The Complete Guide To Information Technology And IT Support In 2020

In this article, we’ll go into everything that encompasses IT support, why businesses need it, whether it’s in-house or outsourced, and tips for how to select the best IT support for your business.

Startup and small business owners face many challenges when trying to grow their business – client dependence, insufficient staff, and balancing the need to increase sales with the desire to create quality products and services. When it comes to allocating limited funds, the lack of capital leads to making some tough decisions, and one area that they often neglect is IT support. Today’s businesses rely on IT networks and systems to conduct their daily operations. Also, more and more businesses report suffering cyber security breaches.

Without trained IT professionals on your side, experiencing tech issues or breaches could inflict a lot more damage to your IT infrastructure. If you are relying on non-qualified professionals or IT support from your local tech store, it is time to reassess your strategy to protect your organisation’s and your client’s best interests. In this complete guide to IT support, we will discuss why IT is essential to businesses, management systems, and customer success. 

Why Is IT Support Necessary for Every Modern Business?

The best IT support options improve efficiency levels and are flexible enough to grow with your company, particularly during a digital transformation. An efficient IT support team is equipped with the technical skills to support productivity, network performance, and information security by:

• Keeping tools, software, and operating system current and relevant.
• Protecting systems and networks against the latest cyber threats, such as network security threats and data breaches
• Creating a backup plan and disaster recovery plans to ensure the business continues in times of crisis or disruption. .
• Keeping sufficient storage space available, whether on-site or in the cloud
• Scaling up your infrastructure and networks to keep up with your company’s growth and changing needs.
• Keeping end-user devices (desktops, laptops, PDAs, smartphones, printers, mobile devices, etc.) functional, compatible, and effectible with the company’s network.

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What Is IT Support?

Commonly known as tech support, IT support is composed of IT professionals with computer science expertise that are available 24/7 to provide help to a company with various problems related to their computer system or network system. It covers a wide range of areas or any type of hardware or software that your personnel might be using at the office. The two main options a company has when it comes to choosing IT support are outsourcing and employing an in-house IT support team. Are there any differences between in-house or outsourced IT management? How can you decide what is best for your company?

In-House vs. Outsourced IT Support: Pros and Cons

When choosing between in-house and outsourced tech support, there are many issues and differences to consider. The majority of companies today have at least some IT support requirements, and their requirements are integral for establishing the seamless and smooth running of daily operations. Let’s take a look at the pros and cons of both in-house and outsourced options.

In-House IT Support

Having an in-house IT support team means that your IT department is located inside the business. You need to hire IT experts to run that department and will have complete control over their actions. The benefits of building an in-house tech support team include.

• Your in-house IT professionals will get to know your business inside out, and they will possess a detailed knowledge of your IT infrastructure.
• An in-house IT support is on-site, which allows them to address issues more quickly.
• You can choose to hire team members who fit your company culture. They will gain a unique understanding of the company culture, as well as business challenges and operations.

As for the disadvantages, we need to point out the high costs and additional spending when forming and maintaining an in-house team of IT professionals. If any issues appear after-hours, the employer may incur overtime expenses. Staff members may not have enough experience or time to provide the necessary IT support. Relying on a very small in-house team could cause problems in terms of holiday cover, sickness, or resignation. If one person falls sick and another is on holiday, who is responsible for covering issues outside normal business hours? You cannot expect one or two people to be on call every day during the year because you will be putting business continuity exposed to huge risks. That’s something you don’t need to worry about when your IT helpdesk is outsourced.

When you take into account the cost of hiring, benefits, employment, ineffectiveness, downtime, or turnover, the costs may hit the ceiling. Because of this, building an in-house IT support team is a viable option for larger organisations. 

Outsourced IT Support

Outside providers or IT support are called Managed Service Providers (MSPs), and thanks to them, companies can outsource every IT support needed to a third-party team of IT professionals. These industry experts have the skills, resources, and time to fully manage your data storage needs, IT infrastructure, and cyber security needs from a remote location. MSPs can help come up with an efficient and cost-effective IT solution that’s flexible enough to support your growing business needs. They will also reassess your needs at regular intervals to determine whether your IT solutions need to be adjusted or upgraded. 

With an outsourced IT support team, all your IT issues will be resolved externally by a third-party IT support provider. The benefits of outsourcing IT support include:

• Lower associated costs.
• Access to a team of professionals with experience and current knowledge.
• Increasing business efficiency and productivity.
• Delivering a standard service level and reporting.
• Freeing up human resources for core projects.
• Flexible options that suit most IT support requirements and company budgets.

The cost is the most apparent benefit when outsourcing IT support. Because they specialise in IT support, MSPs usually have more experience, talent, tools, and resources for dealing with IT issues. The best MSPs provide 24/7 support, so if any tech issues arise during off-hours, you can rest assured that they will be handled as quickly as possible. They will proactively monitor your system to prevent problems from occurring in the first place.

The disadvantages of your outsourced IT support provider will mostly depend on the quality of service of the provider. These may include problems such as unexpected costs written in the fine print and terms and conditions of the contract. Furthermore, overseas teams cannot visit you on site, so if you have any hardware issues, they may not be able to resolve them quickly. Outsourcing a local team, however, comes with benefits such as regular system checkups and dedicated on-site support.

Why Do Businesses Need IT Support?

Whether in-house or outsourced, regardless of the company type and size, businesses that use technology for performing their daily operations need professional IT support. Let’s take a look at some of the reasons why your enterprise needs an IT support team.

1. Introduce the latest technologies to advance your company goals

Are your company’s technological assets up-to-date in regards to the latest tech advancements that fit your business? If not, your IT support team can bring cutting-edge technologies that can advance your company’s potential. Also, you will invest less energy and time learning about new technologies. You can use those tech advancements to look for further means of development and expansion to propel your company’s objectives. In this regard, IT support provides access to special resources that might not have been accessible before.

2. Improved cyber security

Regardless of the type of business you run, you collect data and sensitive information that’s essential to protect. Having a solid cyber security strategy and backup systems in place are absolutely critical to help protect that information. Your IT support team will ensure the majority of the security and backup functions to help keep the confidential customer, employee, and company data safe and secure against cyber-attacks. In case any documents are lost, your IT support team will be able to recover it.

3. Save money and increase ROI

Over time, your enlisted IT support will help you save money and bring a higher ROI to your company. You won’t need to stress over software investments and costly repairs. You will pay a fixed rate on a monthly basis and won’t experience unexpected costs or fees. MSPs offer service options that are adaptable to different financial plans. In other words, the tech support area is a costly part of businesses today, and putting resources into the right service provider implies picking monetary security.

4. Get specialised and customised service

Every company is unique, and its needs and demands vary, which means that there’s no one-size-fits-all type of tech support service. You need a specialised IT support team to make sure you get modified administration that is customised to fit the ways your company works. The personnel in MSP tech support teams have been carefully chosen from a pool of qualified candidates and have been thoroughly prepared for the job. Your IT support provider will have alternatives and abilities you will not find elsewhere.

5. Expanding company efficiency

Company owners are always trying to find new ways and approaches to improve their company’s productivity, and technology itself can help them achieve that. However, both hardware and software solutions experience bugs, issues, and perplexities, and without the right people to take care of those issues, your technology can diminish productivity. An IT support team will guarantee that the productivity from using tech solutions is augmented and that you’ll be able to use it for what it’s made for – to help you achieve business objectives more rapidly.

6. More time to manage, less time to worry

What’s more exhausting and stressful than having to deal with computer-related issues? We all face those issues from time to time. The truth is that you and your staff know how to use the technology but don’t have the tech-savvy to fix it when it malfunctions. Your IT support team is there to take on those issues and relieve you of the stress that comes with them. That will give more time and energy to focus on tasks and projects significant to the business, such as employee management and strategy building.

Access to Expertise with Managed Service Providers

Managed Service Providers are usually specialised in providing IT expertise that would otherwise be hard to find. Larger organisations can afford to build an in-house IT department, segment it, and assign different IT roles, such as CIO (Chief Information Officer), CTO (Chief Technology Officer), IT Director, Vice President of IT, IT Support Engineer, and others who are responsible for driving their tech development, protecting against cyber-attacks, and taking care of the organisation’s technologies overall. In startups and small businesses, all these roles fall onto one or a handful of people that can’t manage the workload themselves or don’t have the knowledge or experience to perform all the functions. By hiring an MSP, you will get access to the expertise you need at an affordable price and a fixed monthly rate. 

Managed Service Providers offer services such as:

• Proactive help and IT support
• Controlled spending
• Local and industry-specific compliance regulation
• Security (unified threat management and protection against cyber-attacks)
• 24/7 network monitoring
• Centralised IT management
• Scheduled maintenance
• Regular IT infrastructure re-evaluation