Managed Services is a term used to describe the preferred model of IT management.
What differentiates Managed Services from traditional IT support is that the responsibility and risk associated with managing your IT systems shifts to the Managed Services Provider.
Traditionally, your IT support company worked a lot like a plumber – you call them when something was broken. They send somebody to look at the problem. He or she would troubleshoot the problem and send you a bill afterward for the time spent resolving the issue. The emphasis is on reacting to problems that have already occurred. The IT support provider’s service is judged by how quickly they can attend to a problem. But, by the time you are aware of a problem, it’s already too late. Data is lost, downtime is incurred, productivity is reduced, etc.
Disadvantages of Break-Fix IT Support
In the traditional break-fix IT support model:
- The break-fix IT support provider has no incentive to make your network as stable as possible.
- They make money every time you have a problem.
- They don’t invest in network management tools because there is no incentive for them to do so.
- You don’t benefit from the latest network management and automation systems.
- It’s often a “best-effort” service – response times are variable and guarantees are seldom made.
- If the break-fix IT support provider works slowly, they make more money.
- If they attend to the same problem more than once, you get double-billed for it.
- Your greatest IT disasters are their most profitable jobs. There is no win-win scenario when it comes to break-fix IT support because, in order for you to get the best service and support out of a break-fix service provider, they would have to put your interests above their own. It is a fundamentally flawed model – in fact, the economists have a name for this. They call it the “Agency Dilemma.” It exists whenever a customer relies on a service provider who is not incentivized to achieve the same ends as what the client desires.
Advantages of Managed Services
Unlike the old “break-fix” IT Support model, Managed Services align the interest of the service provider with those of the client – namely you. Both parties desire for the client’s network to be absolutely stable – because they both lose money when anything goes wrong. In the event of downtime, you lose productivity, while we lose our most precious resource – technical support time. As a result of this alignment, we are incentivized to work harder and smarter to ensure that your network remains 100% stable.
- You pay a fixed monthly fee to keep your network up and running, no matter what.
- We are incentivized to keep your network as stable as possible!
- We do all of the proactive maintenance we can to achieve optimal network stability.
- In order to achieve that, we’ve made significant investments in the latest IT management and security systems.
- You enjoy the benefits of enterprise-level automation and monitoring systems.
- Our response times are backed by a comprehensive SLA.
Learn more about our ActiveSupport™ Managed IT Support Program and see if it would be a good fit for your business.
Updated 4/1/2022
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