The importance of stability

Let’s start with a question. How much inconvenience would you suffer – and how much business would be at risk – if your system failed and you didn’t have adequate back-up? Or if your security was breached? Or if your email went down, even for just a couple of days? And how much would it cost to put it right on an ad hoc, emergency basis?

Well, we’ve seen it happen far too often to companies who weren’t protected – with disruption to the business, and disproportionate costs. And that’s why a managed services programme can make so much sense.

Think about your car for a minute. Regular servicing and preventive maintenance keeps it running smoothly. You wouldn’t wait for it to break down and leave you stranded. It’s just the same with IT – only even more important.

What’s the SP on MSP’s ?

So what are managed services? What does a Managed Services Provider, or MSP actually do? Well each month, they examine and check every aspect of your network and system, including key areas such as security, back-up, usage levels and operational effectiveness. You get clear and detailed reports of what’s been tested, work completed and pending, and any potential problems that need attention before they become serious.

In addition, you get levels of support that normally only large companies enjoy. Unlimited telephone support, via a dedicated helpline. Unlimited remote monitoring and support – with links from your server to a monitoring dashboard. And unlimited engineer support on site, if this becomes necessary.

Insure against failure

For some, it helps to think of it as an insurance policy that buys you peace of mind, confidence in your IT operations and systems that are smooth-running and problem-free. And most importantly, it’s an insurance policy that buys business uptime and continuity, which are very hard to regain quickly if serious IT problems occur. DTI statistics show that 70% of businesses don’t trade again after a catastrophic IT failure including virus infection or hard disk failures on the server.

Some find it hard to believe that MSP need to be this proactive, instead thinking that the IT systems just sort themselves out. Others struggle to change from the old break and fix way of doing things, or muddle through with the false economy of IT being done on a part time basis by an enthusiastic amateur.

Real benefits

But clients who are using managed services know for themselves that it really is the way forward – taking away the burden of day-to-day IT management, and enabling them to really focus on running their business and improve strategic direction as they develop and grow

Our new IT Support contact application runs as a system try icon (those icons by your clock in the bottom corner of the screen) and enables you with just a few clicks to: