These days, many small and midsize businesses are facing a tough decision when it comes to their IT support needs– do they stick with the old-school “break-fix” model, or do they make the jump to a Managed IT Services Provider?
We’ll be taking a closer look at why the MSP model makes sense for virtually all small and midsize businesses in the days to come, and why the break-fix model is no longer viable in today’s ever-changing tech landscape.
You may have heard the famous Ben Franklin quote, “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.” This is perhaps the most obvious advantage to the MSP model. While the break-fix approach serves to fix a problem once it occurs, the MSP approach works to ensure the problem doesn’t occur to begin with, or is dealt with immediately to minimize the likelihood of other issues coming up. This is accomplished through a number of channels.
The break-fix model relies on your current IT infrastructure. That could mean hiring an internal IT department, which is cost-prohibitive, or hoping that your staff is tech-savvy enough to keep your network secure. This can cause issues if you don’t proactively manage your systems and prepare for unexpected incidents. 81 percent of organizations claim that negligent or careless employees are the top risk to endpoint security (Continuum). On top of that, 58% of small and midsize business test their disaster recovery plan just once a year or less, and 33 % say they test infrequently or never at all (Continuum).
If something were to occur, whether a natural disaster or an unexpected hardware failure, you are susceptible to losing valuable data. The likelihood of this is greater than many think. As a matter of fact, Boston Computing notes that 140,000 hard drives crash in the U.S. EVERY WEEK! They go on to state that 60% of companies that lose their data will go on to close within 6 months.
With the MSP model, we are able to continually monitor your business’ network, ensuring that any system issues are dealt with promptly. We are able to run updates proactively, minimizing the risk of security compromises. Data can be backed up regularly, ensuring that your business won’t miss a beat if you are the unfortunate victim of a ransomware attack, for instance. If an issue does pop up, we are able to deal with many issues remotely, helping your business to minimize downtime during business hours. Along those same lines, many software updates and security upgrades can be installed overnight, ensuring your business is fully operational from a tech standpoint. Of course, if there is an issue that needs to be dealt with in person, the MSP model still offers that flexibility. We have highly-trained Technicians that are available to manage any on-site IT issues. With this approach to IT management, you get the best of both worlds! You reduce the need for on-site IT support, while still having the ability to call someone at a moment’s notice when required.