Starting to explore the landscape of managed IT services and support? Many businesses that can no longer handle their IT requirements in-house outsource IT, relying on experts who spend their entire careers dealing with complex computer issues.
These external experts become your IT department or offer critical support to your in-house IT team. This frees up your employees to spend more time on strategic, goal-oriented tasks that require their specific knowledge.
But what you get varies widely depending on the type of IT company you partner with.
Like any service, IT support is most valuable when company leaders can articulate what they need and how they’d like to define the relationship moving forward.
We want to see you pick a model that best aligns with your business goals.
The guide below explores two of the most popular IT support models: managed IT services and break-fix.
Read it and see and why managed IT services provide more business value than break-fix IT.
What’s the Best IT Support Model for Your Business?
IT support sounds straightforward. You experience a problem, ask for help, and get support. But that’s only one aspect of how technicians can work with you and is typically referred to as “break-fix.”
What are break-fix services?
Break-fix services are fairly self-explanatory. When something goes wrong with their network or IT setup, many companies call a break-fix IT company.
Technicians only come in after something has gone wrong.
You will not get long-term holistic support, comprehensive cybersecurity protections, assistance with IT compliance, or strategic advice.
Most are paid per encounter, typically by the hour.
This incentivizes a reactive approach to helping your company. Plus, they don’t work on retainer and typically have smaller staffs.
All of this leads to slow response times and drives people to explore fully managed services.
What are managed IT services?
Managed IT service providers (MSPs) offer long-term, proactive IT support. The services offered by these MSPs are designed to support every aspect of your technology and IT, including monitoring, maintenance, and long-term planning.
In addition to managing IT service requests and help desk tasks, they can work closely with a business’ management team to provide proactive, regular maintenance to further the lifespan of the organization’s technology, which helps reduce your costs.
Some MSPs work entirely remotely; others perform on-site work. Some will supplement and work on-site with any existing internal IT teams. Others are a complete replacement for internal IT teams.
Many managed IT services companies in Nashville and similar cities also offer 24/7 monitoring, which ensures they’re alerted as soon as an issue arises and can immediately respond.
Why a Fully Managed IT Services Team Brings Better Value to Your Business
Many companies try to save money on their IT costs by opting to work with a break-fix IT services company.
Their logic is that since they’re only paying when something breaks, they can save money on their IT budget.
Instead, they end up spending more because technology is not well maintained
Hardware constantly breaks and apps are glitchy. This forces employees to stop working and wait for a technician to solve the problem. Break-fix IT providers also don’t help you find ways to save or offer high-value services.
How MSPs add value to your business
While the break-fix approach may work for some companies, the proactive cybersecurity, monitoring, and maintenance offered by managed IT service providers holds incredible value. Prioritizing a more proactive approach delivers benefits to your business.
Fixed Fee Managed Services is an Incentive for Productivity Aligns
With a fixed fee arrangement, the more problems you have to call or email support about, the less money the MSP makes. Thus, the incentive for the MSP to help you be more productive and not have issues is much higher than break-fix shops. Break-fix businesses only make more money if you have more issues.
Here are 4 major benefits our managed service clients enjoy:
- Regular maintenance minimizes problems and makes any required fixes less costly and time-consuming.
- Ongoing monitoring ensures issues are dealt with immediately and most times before it creates a major problem.
- Proactive maintenance supports the life of your hardware, reducing costly fixes and replacements.
- You pay a fixed cost and are never surprised by your monthly IT spend.
Personalized support for your business
Since MSPs build relationships with businesses, they can provide personalized guidance.
This includes everything from advice on cybersecurity and firewalls to crafting personalized disaster recovery and backup plans that can get your organization back to work faster in the event of a natural disaster or data breach.
Plus, if your industry is subject to compliance requirements, your MSP can help ensure you’re never out of compliance.
This oversight and expertise can save you thousands or even millions in fines and penalties.
How To Find Personalized Managed IT Services in Nashville
Nashville-area businesses that want to prioritize stable, healthy growth and set their company up for a successful future would do well to explore managed IT services rather than break-fix.
With managed IT services from Tech Squared, you have access to the expertise you need to support future growth, safeguard your cybersecurity, and mitigate technology issues quickly.
Want to learn more about how an expert MSP like Tech Squared can offer the support you need to grow your business?
Start a conversation with the best managed IT services in Nashville today
