February 2021
by Richard Lee
Today technology has become an essential and integrated part of most businesses.
So how does one get the most from technology and importantly support for that
technology when things don't work?
There are a number of options open to business owners around how best to manage
the technology. By manage I mean the correct implementation, operation and
maintenance to ensure ongoing reliable service.
What then are the alternatives?
- have your own staff manage technology
- call for external IT Support when something goes wrong
- hire your own IT administrator
- use our services to actively monitor and fix issues
Option 1 Own staff to manage technology - this may work for some businesses who
are working in a similar field for eg software development and already have in house technicians who understand basic troubleshooting, networking and computer hardware. However for the majority of businesses this may not even be an option as there may be nobody who has the skills, inclination or experience to offer the required support. Even if there was some in house expertise would it be justified for them to be spending time fixing the tech instead of doing their normal assigned roles?
Option 2 Call for external support when something goes wrong - this is also known as
the break fix way of handling IT issues. although you may save some money in the short
term, in the long term this is likely going to cost you more. The cost is not only restrict-ed to the cost of IT support, also the cost of downtime and other intangibles such as
goodwill and reputation. The high cost of any extended downtime for many businesses who are established can be such that this option should not be accepted.
Option 3 Hire your own IT Administrator - for those businesses who have the budget to hire their own in house IT administrator (at least $75k pa plus) , you may think this to be a suitable option. Some issues that could arise: the administrator might not be kept busy consistently as there may be long periods where everything is working properly. This may mean the administrator is doing more the role of monitoring rather than administering or fixing anything. Unless the IT administrator is given expanded responsibilities, there may be many days of "thumb twiddling" and boredom. The Administrator is only one person and cannot offer full coverage due to RDO, holidays, sick leave.
Option 4 Use our Managed Services - the advantages of using managed IT Support are many:
- bring a wealth of experience to fix IT issues
- manage the vendors so that you only have one point of contact
- regular system maintenance and network monitoring to ensure any issues are fixed
timely
- reliability as theres always someone available to attend to your requests
- keep up to date with the latest solutions and other IT professionals
- consulting available
- frees you and your staff to concentrate on your assigned roles
In summary then Using our Managed Services should be the top choice when it comes to managing technology in your business.
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