stemming the tide and keeping your head above water for another quarter. These services are an integral tool for helping boost your business’s growth. Here’s how it works.

  1. Faster Response Times

When you have a sudden problem appear in your workplace, you need workers that are familiar with your systems and ready to go at a moment’s notice. Partnering with an MSP for IT provides you with a team of professionals that can act as a disaster response team to get your workplace back to normal.

  1. Instant Scalability

Did you underestimate your manpower needs for a project? No problem. Managed IT services can help you scale up for a short-term project or add more team members when a project starts to get out of hand. When the work is done, so is the billing.

  1. Freeing Up Resources

Do you need your core workers focused on a new internal project rather than typical maintenance and answering Help Desk questions? Then you can bring in the MSP professionals to handle your day-to-day work and free up your team members to work on something new.

  1. Lower Costs in IT Allows for Increases Elsewhere

Why should you hire another worker for IT when you only need a month or two worth of work completed? It’s much simpler and cheaper to bring in a temporary reinforcement so that your business can allocate the rest of their potential salary into another department.

  1. Future-Proof Your Business

Not all workers continue to learn after they settle into a business setting. That attitude can lead to stagnation. If you need IT members to come in and teach your workers some new tricks, then you can simply leverage the MSP workers that stay on the cutting edge.

Each of these reasons can help you see why managed IT services are so important to consider for businesses today.

Now that you know how managed IT services can help your business, you probably want to see how they can help your particular company. Contact us today with a quick call or email, and let us show you how our experts can make an impact on your business.

Our IT professionals can help your business reach the next level and stay competitive no matter the size of your company!

What About Managed Services Confuses You?

What About Managed Services Confuses You?

Are you familiar with what a managed service provider does for businesses just like yours?

Some of what a MSP does can be a bit confusing if it’s not explained properly, leading to misinformation spreading. We wanted to take a moment to clear up what it is we help our clients with, as well as what we can accomplish for your business.

Breaking Down Managed Service Providers

Sometimes just the title of the solution can seem a little intimidating. After all, why do you need someone to provide these services in the first place? An internal IT department might seem like the superior option, but the truth of the matter is that not all businesses have one of these. This is why some businesses outsource this responsibility–hence the service we provide.

Another major aspect of managed services is remote monitoring and management which is a helpful way to keep your technology up to date and secure from dangers. Through the use of remote monitoring, you can more efficiently utilize cloud computing without the dangers of doing so, as well as keep data as secure as possible while maintaining industry standards.

We Won’t Replace In-House Staff

Once business owners learn about what managed service providers do, they might start to think that outsourcing is the solution to all of their staffing problems. While it is certainly helpful for shoring up issues that you might have with being able to afford certain workers and salaries, it is by no means with the intention of replacing any workers, particularly in regards to your IT resources. The reality of the situation is that we don’t replace your business’ IT; we work in conjunction with your IT to make their jobs as easy as possible.

While we theoretically could function as an IT department for your business, we aren’t in this industry to put anyone out of a job. We just want to help your business obtain and manage functional technology. Think about it; your internal teams and resources face an overwhelming workload that includes managing technology,eliminating day-to-day issues, and planning the future of your infrastructure. Basically, our job is to streamline the process and make up for any deficiencies that might exist in your business’ IT maintenance.

On the other hand, if your business is relying on break-fix IT to resolve issues with your technology, we want you to know that there’s no need for that when we can replace those services entirely. Break-fix IT is expensive and inefficient for a growing business, and you’ll get much more value out of working with us.

We Can Handle Most Anything You Throw At Us

If your business needs help with IT issues, we don’t want you to hesitate at all. Give us a call and we’ll work through your troubles in a way that is conducive to your business model. After all, compliance and specific solutions might be the key to realizing your organization’s success, and you want to make sure that you’re working with a reputable service provider.

We dedicate ourselves to taking care of businesses just like yours. As your business grows and experiences more success, we will grow alongside you and adapt our strategy to make sure your organization is well cared for. To learn more about what we can do for you, reach out to us at (877) 771-2384.

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