The right IT support for your business can make an all the difference to your processes, productivity and day to day activities. Effective IT support ensures less downtime, fewer technical problems, and more time for your employees to spend on their daily activities.
From our experience, we know that many businesses aren’t entirely sure what good IT support looks like. In this blog, we list and explain the IT elements that you should expect from a managed IT services provider, and how to ensure that your current provider is offering the support you really need.
1. Easy, Breezy IT Support Requests
No matter the IT issue, your teams need to be able to easily make an IT support request and quickly have it resolved. Whether that request is to help reset a password or resolve a time- critical business software crisis, every team member should have a simple and easy way to contact your IT team.
One of the most effective solutions is to have just one simple way to request and track support – no more and no less. Keeping things simple will ensure a smoother flow for incident resolution.
2. Fast, Effective Solutions
Should your IT requests been delayed for longer than your SLAs, or should your SLA for timely responses be ineffective for even minor problems, it can lead to substantial downtime for your business. Should one of your employees be unable to log in to their computer or systems, it can send a ripple effect through the business as the workflow is disrupted. Time is money, and the impact of ineffective support will build up, ultimately costing your business more over time.
Some technical challenges can’t be solved quickly, but a professional and proactive IT support team will manage expectations for any reported issues and provide an efficient resolution to your technical problems. By implementing a system that prioritises requests based on urgency or time to fix, specific team members can be assigned to action those more manageable requests. This improves workflow for support requests, as more qualified team members can be assigned to manage issues of greater complexity.
3. Proactive Support
Your perfect IT partner should be proactively looking to unearth and rectify any issues with your systems. Your incumbent shouldn’t be purely responding to problems that have been identified; an efficient IT team will be continually working on your systems and investigating the services and solutions that potentially benefit your business.
Your IT provider should be updating you regarding the latest apps and technology that could better your day-to-day undertakings, and recommending investment in new or additional technology, software or hardware that could further benefit your processes or security.
For the basic support of your current systems, software patches and updates to your core apps and programmes should happen automatically. Patches to software and apps often contain improved and vital updates to increase cyber security for emerging cyber threats. Your incumbent should also respect your business needs and suggest times for updates to be undertaken when it’s least likely to disrupt your work.
4. Cyber Security is High Priority
Cybersecurity is increasingly important to many businesses and, especially since the pandemic, remote working has empowered both businesses and cyber criminals. A proactive IT team will provide your business with effective cyber security training, solutions and monitoring. Aligned with the best cyber security solution providers, your incumbent should implement a high level of security across your business, ensuring effective use of your budget for the solutions you need protected.
With cyber security being so important in this digital age, your IT Support Provider should be continually updating you on new threats, and improved cyber security processes and programmes. They should offer regular user training and testing, and undertake remote monitoring of your system to track any potential threats and alert you to them.
5. Data Storage Solutions are Secure
Collecting and transmitting more data than ever, today’s businesses need effective data storage, management, and access security. Data loss or compromise could very quickly be devastating to your entire business. Your IT Support partner should devise, deliver, and manage an effective data backup programme to allow your business to restore lost data quickly and effectively in the event of an emergency.
Data loss is a common occurrence and can be caused in a number of ways, including:
- user error,
- malicious intent,
- cyberattack,
- power surge,
- and fire, water or flood damage.
Outdated or ineffective hardware and Cloud infrastructure could also be a data loss threat vector. An effective IT Partner will help select the most efficient data backup solutions that will allow you to restore more of your data should a crisis occur.
6. Technology Solutions to improve productivity
All of the physical hardware that your business relies on; laptops, cabling, scanners, copiers, telecommunications, apps, remote working solutions, CCTV cameras and building access controls, can all be managed by your IT provider. These solutions must also be managed, tracked and maintained. A great IT partner will recommend, source (passing on appropriate bulk or partner discounts they may achieve), build, manage and upgrade your physical items alongside all other activities.
You need an IT team to provide support for all the technology your business relies on: they should be your ‘go-to’ for any piece of software or hardware and are the glue between you and your IT suppliers. With one trusted, highly knowledgeable contact – your IT Support Provider – your business can rest at ease.
So, what does good support look like?
Your technology needs are met, systems and software are updated and effective, cyber security is tested and trusted, employees are trained and working to the best of their ability and, as the business owner, you’ve got more time to spend growing your client base and your business.
So, if you’re still paying for unexpected IT break-fix services on top of your IT Support fees, you don’t have confidence in your plan, and you’re not sure that your IT infrastructure can grow alongside your business – get in touch.