Don’t Fix an IT Problem Just to Have to Fix it Again

We live in a world where money is the solution to all problems. If you have a problematic piece of technology, what do you do to fix it? You can call in the professionals, or shell out for new hardware or software. Either way, you’re spending money, but the difference in how much you need to spend depends on the policies your IT support budget specifies.

By resolving one problem with break-fix tech support, you’re creating another more serious issue that could complicate your IT expenditures for the entire upcoming year. What if a seemingly-harmless issue turns out to be a serious problem that requires hours of maintenance to resolve? That’s all cash that you could have spent on implementing more effective solutions or replacing malfunctioning hardware that you’ll never see again. Contrary to popular belief, spending more money than necessary on IT problems only complicates your budget and makes it less flexible. So, what can you do to prevent this?

There are two things you can do: either hire a full internal IT department who’s responsible for overseeing your entire technology infrastructure, or outsource the responsibility to a managed IT service provider. Chances are that a small or medium-sized business like yours doesn’t have the resources and budget immediately available to hire multiple trained IT professionals. You’re not alone in this; in fact, most SMBs experience a similar problem.

Therefore, the best solution available for the SMB just so happens to be a fantastic one: outsourced IT. There are a plethora of benefits that come from letting an external party handle the administration of all your technology, including:

• Cost Savings: The main difference between break-fix IT and managed IT is the potential cost. With break-fix IT, you pay an hourly rate to fix already-broken technology. While this is swell, wouldn’t it be better if the technology didn’t break in the first place? This is the proactive stance that managed IT takes, and it comes at a fixed monthly rate that’s designed to turn your IT support into an operational expense, rather than a capital one.
• Tried-and-True Support: One of the main hold-ups that SMBs have when acquiring IT support is the cost of hiring trained professionals. Managed IT service providers like SMART Services have several skilled technicians who are dedicated to providing only the best service for your business’s technology.
• Unified Point of Contact: Instead of having a specific vendor for your printers trying to interface with the guy who set up your network, using SMART Services as your single “throat to choke” means we have a full understanding of the nuances of your network, and can manage your many hardware and software vendors accordingly.

The benefits don’t stop there. Managed IT provides a whole slew of potential benefits that can keep your business running at maximum capacity at all times. Just give us a call at 586 258-0650 and ask about what makes us different from other technology professionals.