Tag Archives: support

5 Reasons Why Your Business Needs a Managed IT Service, Not IT Repair Service

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Executive Optimizing Well Performance Via Apps - Managed IT Service

Is it time to partner with a managed service provider and get out of the break fix environment?

Small businesses need all of the core infrastructure that larger businesses do. Your business needs a marketing team, salespeople, financial and legal analysts, and a help desk. But depending on how small your business is, all of those departments might be yours. Take one of those loads off your shoulders with a proactively managed IT service. Here’s why the plan is basically built for small businesses, especially compared to traditional IT help.

1. Your business is in the field, not in the office.

If your business offers a service that isn’t on-premises like a restaurant, then you and your coworkers will be spending a lot of time traveling. Instead of the traditional office setup of a desktop computer, printer, and modem, you might have a tablet and a VPN. That mobility means you can’t afford to be locked in one place as someone shows up to investigate the issue and make repairs.

Managed service providers, or MSPs, provide remote monitoring and preventative services instead. They monitor (without being invasive) potential network outages, malware and cyber threats, and signs of developing problems in your computers systems. When you’re operating off the cloud and through dozens of different apps and websites, that’s the service you need.

2. Every business is global, even when it’s local.

One of the best things about the Internet is that it opened up the international playing field for small businesses. Even if you run a business by yourself, you can do business everywhere from the United States to New Zealand. Your customers can be anywhere without the fees associated with international shipping and communication from even just a decade ago.

But that also means your business is open 24/7. A midnight website crash isn’t just a small problem anymore: it means your website was offline during some of your customers’ most active hours. A traditional IT repair service won’t send someone out until the next morning. They might even wait until the next business day. But a 24/7 software-based service is on top of the problem immediately.

3. Cyber threats consider small businesses to be low-hanging fruit.

Hackers usually aren’t aiming at a specific target. Instead, they’re looking for easy targets that get snagged in their nets and which require the least effort to break into. Small businesses, unfortunately, are prime targets because you have a lot of useful information but not a lot of resources to chase them down with. So make sure your company’s cybersecurity is too strong to make your company a tempting target.

4. Stay light with software protections instead of hardware fixes.

When you own a small business, you probably don’t want all of the heavy hardware investments that larger companies invest in. You don’t need an arsenal of backup computers, and you don’t need a dedicated floor full of internal servers. As more and more tools become virtual, that means your need for a physical IT service diminishes, too. Look for online solutions such as antimalware programs, cloud subscriptions, and VPNs instead of traditional measures.

5. Pay according to your company’s size, not according to man hours.

When you schedule a window for a traditional technician to come to troubleshoot a problem, you’re going to pay a transportation fee and by the hour. It’s going to be the same rate that every other company is paying; it might even be lower because larger companies can negotiate prices. But with an MSP, you pay based on the size of the network you want protected, and that means your monthly expenses are easier to manage.

Go to SystemsNet to learn more about managed IT services and why it’s the best move your company can make to protect itself.

3 Reasons Why Managed IT Beats Casual IT Services Every Time

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Managed IT services

A team of technicians at your disposal is better than a single tech.

Choosing the right IT services for your business is a lot like hiring a new employee. A service that knows their way around a file server and phone system is great, but that isn’t enough. You need a service that is there when you need them and is so good at their job that they see problems coming before you do. Unfortunately, not every IT service is up to the task.

In the IT support industry, there are two types of agency or service: Managed IT and Casual/Break-Fix IT. And knowing the difference can define the success or failure of your business’ technology at a critical moment. Most people think of IT in casual terms: When something breaks, you call for help. But this plan has some critical flaws, like the time between the ‘break’ and the ‘fix’. Leaving your business out of service until the fix is implemented.

Managed IT, on the other hand, is all about constantly working with IT professionals to support, protect, and optimize your business technology. While casual IT may be the tradition, when you look closely the Managed IT approach is superior in every way. Here’s why:

1) Cost-Effective: Getting Your Money’s Worth

The primary difference between Managed IT and Casual IT is attentiveness. Take two IT service plans and compare them side-by-side. Both managed and casual IT services ask for a monthly fee for access to the technicians and the services they provide. But what is provided will be very different.

In a managed IT plan, skilled technicians are assigned to your case and work on it constantly throughout the month and year. They may monitor your networks for trouble spots, keep an eye on your website performance, and will also be available to solve any problems that arise along the way.

A casual IT service, on the other hand, is more like access to a tech-support call center. Rather than monitoring your networks and websites, you are paying for the privilege to call for help. From there, you talk to someone who is probably a stranger who will spend a few minutes solving your problem then leave you to pick up any mess created by the technical errors they resolve.

In other words, you pay for a month of service from both companies, but only managed IT plans actually give you an entire month of dedicated IT support.

2) Prevention is Always Better Than Break-Fix

The next undeniable benefit is technical problem prevention. When a managed IT team is assigned to manage your business IT needs, they don’t just wait for a disaster to fix. Managed IT technicians are proactive. They not only keep track of your systems, they also implement preventative fixes or give you a heads-up about potential trouble-spots on your horizon.

A managed IT technician might let you know that your server storage space is filling up, that there is better industry software available, or that your website needs an update to handle your increased number of daily online customers. Then they will implement these fixes *before* you run out of storage, your software becomes outdated, or your website crashes due to high traffic.

A casual IT service, on the other hand, doesn’t keep track of potential problems or implement preventative steps. They wait until your website drops and you call in a panic to fix it. And while they’re fixing it? Your website is down, your servers stop working, or your employees are unable to log into your business software until a fix is implemented.

3) Building a Partnership with Your IT Providers

Finally, perhaps the best thing about managed IT services is your opportunity to develop a real business partner. When technicians are assigned to your case and monitor your systems constantly to prevent disaster, they get to know your business.

Casual IT services are more likely to forget all about your system specs between calls, and you may even find yourself talking to a completely different technician every time. With managed IT, you get the service of professionals who learn your business’ unique computer system inside and out and can implement fixes without a ‘getting to know you’ phase for every single issue.

You’re not just asking for IT help from a technician, you’re partnering with professionals who will learn the needs of your business and, often, take care of those needs without even having to be asked.

If you’ve had bad IT experiences in the past, or want to avoid experiences you’ve heard about from others, it’s time to consider managed IT over casual IT services. For a free 60 minute consultation on the IT support needs of your business, contact us today! We’re ready to become our managed IT partners.

6 Ways You Can Improve Your Company’s IT Help Desk

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Young male customer support executive working IT help desk

Is the level of service from your support desk not up to company standards?

We understand how frustrating it is to manage an IT help desk, especially since customers typically only try to contact a company when they are angry, frustrated, or have lots of questions. Although patience and stellar customer service skills are a great foundation, there are many ways you can improve your company’s help desk support team. Below are six different strategies that can make your customers smile and make your department run more efficiently.

Tip #1: Give Your Customers The Right Materials So They Can Help Themselves

Do customers often call in or email your help desk with the same questions about a specific product or service? If you notice there is a pattern about what they are confused about, rewrite the instructions so that it is more clear. Make a list of the most commonly asked questions and upload it to your company’s website. You can also create a forum where customers can post questions and share information with each other. The easier you make it for customers to help themselves, the happier they will be.

Tip #2: Use Gamification to Motivate the Help Desk Support Team

How can implement gamification in the customer service department? Perhaps you can track how many compliments agents receive or their average hold time. Regardless of the metrics you use, gamification can motivate employees to do their best job every day and not be complacent. You can also find ways to reward employees that consistently perform well by celebrating their success and hard work.

Tip #3: Encourage Employees to Ditch The Script and Be Genuine

Your customers are smart. They know when someone is reading a script or saying something they have memorized. One way you can improve your help desk support team is to encourage them to be genuine with customers. Most of them will appreciate the effort.

Tip #4: Take The Time To Know Your Customers

Use software that will allow you to keep track of your customer’s questions or issues. When someone calls in or sends an email, it should be easy for a help desk agent to see if they have contacted the company before and why. They will be able to resolve issues faster and be more personable when they can view the previous tickets and notes written by other help desk agents.

Tip #5: Cultivate An Atmosphere Where Agents Can Collaborate

Another tactic you can use to make your IT help desk better is to create a collaborative atmosphere. When your company encourages teamwork and has a positive and supporting culture, it will make it easier for agents to focus on the customer first instead of their own ego. For example, if an agent doesn’t know how to resolve an issue they can easily ask their coworkers for help without fear of retribution in a collaborative work environment.

Tip #6: Create Customer Service Surveys So You Can See What Your Company Should Work On

Lastly, we recommend that you create and administer customer satisfaction surveys at least once a year to get feedback from your customers. Is there anything they recommend you work on or improve? Closely examine the results and look for patterns. A simple survey with a sliding scale can give you insight into what you can do to make the buying experience better for your customers. You can also place questions on the survey that ask questions about the customer service agent’s attitude, responsiveness, knowledge, and problem-solving ability.

For more information about our help desk support services, please call us at (888) 676-1228 or contact us online today. At SystemsNet, we can take care of monitoring and managing your existing systems so you can focus on your business.

How to Take Care of IT Tasks That Can’t Be Individually Managed

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IT business support Managed IT services concept

Business processes change rapidly are you staffed to handle these changes?

A lot of small businesses are using third-party services. Sometimes automated tools replace a lot of administrative tasks, which mean the employees can focus on sales or human-powered creative tasks. SaaS can even replace invoicing management, basic cybersecurity, and financial projections. But for the remaining tasks that need to be handled by people, it’s important to decide if your business benefits more from dedicated employees or a hired service. Here are two logistical reasons to hire out:

There are no legacy problems.

Even though the trend of staying with the same company for one’s whole career is fading away, most employees assume they’re going to be with the company for several years. While that can be a good thing because they’re not just running out the clock or making short-term decisions, it can cause a few problems in the IT department.

If your company is employee-based, people will make custom tweaks and idiosyncratic fixes because they think they’ll be around to explain them or fix what goes wrong. That means you can be left with a jumble of unsolvable problems when the employee leaves or you have to scale the network. But if your company uses a third-party service, everything is transparent and standardized with no hidden surprises if you ever change services or transform your infrastructure.

You can forecast expenses.

Managed IT services are very different from traditional IT support. Instead of paying to bring a technician in and solve immediate problems, a managed service is paid monthly to prevent problems in the first place. Not only does that help reduce downtime costs and cybersecurity risks, it’s a predictable expense. The better you can accurately forecast your annual budget, the more comfortably you can take risks into new markets.

You can take advantage of standardized IT procedures.

Small businesses involve a lot of self-management. If you’re self-employed on a team of one, you have to manage your own time, expenses, and output. With a small group, you can turn to each other for support and time management. But there are some tasks that can’t be left entirely manual, especially as your business grows. Make sure you have a managed IT service that can:

1. Automate malware and cybersecurity software updates.

Every week there’s another patch. Operating systems need to reboot to install updates. Your anti-virus program has a frequent pop-up asking you to update to the latest version. It can seem like a headache or an attempt to upsell you. But when it comes to computer and network security, keeping up with the latest versions of your programs is essential. Give the task to your IT service, which can ensure that all of your company’s devices are updated regularly. Individual employees might just delay updates or have the pop-ups turned off. Automating the system not only guarantees the best adherence to security, it can be scheduled for common downtimes.

2. Manage business technology during employee turnover.

If someone quits the employee or they’re let go, a lot of information can go with them. A lot of assets can, too. Look for a managed service that can remotely track down business technology so you can retrieve it as needed. You can also set up a system to remotely wipe or disconnect technology so you don’t have to worry about data leaks and potentially malicious users after the fact.

3. Solve problems before they’re problems.

Most outages don’t strike without a warning. The warnings are just rarely seen. But a managed IT service usually starts a contract by installing software that lets them remotely monitor your network for system slowdowns, peak use times on the network, and suspicious CPU draws. They can track down the warnings signs and strengthen your security or suggest network growth before disaster strikes.

Go to SystemsNet to find out more about what IT support services can do for your business.