If you feel overwhelmed by information technology (IT) – and all the digital nuances demanded of the modern business setting – you may feel equally confused about what IT support providers like Micro Pro can deliver and what we can actually do to benefit your business.
The short answer to the title question is that IT support is any assistance given within the full life cycle of technology-related products and services.
In a business setting, an IT support team typically handles the day-to-day support of your users as well as the maintenance of your IT infrastructure such as Computers, Peripherals, Servers, Networks and Cloud Platforms.
IT Support teams also spend time strategizing, planning, and budgeting IT spend with the agreement of stakeholders, and then work on the procurement, installation, configuration and adoption of these systems, and associated software and infrastructure.
They work performing necessary hardware and software maintenance. Great IT Support teams will spend just as much time working proactively as they do reactively, monitoring IT Infrastructure and critical processes like backups, systems health, and that device from computers to storage systems and networks are not compromised by malicious actors. An IT Support team wouldn’t be doing its job if it wasn’t also continuously researching and implementing best practices and security protocols while maintaining your Business systems, to keep them performing optimally, and securely.
Still confused?
Okay, let’s try this: Ask yourself, why do I need IT support?
• To give you complete peace of mind. Let the experts Handle IT.
• To improve your core business focus, ie. to free up your own time for important things that only you can do, that grow your business such as building relationships, selling to clients, managing, and growing your team, etc.
• To gain access to an experienced team of knowledgeable and skilled IT experts for a fraction of the cost of an in-house team.
• To reduce the risk of downtime and cyberthreats and protect your data.
• Because you’d like to receive a fast response time to IT issues and incidents, reducing their impact and severity. (see peace of mind).
• To save money on operational and labour costs and to augment your existing abilities and skills.
• To flexibly increase resources, perhaps for an office move or other large project or just to cover sickness, staff holiday, or loss of an existing internal employee.
• To make you more money by ensuring you have time to research, improve and develop your people, core processes and systems.
• So, you can use your in-house resources to focus on company strategy rather than trying to research requirements or troubleshoot issues with IT systems.
• To have experienced IT partner to help you adopt and leverage digital platforms that enhance and future proof your business
• To align with Cyber Essentials, ISO standards and government regulations on GDPR for data protection and cybercrime, and to do all you can to keep your business, staff, and clients safe.
Why Do YOU Need IT Support?
In the early days of growing your business, you may have done everything yourself; your book-keeping, answering the phone and even the cleaning. And yes, muddling through researching, and buying the right IT kit, the printer, other hardware, the right software and all the issues that come with trying to keep it running.
As your business scales, trying to do everything yourself holds you back. If you as the owner, director or manager in the business, have found your-self troubleshooting email problems for your team, or have just been under the desk trying to find a problem cable, you probably know that this approach is not a good use of your time or expertise. There are also many pitfalls, expensive dead ends, unnecessary risks, plus a pile of other technical stuff you don’t want to figure out, learn or plain just don’t enjoy.
Technology not only drains your time and mental energy but is also one of the larger financial investments you need to make to run your business efficiently, safely, and securely. It, therefore, makes sense to seek specialist advice to ensure your IT ecosystem will give you the best return on investment, be secure and enable your business to scale.
This is where IT support providers can earn their weight in gold. With vast experience and knowledge across multiple technologies and clients of all sizes and stages, they are uniquely equipped to deal with the fast-paced changes of digital technology, in an increasingly competitive market. With an IT Partner, you will have all you need to stay compliant with regulations and best practices. Having great IT Support for your business will allow it to overtake competitors, and race ahead full-throttle, how-ever ignoring information technology and failing to leverage it will certainly hold your business back and at worst, cause it to fail in time.
What do you do when your existing IT systems fail? Is legacy software slowing you down and causing your team frustration? Worse yet, are your clients experiencing delays in service, or has there been a loss of confidence and trust due to a security problem that hasn’t been addressed or shouldn’t have happened in the first place. Getting a handle on your IT will allow you to penetrate the marketplace confidently and develop systems and processes that ensure client and team satisfaction quicker than your competitors, giving you the edge. Ask yourself, does your existing IT Sup-port Team get a 10/10?, what do you think? ask your team, are they satisfied with your IT systems and support provision? Does it enable your business to keep the clients happy and consider; are you following best practices for cybersecurity, and meeting compliance guidelines that pre-vent data breaches?
These are all critical IT issues that require solutions. Outsourced IT support services from Micro Pro provide the solutions and, in return, enable you to grow your business effectively and painlessly.
1. Prevent Downtime
Businesses lose money when IT systems fail. Not only that, but data shows that on average across the UK, per business, over 65-hours of operational employee time is lost every day as a result of system and hardware downtime.
Having a well thought out, aligned IT Strategy and Roadmap for your Busi-ness is also essential, if you don’t plan to replace old systems, and adopt new platforms, then you should be ready for the inevitable downtime. “Re-search from Epson reveals 75% of UK businesses believe lack of strategic IT spend is compromising ability to compete and be efficient.” (Source: Ep-son)
In addition, internet and network downtime are estimated to cost UK businesses £12 billion a year. The truth is, nobody really knows the true cost of IT systems failures because whilst your in-house technology is down, it’s impossible to calculate the intangible costs of disruptions such as rework, missed opportunity and employee and client dissatisfaction.
There is also the inconvenience caused to customers, consumer perception and the knock-on effects to your brand reputation.
Computer and critical systems downtime is potentially damaging to your business. So what will you do when turning the computer off and back on again doesn’t work?
IT support providers like Micro Pro have a far more effective solution to tricky and often complex problems. Using advanced technologies such as 24/7 proactive monitoring of computer and network systems, and having a fantastic team of experienced and skilled Engineers on our IT Support Service Desk, we can identify problems before they happen and pre-vent downtime in the first place. Micro Pro will also help you create and adopt a strategic IT roadmap, so you can budget for, invest in, and implement systems that enable growth, and make your critical business systems and data, highly available and resistant, with backups you can rely upon when unexpected failure or disaster strikes.
2. Enhance Cybersecurity
Cybersecurity is one of the principle worries for C-level executives right now. And if it isn’t one of yours, it should be. Interpol report there has been a 788% growth in cyberattacks in 2020. We have seen all kinds of Cyber Security attacks and attempts in our 14 years of providing IT Support at Micro Pro, from the mundane and farcical, to the Intelligent and Terrifying.
Whilst the sharp rise in cybercrime is in part due to employees working from home, the automated, faceless and uncaring technologies and techniques used by cybercriminals are also becoming more sophisticated. Don’t think that it’s only Governments and large enterprises that need to take IT security seriously, everyone, especially Small businesses of be-tween 10-40 employees are a cybercriminal’s ideal target.
Standard firewalls, routers, and typical anti-virus software are not sufficient enough to prevent malware, ransomware attacks and phishing campaigns. A multi-layered suite of protection, staff awareness training and a trained IT professional for escalation of concerns from the team are essential.
Cybersecurity security measures need to be addressed and implemented by Business Owners and Stakeholders. Gartner has warned that 75% of CEOs will be held accountable for cyberattacks unless they take sufficient preventative measures to secure IT networks and the precious data held within.
With fully-managed antivirus and security services, An IT Support partner, like Micro Pro and it’s Service Desk of experienced engineers, can deploy a suite of powerful tools, software and processes, that will monitor and prevent potential outside threats by identifying any unusual activity, viruses, malware, trojans and ransomware and together with heuristic checks and behavioural scanning will form a powerful defence against these risks.
3. Smoother Operations
Optimising your IT infrastructure and taking full advantage of the developments in the latest Cloud Business platforms such as Office 365 or Google Suite is one of the key ways of improving the efficiency and security of your business. As a result, productivity is enhanced, the risk is reduced, and profits grow.
There is no uniform solution for how an outsourced IT support team can support and improve your operations, but an aligned IT Partner can work with you to identify and deploy suitable technologies such a VoIP, Cloud-based security and file storage, high-speed WiFi, and best fit systems for data availability and recovery, you can also work with them to improve operational processes, enhance customer services, lower the cost of operations, harden, and improve IT networks and so much more.
You Not only Need, you also Deserve, great IT Support
You try to give the best advice, service, support and experience to your clients, and to do so you need a fantastic IT system and the right team supporting it. And if you feel you’re now ready to hand over the responsibility of IT Support to an experienced, expert and widely trusted partner, or if you just want to know more about working with us for IT Support, feel free to contact us and speak to one of our knowledgeable and friendly IT support team, We’ll be happy to help.
We hope this article removed some of the mist around IT support services and why you need them. If not, call us and ask more questions! unless of course, you are too busy installing that new printer…