Businesses that are struggling with their technology will often start looking for an IT services firm to help them manage their networks and ensure uptime and availability. However, the paradigm of business IT support has shifted dramatically in recent years as providers abandon the traditional “break-fix” approach of hourly support in favor of the managed IT service model.
In this article, we’ll help businesses in Oklahoma better understand the managed IT service model, how it’s different from previous IT management approaches, and what they can expect when hiring a managed IT service provider, or “MSP.”
A Proactive Approach to IT Management
One of the biggest differences between hiring an hourly IT consultant model and the managed service model is how it shifts the focus and mentality of a business. Instead of fixing your IT after having trouble, the managed service model is designed to proactively maintain the health of your network.
That shift might sound simple, but it’s profound. By watching your network closely and proactively addressing issues before they harm your productivity you benefit in several important ways. Here are the most important ones:
Higher Uptime and Availability
Probably the most important, and immediately noticeable benefits of working with an MSP is that your network will be more stable than it used to be—in some cases dramatically more.
In a detailed service level agreement, your MSP will outline exactly what level of availability you can expect. This is often in the range of 99.99% uptime or more, meaning that your business always has the technology it needs to operate.
This is a stark contrast to the hourly support model in which you only start getting support after your network is down. If you’re already in IT pain after a problem occurs, then every hour that you spend waiting for a tech to schedule you in or come onsite is an hour of productivity that you’ve lost.
Streamline Your IT Budget
Managed IT services providers like NSN Management charge a flat fee for their service, based on how many users you have in your company.
Flat-rate pricing standardizes your IT budgets and eliminates sudden, expensive IT support bills. This not only saves many businesses money in the long term, but it also allows them to budget for strategic IT projects more effectively, as they’re not wasting that money on patchwork solutions.
Stronger Business and IT Alignment
When you work with a managed IT services provider, you’re not just getting support, you’re getting a long-term strategic partner who you can always chat with about your business technology. Having their expertise on hand can give you the insights that a chief information officer (CIO) would provide at a larger company.
Having an expert who’s intimately acquainted with the latest technologies—and how those technologies can help your business—empowers you to achieve what’s known as business-IT alignment.
Business-IT alignment means not only that your network is supporting your team in just the right way to achieve your business goals, but it also provides some other important advantages as well.
Strategic IT is a Competitive Advantage
A reputable MSP will help you design a clear IT roadmap for 1, 2, 3, and even 5 years in the future. Identifying weaknesses in your competitors and leveraging technology to improve your customer experience and efficiency can help you gain a decisive advantage.
Helps Eliminate Wasted IT Expenditure
An MSP’s expertise can help you understand exactly which types of technology are going to make the greatest positive impact on your organization. This removes all the guesswork out of the IT procurement process and reduces the amount of time you spend evaluating and deploying new technology, which ultimately saves you money.
Unlimited Support and Fast Response Times
Even with a team of seasoned professionals monitoring your network around the clock, all businesses will eventually encounter some sort of IT problem. Employee error, hardware failure, and natural disasters are just some of the things that derail even a well-maintained network.
When you’re working with a reputable MSP like NSN Management, you’ve got an assurance that, no matter what happens, you’re going to have a trained technician addressing your issue right away.
IT Help Desk Support
Our help desk team, who hold certifications from Microsoft and other leading technology organizations, are always available to our customers by phone, email, or chat. A world-class help desk means you’re never stuck in IT trouble and that serious issues get escalated to our senior techs right away.
Unlimited Onsite Support
When your business does need onsite support, such as for routine network maintenance or updates, then all that work is included in our flat-rate solutions. You never pay extra for onsite support—no matter how much you need.
Stronger Cybersecurity Protections
Cybersecurity is a top concern for most businesspeople, especially as small and midsized businesses have now surpassed enterprises as the leading target of cybersecurity crime. Cyber criminals know that smaller organizations are easy prey compared to organizations with millions to spend and are now targeting them at a disproportionate rate.
Thankfully, a quality MSP can help you take decisive control over your cyber risk, without having to hire exorbitantly high security talent. For the same flat fee that you pay for IT support, you get the elements you need to protect your business.
Cybersecurity Awareness Training
Unfortunately, your staff are your greatest source of cybersecurity vulnerabilities. By providing vigilant online training sessions for your staff, we can help them understand the latest phishing attacks, social engineering techniques, and malware.
Those training sessions arm your staff with the information they need to be an effective first-line defense against hackers. Our dashboards and regular testing also give your management a valuable insight into the preparedness level of your team, so they can make progressive improvements.
Patching and Updating
Unpatched systems are another critical source of cyber risk. With an eye on cybersecurity, our team stays aware of the latest threats and applies patches and updates from your IT vendors as soon as they’re available, closing those vulnerabilities fast, before hackers discover and exploit your weakness.
NSN Management – IT Services for Oklahoma and Arkansas
Is your business struggling to stabilize its network technology? For over a decade, we’ve provided reliable managed IT services and support that maximizes the IT confidence of our clients, allowing them to get more done with less stress.
Contact us at 918 770 7400 or [email protected]. We look forward to speaking with you!
