The what & the why of Proactive IT Support

As businesses grow rapidly and workflows become more complex, the need for more IT support should grow as well. 

During the early stages of start-ups and small businesses most decide to receive IT support from a contact they already know. In most cases, this is usually based on an ad hoc agreement which means they only come in when there is an issue with their computers.  

This is great when you are just starting out, however as your business starts to grow most managers understand that their IT support & maintenance requirements have changed which requires something much more formalised and sophisticated. The decision making around this usually revolves around the following options: 

• Employ another IT person 
• Outsource your IT to a dedicated Managed Services provider  

Although the ‘employ an IT person’ often feels like the best option at the time and is usually a stage that many businesses go through when it comes to IT support, there are some distinct advantages and disadvantages to having an IT person in-house. Please find these below: 

Advantages: 

• Dedicated in-house IT support 
• One point of contact for all IT related queries 
• Greater control 

Disadvantages: 

• Limited skill set as its just one person 
• Can be pricey because of an IT professional’s salary as well as benefits 
• No IT support available if the person takes a day off or is sick 
• Limited focus on IT maintenance & management due to end user requests 

What businesses are really searching for when they hire someone in-house or partner up with an external IT support provider is IT asset reliability. At this point, we will look to start a discussion that will help to answer our original question. 

The what & the why of Proactive IT Support 

First of all, we will provide you with an explanation of what Proactive IT support is! 

Put simply, proactive IT support is the process of configuring, maintaining as well as monitoring a company’s IT environment to help make sure that the business has the best possible workflow efficiency and uptime. 

To give you an example of this, think of a car. 

You want it to start, run and stay safe whilst you are driving it on the road. In order to do this, you need to spend money on a mechanic who will change the oil, replacement broken parts and carry out any other essential maintenance. The proactive work that the mechanic carries out on your car will help to limit the chances of your car breaking down whilst on the way to and from work. 

Therefore, IT systems, much like cars, require ongoing maintenance to be proactive ahead of breakdowns and IT security issues. The IT support team here at Advantage are proactive in looking to take care of the following: 

• Security & application updates 
• Security & operational monitoring 
• Backup automation 
• Backup monitoring and verification 
• And much more! 

Why is it so important to have Proactive IT support? 

When you first started, there could have been occasions when your business could have coped with downtime in IT as a result of a cyber-attack or server breakdown. 

Given that your business and its processes have grown dramatically means that you rely more on technology and accessing data than ever before. 

These are the main reasons why it’s so important to have proactive IT support to enable your business to continue growing! 

Without having this in place could leave your business open to some of the following: 

• Unplanned downtime 
• Sophisticated cyber attacks 
• Slowdowns and lag time as a result of un-optimised systems 
• Significant data breaches 

Next Steps? 

Here at Advantage, every task we undertake enables us to stay ahead of any potential IT issues before they cause major disruption to your business, ruin your customer relationships as well as your brand reputation. 

Would you like to find out more about how Advantage can provide your business with dedicated IT support & protect your business from cyber attacks & much, much more? Get in touch with our team of IT experts now to start a no-obligation conversation.