A recent article by Gallup suggests that as many as 80% of white-collar employees in the US are still engaged in remote work. That means, remote IT support is still as important as it was during 2020.
Yet, even those who’ve returned to the workplace can benefit from these always-on IT solutions to boost their in-house IT departments.
Find out why you still need a managed service provider if you want your business to thrive in modern times.
IT Support Saves Money
There’s a huge demand for IT professionals around the globe. With endless remote possibilities, your best team members could receive tempting offers from anywhere in the world.
So, you’ll need to pay your team handsomely to keep them working for you.
When you employ a managed IT provider, you’ve got access to a host of IT experts for only a fraction of their salary costs. This means you can save by hiring fewer people for your own IT department.
Outsourced IT Is Always There for You
What happens if one of your valued IT team members does move off to greener pastures? You’ll need to engage in the arduous process of finding someone to fulfill their role.
When you have an outsourced service provider, there’s a good chance that one of their employees can help out. This saves on business disruptions while you search for a new team member, or can eliminate the need to hire a replacement at all.
What’s more, remote IT services are available 24/7, so you can always use their services after hours without having to pay your IT guy overtime rates.
They’re also able to step in when your team members are on vacation or off sick.
You Can Cover More Ground With Managed IT
The average business has numerous IT needs. These stretch far beyond dealing with the occasional glitch. The extent of your IT needs could include the following:
Administration
System administrators are key players in your business.
They’re the ones that your employees call upon when faced with a host of IT issues. They’re also responsible for ensuring that everything runs smoothly behind the scenes.
Some of their tasks include:
- Training new employees on your systems
- Performing regular software updates
- Renewing software licenses
They maintain your company’s computer infrastructure, oversee data storage, and keep a lookout for potential threats.
Technical Support
Tech support assists employees who need access to computer systems, or need help troubleshooting something. These experts are great at fixing problems related to both software and hardware issues.
While most of their job involves educating people and answering questions, they also help with researching, procuring, and installing new software and hardware. They oversee IT inventory asset management, backup digital assets and recover them if need be, and troubleshoot network issues.
Tech support is your employees’ go-to for almost anything to do with configuring or setting up communications, conferencing software, office equipment, and cloud-based applications.
Overseeing Communication Systems
Your IT team can help you stay abreast of the latest communication technologies. These include remote meeting software, telephony, and conference calls.
These professionals help set up and troubleshoot these modern conveniences, so you can keep pace with the changing world.
Programming
Programmers are you key to streamlining your business. They help create new programs that suit your industry and your precise business needs.
There are few limits to how much customization programmers bring to your operations. Software developers and engineers work closely with these professionals.
Together, they can create the ultimate integrated solutions for your exact needs. These include conceptualizing new business applications or enhancing existing ones.
They can also set up new databases and implement their knowledge of application development languages.
Programmers can also convert printed documents and graphics into online formats.
Application Development
Like programmers, app developers can streamline our business by creating applications that help speed up and simplify arduous processes. These apps come in hand for content management, CRM, enterprise resource planning, and employee communications.
Members of the IT team may work to create computer programs or applications that help businesses function better. Business apps are especially useful for content management, employee communication, customer relationship management,
An app developer’s duties might include:
- Turning software concepts into functioning programming code
- Creating code that performs specific tasks
They can also write documentation to assist users in operating these new applications.
Maintaining the Company Website
Your company website is an extremely public showcase of your business. As such, it should be up-to-date.
Web developers help ensure this is the case.
They work with your marketing team to ensure your website shows off your goods and services in the best light, add new content, and sort out any bugs that crop up with your UX.
They’re responsible for configuring your site layout, maintaining the company intranet, writing and implementing website code, and testing your site for usability.
The above tasks only serve to highlight how many skills you need in your IT department.
If you can’t afford to employ all these IT experts, you’d need to hire fewer supremely qualified (and expensive) professionals. With fewer hands on deck, there’s a good chance your IT department won’t have time to do everything you need.
When you outsource some of your tech requirements, you take a load off your in-house staff and ensure your business operates at its best. These IT services vendors can provide or all of the above skills at a fraction of the price.
As an example of what they offer, you can look here to discover how Carl Fransen provides IT support for local businesses or look for other tech experts in your area.
Making Your Business Better
If you want to grow and enhance your business offering, IT support services are the way to go. When you let the experts get on with what they do best, you’ll have more time to focus on your areas of expertise without any IT hassles.
Would you like to discover more of the latest ways technology can help your business become the best it can be? Browse our blog for extra tips and advice.