Computer repair or MSP? What’s Right for your Business
As technology evolves many computer repair and management companies have gone the MSP (managed service provider) route. Before deciding if computer repair or MSP is right for your business IT needs, we need to take a look at the IT industry growth and future.
We’ve seen the evolution of services moving to the cloud, you can now host your entire company files in a cloud fileshare environment and eliminate the onsite server. Due to changes like these there really is no on-site hardware for a computer repair company to fix. Over the years though, we’ve noticed a shift of companies getting things off the cloud and onto local hardware again due to rising cost of cloud services.
With these changes, we’ve seen a shift on the type of services offered in the IT industry. While some computer repair companies still exist and computer technicians offer on-location computer repair services for your computers and printers, you’ll find yourself in what’s called a break-fix environment where your components are fixed after they have broken down. The cost involved is not just the cost of repairing the device but the downtime caused by the broken device whether its an employee that’s being paid and can’t complete work or your own time. Instead most computer repair providers have shifted and turned into MSPs.
Managed service providers (MSPs)
There are different types of MSP’s offering different services and of different sizes, some of the bigger ones might only offer services where they manage and build network infrastructures and manage servers but generally stay away from servicing desktops and workstations, smaller ones might offer services managing an office network including servers, workstations, firewalls, routers, switches, and printers or a subset of these, and others work with organizations that already have an internal IT department handling most of the workload but need additional or supplemental help dealing with one or more aspects of the IT infrastructure —called Outsourced IT.
So what do they offer and why would I need one?
With most MSP’s you will get an evaluation or audit of your company’s IT resources and infrastructure and then they would work with you to set up an agreement on what they would be responsible for and to what level, once in agreement, you would receive a quote for a monthly fee associated with their service.
An example of services provided would be the MSP conducting regular monitoring and preventative maintenance of your equipment in attempts to avoid equipment breaking down and the associated downtime, this might also include the development of policies and implementation of policies that limit what your employees can do on your network such as eliminating access to social media and other unnecessary websites on your network to avoid distractions and improve productivity.
Setting up guest networks where your staff or customers can connect to the internet without the risk of giving someone access to your networked business resources and maintaining it so that your access credentials change regularly avoiding someone pulling into the parking lot and connecting to your network.
You can receive help with training your staff checking one more thing off your list of things to worry about and receive guidance as to what technology should be implemented for your business since MSP’s likely have other customers in your industry they likely have experience in implementing different technologies and can help in selecting what technology works best and the best way to implement them.
When deciding what path to take and who to hire try considering your choice in terms of a business relationship and partnership, a good MSP is one that understands your business and your needs and has prior experience working within your vertical, keep in mind that as your organization grows and your needs change you are likely to require additional support and that your contract or service level agreement will change and the cost will rise. Technology is always changing and competitors will invest in research and development to implement the latest technology tools for business continuity —hence prices will rise. MSP’s understand this and that’s the type of business partner you want so you can establish a win-win relationship.
If you are in Rancho Cucamonga, Corona, Ontario or surrounting areas and you need help evaluating your business network security, meeting compliance needs, or are in need of a helpdesk IT support team to back you up and keep your business thriving, click here and fill out our FREE consultation form, or call us at 909-256-6202.
