Its that time of year again with the holiday season quickly approaching. Were all making those last minute purchases to be sure purchases gifts make it to our door before the Christmas and making plans to spend time with family members.
As 2016 draws to a close, consider how the IT services you rely on can improve in the coming year.
In recent months, have you experienced any of the following?
- A cyber security incident that possibly endangered your sensitive data.
- Wasted money on unnecessary IT purchases, such as equipment or software that your company didn’t really need.
- A selection of substandard software that you’d hoped would perform better.
- Devices or software long overdue for upgrades and updates.
- Long wait times for resolving IT problems (including employees getting locked out of their accounts or computing devices that are crashing for unclear reasons).
- Sub-optimal IT configurations that result in problems such as network slowdowns.
- Sporadic or incomplete data backups that leave your business vulnerable to costly data loss.
- A lack of strategic long-term IT planning.
- In-house IT personnel who are overworked and over-extended.
Can you enjoy better services in 2017?
To benefit from better IT services across multiple areas, ranging from cyber security to network maintenance to software training for employees, consider hiring a Managed Service Provider (MSP).
MSPs handle a plethora of services, providing your company with round-the-clock support, monitoring your system, and helping you make wise IT decisions that will yield benefits now and in the future. Even if you already employ in-house IT personnel, they can share their responsibilities with an MSP.
What are some examples of how you can benefit from a high-quality MSP?
- Improved cloud computing solutions. A recent article from ZDNet points out how MSPs often play a critical role in helping companies manage the cloud. For example, many companies rely on a mix of IT solutions – some of them hosted locally and others based in the cloud. MSPs can manage this mix and suggest cost-effective changes that would improve your IT set-up. If a company decides to move one of its IT functions to the cloud, MSPs will assist with the migration, along with offering advice on the cloud services that best fit the company’s needs.
- High-quality network installation and maintenance. MSPs can set up, install, monitor, maintain, and defend your network. As a result, your company will be less likely to suffer from equipment outages, mismanaged network traffic, and undetected intrusions from cyber criminals and other unauthorized third parties. You’ll enjoy round-the-clock network monitoring, every day of the year.
- Stronger cyber security. MSPs can evaluate your IT set-up for vulnerabilities and help guard it from cyber security breaches across multiple fronts. As Tech Republic points out in an article on 2017 cyber security trends, smaller businesses are especially vulnerable to cyber attacks. MSPs work on developing comprehensive security solutions that depend in large part on preventative measures and vigilance.
- Reliable data backups. When businesses permanently lose data, or when it takes them too long to restore their data after an IT disaster, they can suffer serious financial losses, sometimes to the point where they can no longer survive. MSPs help you manage data backups from multiple devices. They also ensure that your most critical data can get restored quickly, minimizing downtime.
- Ever-present support. Enjoy rapid responses to your IT problems through a live help desk or, when necessary, on-site visits.
One of the key benefits that MSPs provide is a proactive approach to IT solutions. They don’t limit themselves to dealing with existing, full-fledged problems. They work to anticipate, prevent, or minimize various difficulties and disasters, whether it’s the threat of a new kind of malware or the frustrations of a new employee whose log-in credentials have been rejected by the system. They help you plan for future IT developments and align your IT decisions with your business goals.
To find out more about how you can benefit from MSPs in the coming year, please contact us. We offer you a variety of essential services that will significantly improve your company’s productivity and security.