The difficult economic times are certainly the topic of the moment and look like they will continue to be for some time. Obviously the IT industry is not immune to the current woes, with businesses likely to have second and third thoughts before signing off on technology purchases (as with any other purchases).
It seems a pretty obvious thing to say, but the best way to avoid unnecessary IT costs is to properly maintain the systems you have in place already. Most small businesses tend to engage with IT support providers only when something needs fixing, but there are huge productivity and performance gains to be had through proper maintenance of systems.
Which brings me to Managed Services. Managed Services means different things to different people, but essentially it is a framework that allows an IT provider to manage client systems or system components so that they are kept running optimally, rather than waiting for something to break. Managed Services can range from simple monitoring through to a comprehensive set of services such as patch management, disk management, remote and on-site support and backup and disaster recovery services.
Managed Services are generally charged on a fixed-fee basis, so clients can budget for these services effectively. In the long run, this type of service works out less expensive than traditional break-fix services provided at an hourly rate. The savings come through increased productivity and efficiency, decreased downtime and avoiding the blow-out of a major system malfunction that requires many chargeable hours to resolve.
At MGR IT, we have been providing a full range of Managed Services for a while now. Click here to find out more.
