IT Support and Services - Just how to Obtain the Most Out of Your IT Support

[Micheal Jorden]

There's an increasing trend nowadays with lots of businesses deciding to outsource their IT support. They attended to the realisation that there is a large benefit to the organization to outsource their IT Support and have a range of IT Professionals at their service, rather than employing a small number of IT staff to help them internally, usually at a greater cost.

Selecting a Managed Service Provider (MSP) to handle the day-to-day ins and outs of your IT systems isn't a choice to be studied lightly. They are literally responsible for your business up-time, so you wish to make certain you're utilizing a reputable company along with getting the absolute most out of your IT Support.

 

 

Different MSPs offer different services to their clients. Some offer 'block hours', where you pre-purchase several hours as you call up for IT Support, the work is deducted from the block. This is reasonable if you're not leveraging your IT support too heavily, but if you're using lots of hours each week or per month, then you wish to consider an MSP which has an 'all you are able to eat' plan. These are usually called 'Managed Service Agreements' ;.A Managed Service Agreement enables you to have unlimited support calls for a set monthly fee and usually includes services such as system maintenance and workstation monitoring. The fee is generally worked out by what your present staff number is, along with the complexity of your IT systems. This technique causes it to be easier to budget for you may already know that you're not going to be hit with a large monthly bill when you have per month which requires lots of support. You never desire to be considering a bill when you're making that call to support. It will feel just like an expansion of your workplace whom you are able to call whenever you're stuck with anything IT related.

On the topic of a regular bill, it doesn't always fall to the bottom line. The lowest priced contract isn't always the best. When looking to go IT provider, or if you're wanting to go from internal IT to outsourced IT, don't just look at the cost per month. The saying "you get what you pay for" comes in your thoughts here. It's certainly the most effective option to weigh up what you're going to be getting for the monthly IT bill and also who you're going to be getting. Many IT providers take pride in being certified in the hardware and software they support Work from home IT Support. Almost all, or even their employees will soon be certified in the likes of Microsoft or Cisco showing to the client they've industry certifications in the hardware and software that they can be supporting. Your hardware and software! By the end of the day, if you're getting offered a cheaper rate to possess service by staff who don't have these certifications, maybe think hard before accepting the contract.

Some Managed Service Providers can bundle in different types of support to permit your dollar to go further. You might have your daily support contract for the staff when they're having issues, but then you also might have Project Management included in the price. As it pertains time for a large project to be implemented, perhaps you're wanting to upgrade your entire systems because they're aging, you don't desire to be paying for a project manager to scope up all the work.

If you're leveraging the cloud, perhaps for emails (Office 365), this may be a part of your monthly support fee. Most Managed Service Providers can give you Office 365 licensing and whilst you're in contract negotiation, you have access to the monthly fee per user added into your monthly IT budget. Assuming that your budget is on the basis of the number of users in your company, it will make sense to possess this tied in as well. You might find that you will receive a cheaper price than paying for it separately and you may also get the added good thing about support from that one MSP. Microsoft release updates on a regular basis and which means that you will have a lot of workstations and servers that will require updates as well. Perhaps regular system maintenance can be a part of your monthly support costs. You don't wish to employ the services of a Managed Service Provider for support and then realise that you're paying extra for 'out of scope' work.