Hidden Benefits of Managed IT Services
We hate to be the bad guy, but we’re certain that you cannot multitask nearly as well as you think you can. Multitasking is just not how the human brain works, and whether or not you believe in the psychology of it, we think you stand to benefit by outsourcing some of the tasks on your plate to a managed IT services provider.
Managed services are effective to help you spend less time on your IT and more time on your actual job duties and responsibilities.
The Proof is in the Proverbial Pudding
To put things in perspective, only about 2.5% of people can effectively multitask, so it’s highly unlikely that you are in the minority who can do so without compromising the quality of your work.
What you think is multitasking is really just your brain switching gears over and over, and the more complicated these tasks are, the less effective it is at switching between them. Your performance is sure to suffer if you can’t keep up.
How This Shows Up in the Workplace
It’s difficult at best to do multiple tasks at the same time, so let’s take a look at some of the tasks that might be pulling you away from your important work:
- Managing employees to ensure they are reaching your organizational and operational goals.
- Managing the public face of the company, including how you appear to the community, clients, and vendors.
- Ensuring compliance with laws and regulations.
- Managing the sales and marketing efforts of your organization.
Notice how we haven’t even mentioned IT on that list yet; it’s a whole other beast to tackle.
Managed IT Services Removes Some of the Burden on Your Business
Really, you shouldn’t be managing your technology anyway—you should be relying on a professional like Point North Networks. Give us a call today and we can discuss how it’s beneficial for you to work with us.
Benefits of managed IT services
Now that we know that you can’t be doing everything and managed IT services do offer better streamlining and work management, let’s look at some of the other benefits of managed services.
Shweta, a member of the Forbes Advisor Council, aptly describes the benefits of hiring managed services. She says, “MSPs have expertise in the processes that they manage. So, when you hire an MSP for noncore processes, you and your team can focus on activities that drive growth while ensuring that other processes are also being run by experts and not getting neglected.”
Controlled, scalable spending (OPEX)
Establishing an IT infrastructure requires costly capital expenditure. It is an ongoing investment as it requires constant upgrades and scaling up as your business grows. So, predicting your actual expenditure and budget will remain a challenge for you. However, if you outsource your work to a managed service provider, you can be free of establishing, upgrading and managing your IT infrastructure.
With managed IT services, these recurring expenses turn into one single, fixed cost – your OPEX. Since managed service providers charge on a project or monthly basis, you will not have to worry about changing and increasing expenses. Also, hardware breakdown, server connectivity and similar issues like these will be taken care of by the managed service provider. You can pay once and focus on other more strategic responsibilities.
No more sunk and operational costs
Having an in-house team means you will have to provide for them. Managing their salaries, increments, benefits, insurance etc are all added expenses that you will have to bear. In addition to that, the operational cost of your day-to-day tasks will also add up to your budget. You will need to spend time, money and effort to train your staff and provide them with additional facilities and support to retain them.
However, outsourcing your IT initiatives to managed service providers will free you of these hassles and provide several business benefits. Managed services will help you with cost savings on consulting, licensing, training and emergency repairs. Reduced labor rates are another additional benefit as most outsourced services are priced at a much lower cost.
Faster response time
Downtimes and technical failures can hamper your business, which is a big setback in today’s fast-paced world. The managed IT services model saves you from such challenges as their personnel will be available to support you at all times.
Expertise and Experience
One of the biggest benefits of managed IT services is the experience and expertise they bring along. Your It department might not be equipped with that kind of experience and expertise. Outsourcing companies have professionals with the right qualifications, training, certifications, and experience that are specific to your industry, providing the best talent to work for you.
Proactive monitoring and fixing
Apart from getting access to some of the best industry talent, proactive monitoring and quick issue resolutions are the other benefits you get from hiring managed services.
Data shows that the average cost of downtime is $9000 per minute. However, a proactive approach helps in catching the issues and rectifying them before they become too big to handle. This also results in decreased downtime as you will face fewer obstacles in your operations and enjoy better business continuity.
Compliance with data security regulations
Most businesses are required to comply with regulatory standards regarding their IT infrastructure. These regulations require specific rules to be followed regarding finance, privacy, retail establishments, reporting, security and a lot more.
Your IT staff might not be completely aware or equipped to follow and comply with these standards. However, managed service professionals are and they can help your business be in compliance wherever necessary and keep the client data safe.
Heightened cyber security
Cyber security is a huge issue most businesses are facing in today’s digital world. Data shows that there are hacker attacks every 39 seconds. With most companies operating online and the huge of data being stored and transferred online, data breaches and cyber threats are more real than ever before. Familiarity with PCI compliance help businesses in a huge way, something that most managed services providers have.
Handling cyber security threats requires specialized knowledge and expertise that your IT team might not have. However, a managed IT services team possesses such expertise, making it capable of delivering the required solutions.
One point of contact
A managed IT services provider often deploys a single customer success manager who takes care of all vendor communications regarding all your IT-related equipment. So, you will no longer have to run behind software and hardware vendors to get things sorted. All this is done at their end.
Lower time to market
If your IT management includes Cloud Computing, then it will require high-speed resources to handle technical difficulties. Managed services provide such support, eliminating IT inefficiencies and lowering your time to market, increasing productivity and helping you take your business forward.
Reduced risk
Every business faces an element of risk. This could be regarding your financial conditions, government rules and regulations and changing technologies. A managed services provider will efficiently mitigate risks related to these aspects of a business, helping them operate effortlessly.
How can Point North Networks help with managed services?
Point North is an experienced managed services provider with years of experience and the right industry expertise. Our comprehensive knowledge of various industries allows us to provide the right strategic initiatives to our clients.
Our dedicated team of experts act as a reliable point to handle all kinds of serious problems. We offer managed services to both large and medium-sized businesses and the most cost-effective rates.
Frequently Asked Questions about Managed IT Services Benefits
What services do managed IT services provide?
The scope of Managed Services usually depends on the specific needs and the budget of your business. Some benefits that a managed services provider delivers include –
- Maintenance and monitoring of devices
- Management of IT systems
- Remote management of services
- Network monitoring
- Support services
Why managed services are important for my business?
In the present-day world, managing cyber security is getting more and more cumbersome. Not only does it need constant attention, but also a certain level of expertise for maintaining network security. Moreover, overlooking one or more aspects of cyber security, even for a few days can lead to significant harm to the business. All of this combined makes it essential for every business to have a reliable service provider on their side.
What do managed services look for?
Some of the most important services to look for in a managed services team include –
- Quick Response Time
- Annual and Monthly Budget Planning
- Disaster Recovery Planning
- Third-Party Vendor Partnerships
- Local On-Site Maintenance and Support
- Remote Monitoring and Support
- Daily Backups and Cloud Services
- Security Testing & Monitoring
Is managed service the same as outsourcing?
Outsourcing IT Services imply that an external company will offer assistance in specific areas of your business. On the other hand, Managed IT Services have a wider scope and aim at offering multiple technology services, complete with cybersecurity and other crucial aspects of network security.
Tips to Help You Determine How Much Bandwidth You Need
How Much Internet Speed is Essential for the Seamless Functioning of Your Business?
For small businesses, having a fast, reliable Internet connection is needed to run all the digital tools that your staff has come to depend on. If you don’t have the bandwidth in place, you can deal with bottlenecks that can ruin communications, stall productivity, and cause operational issues of all types. Today, we’ll take a look at how to determine the amount of bandwidth you need to support your business’ computing infrastructure.
What Exactly Is Bandwidth?
There is a misconception that bandwidth is the speed of the Internet that you obtain through your chosen service provider. It does play a role, but it is not synonymous with connection speed. Bandwidth is actually the measurement of the amount of data that can be sent over your Internet connection and across your network in general in a designated time frame; typically measured in megabits per second (Mbps). The more bandwidth you have, the more data can be transmitted at one time. With a lot of businesses now leaning quite heavily on digital tools, knowing how much bandwidth your company needs is extremely important.
What You Need to Know to Get the Bandwidth Your Company Needs?
The first thing that you need to get the bandwidth your company needs is to find a reliable ISP (Internet Service Provider). Not all ISPs are created equal and for business purposes having an ISP that can easily scale your bandwidth to your needs is an important factor. You also don’t want to overpay, and waste your operational capital.
What are upload and download speeds?
The bandwidth required by your enterprise largely depends on the upload speed as well as the download speed you need in a bid to carry out your day-to-day operations seamlessly.
Upload Speeds
As suggested by the name, upload speed indicates the time it takes for data such as a file or a video to be sent from a device on your network to another device at some other location, or to a cloud storage system. 5 Mbps is considered to be the average recommended upload speed for the completion of generic business tasks such as voice/video calls. Depending on the heaviness of everyday tasks, higher speeds might be required.
Download Speeds
Download speed refers to the time taken for your computer or other device to receive data. Right from accessing a website, to watching a video, and even uploading files – requires fast download speeds. If you are wondering what download speed do I need for my business, then in the present day scenario of high reliability on internet-connected devices, we recommend choosing an internet service provider that offers speeds of 25 Mbps or higher.
Of course, these are just recommendations based on average usage. Depending on the your specific business needs, the bandwidth and the subsequent internet speed that you need may differ.
Let’s look at the variables you have to consider when choosing the right amount of bandwidth for your business:
The Number of Connected Devices
This is pretty simple. The more devices that need to be connected to the Internet, the more bandwidth you are going to need; especially if these devices are consistently being used to access Internet-fueled applications. You also need to take into account all the mobile devices that are connected to the network. In many cases they will outnumber workstations and other hardware.
The Type of Applications Used
Your business has a unique profile that is made up of all the tools you use and the processes that govern their use. For basic use, such as online browsing, email, and social media, a company would only need about one Mbps per user. Most businesses nowadays use their Internet connection for much more than this. Activities like VoIP calling, video conferencing, video streaming, and cloud computing can multiply this by up to five times. Hence, how much speed you will need, both in terms of download speeds and upload speed will largely depend on the applications that your employees regularly use. For instance, a business that uses video conferencing often or needs to stream video will need relatively less download speeds than a business wherein the employees need to participate in online gaming.
Type of Internet Connections
In the present day scenario, whether the need for internet bandwidth is ever increasing and streaming video services, hosting multiple users across multiple devices, ultra high definition videos have all become commonplace even in office spaces fiber optic lines are fast becoming the most reliable way to enjoy the best internet speed in the available bandwidth. While fiber optic connections are still not commonly found across the US and may even prove to be slightly heavy on the pocket, when it comes to faster speeds, these connections prove to be ideal.
In most urban and rural areas, however, satellite internet is still the norm. Given that satellite internet users often report slower speeds and finicky connections, satellite internet connections may just offer the bare minimum download speed, which may not be sufficient for your business operations to run smoothly.
Age and ability of devices
While this may sound insignificant, the age, version and type of devices used by your employees, can actually undermine the internet speeds offered by your chosen connection. If the devices are too old or slow, they may not enjoy the seamless internet connectivity that your chosen bandwidth offers. Moreover, old devices with outdated software will also adversely impact how much data is used for the same functions, as compared to newer devices which are designed for more efficient use of data. This is especially true when devices connected to the internet are required to use a streaming service or multiple streaming apps.
Hence, it is crucial that your employees use newer devices, with updated versions.
This is why it is important to get a good read on all the potential uses your business has to build a connection that works to support your business’ computing requirements.
Why Point North Networks?
At Point North Networks, we know how important the Internet is for your business. Our consultants can help you estimate the level of bandwidth you need, and can actively help you acquire that bandwidth so that you can operate as efficiently as possible. Give us a call today at 651-234-0895 to talk to one of our IT professionals to set up an assessment of your Internet connection and applications to give your business the best chance of success.
Frequently Asked Questions About Internet Speed Required by Businesses
How to determine the upload speeds that I need for my enterprise?
For generic business tasks such as sending emails, sharing small files and making calls over the internet, upload speeds of 5 Mbps prove to be ideal. However, if you have upwards of 15 employees who regularly need to undertake heavier tasks such as server hosting, seamless streaming and conferencing then the upload speed you need will go up to 20 Mbps.
How much Mbps does a small business need?
While emails and web browsing can be easily accomplished with a bandwidth ranging from 5Mbps to 10 Mbps. However, if the number of employees is higher, or if applications like video streaming and conferencing are regularly used, you may need a connection speed of at least 25 Mbps. But wait, there is a catch. The internet speed listed by your provider is what you get through a wired connection. Since most devices connected to the internet use a Wi-Fi connection, the actual speed your employees will get will only be 50-60% of the advertised speed. Hence, it is recommended to opt for double the speed you need.
What is the 20 Mbps Rule?
When deciding the minimum speed that your business requires, a good rule of thumb is to factor in 20 Mbps for every device that will be using the internet simultaneously. This will ensure that all users enjoy optimal download and upload speeds, even when using heavier applications such as online games, Youtube TV, etc.
20 Questions You Need to Ask Your IT Service Provider
More businesses than ever before are seeing the value of outsourcing their technology management to a managed service provider (MSP) and it’s easy to see why. The size of the IT industry is expected to touch $557.10 billion in 2028 at a growth rate of CAGR of 12.6% in this period.
With a more hands-off approach to technology management, businesses can focus on delivering quality goods and services instead of worrying about their technology.
If you are considering jumping on the MSP wagon, consider asking the following questions to make sure you understand what you are getting from your provider.
Aaron Hawke, CEO, Xari Group, says about a managed service provider, “Choosing an IT managed service provider is an important decision. The best approach is to compare several potential choices and ask relevant questions about their business, technical abilities, and service.”
1 – What Services Do You Offer?
It helps to know what services your managed service provider is capable of offering to your organization, specifically because it helps to establish expectations and inform your ability to add or remove services according to your specific needs.
For example, if you can foresee a situation where your business wants to move to a more cloud-based infrastructure environment, you want to ensure that your provider offers services like cloud hosting and cloud migration. Otherwise, why would you consider them?
2 – How Experienced Are Your Technicians?
When it comes to your technology, you don’t want some greenhorn handling it. You want a seasoned and experienced technician who has had their fair share of time working with business technology solutions.
This is especially the case in a world where security needs to be at the forefront of every business owner’s mind. You want technicians who both know what they are doing and are knowledgeable enough to distill complex ideas into easily-understood concepts.
3 – What is the Service Level Agreement?
The service level agreement, or SLA, is an agreement between your business and the managed services provider which dictates the services rendered and the costs associated with them. It might include information such as how much you pay, which services are included with that payment, how often you pay for your services, and so on.
Basically, asking this question helps to determine what kind of expectations you have from your MSP and the services they provide for you based on what you pay.
4 – Do You Have Client Reviews?
Even in this digital world, word of mouth continues to be a heavily relied method to find a good service provider. Client reviews and stories are a great way to find out how reliable and efficient your managed services provider is and what are its industry credentials.
5 – How Big is Your Company?
You don’t want to be doing business with a company that promises big things but delivers below your expectations. This is why it is important to know their technical staff and whether they are capable of handling your projects.
6 – What are Your Company Values?
Compatibility is an important factor when you partner with another company. It is a good idea to check the company’s values and whether they match yours. You don’t want to be at loggerheads with them, which will only waste your time, effort and money.
7 – Red Flags for Not Hiring the MSP
Most companies highlight their positives and the reasons why you should hire them. But it is also good to understand their weaknesses. See if your managed services provider is ready to have an open discussion about their weaknesses. This will give you an idea of how honest they are.
8 – How Much Do You Charge for Your Services?
Budget is one of the most important deciding factors in any IT company. The same is true for an MSP. You must check how much they charge for their services and choose the one that fits your budget.
9 – What is Your Onboarding Fee?
Certain companies charge an onboarding fee, which is in addition to the service charges they take. Usually, the onboarding fee depends on your requirements, however, it is always better to get clarity on the actual price. You must also decide if you wish to pay extra.
10 – What is Your Rationale Behind Your Charges?
No company will ever give you the entire breakdown of their fees and charges, however, they should be able to justify certain aspects of it. If they are hesitant about justifying their price, consider that they lack transparency, a big red flag.
11 – What Extra Fees do They Charge?
It is always better to clarify everything regarding the overall fee and respective fee structure before finalizing the contract. ” If you’re being quoted a fixed rate, you need to get an itemized list in the contract and you have to be sure you understand what each item covers,” says Aaron Hawke, CEO, Xari Group.
Ask them what services are charged and what is the overall package so that you have complete clarity. You must also ask if you would need to do monthly and annual payments and yearly rate hikes.
12 – How Long do You Take to Complete a Project?
Time might not always be on your side when you are looking for a managed services provider. You might want to start immediately or get certain things delivered urgently. Knowing how much time the IT company will take to finish their tasks is a good way to start. Also ask if they offer customized solutions.
13 – How Long do Onboarding and Offboarding Take?
Sometimes, it can be a pain coming on board with a company as their processes are too long and cumbersome. An easy and hassle-free onboarding and the offboarding process is a sign of a professional approach.
14 – What is Your Response Time for Critical Matters?
You just can’t afford lengthy downtime, delayed response, data management, data leaks, regulatory compliance requirements or slow disaster recovery action from your MSP. So, clarify how they respond to critical situations and how long they take to fix them.
This is a critical aspect to maintain business continuity. A quick response time, especially to disaster recovery is a mark of professional service.
15 – How Soon Can You Start Onsite Services?
Onsite services are one of the most important additions to your business needs and workplace requirements. You must ask your service provider how soon they can start the onsite work and how efficient they are with it.
16 – Will You Provide Reports of Your Services?
Evaluating how well your managed IT service provider has done its job is a critical piece of information that you must be privy to. And different reports will provide you with that data. Ask your MSP about the reports they will deliver so that you can calculate your ROI.
17 – What Kind of Customer Support do they Provide?
An IT service desk team is a must that your right managed service provider should provide. Check how easy it is to communicate with them and what communication channels they are on.
Also check if they are available twenty four hours or not. This will be really helpful in times of urgency.
18 – What are Your Future Plans?
Having a proper future plan ready is extremely important. Your business will change and so will your IT requirements. Your MSP must have a future plan ready so that they are able to meet the evolving requirements.
19 – Can You Handle All Our Services?
The most obvious answer to this question will be a yes. However, an honest company would tell you if there are certain services that they are not efficient with. This displays their honesty and professionalism.
20 – Can You Provide Some References for Additional Services?
Asking for references is another way of finding out if your MSP has connections and industry knowledge. If they are not delivering all your services, you can connect with any of the references they provide.
Get Started with Managed Services Today
If your business is considering working with a managed service provider to fill the technology skills gap that so many companies find themselves with, we encourage you to think local and work with Point North Networks for your needs.
Our trusted and trained technicians can work with your team to ensure that technology is never a pain point for your business again.
Plus, depending on your specific needs, we can either fulfill the roles of a full-fledged IT department, act as a consultant, implement new technology solutions, operate as a help desk, and so much more. Our services are truly customizable to suit your company’s specific needs and IT infrastructure needs.
To learn more about how we can support your business goals, call us today at 651-234-0895.
Frequently Asked Questions About Your IT Service Provider
Why is it important to ask questions to your MSP before finalizing their services?
The right questions to ask managed service providers is a good way of finding out how well-equipped they are to handle your needs and how efficiently they can manage your IT infrastructure. This can be a deciding factor in a company’s success.
What are the things I must know before hiring an MSP?
A few of the most important things that you must be aware of before finalizing IT service providers are its size and IT infrastructure, workforce, can they host multiple clients, how many team members providing such services are there, what kind of experience the technical staff carry, strategy towards data leaks, if they have their own data centers, data management and correct size to handle big projects, what new technology developments do they work on, their values, the time they take to deliver projects, prices and fees and if there are any extra charges involved.
You Gain Major Benefits from Our Extensive Experience
In business, experience is always useful. Nowhere is that more apparent than when managing your organization’s IT infrastructure. The problem is that acquiring the expertise to do just that can be quite confusing for most business owners. Today, we’ll talk about how technology management experience can produce better business from one end to the other.
Value of Modern IT
For any-sized business, the use of technology can present huge steps forward in terms of productivity and efficiency. For the business that actively tries to find the right technology to aid its operations, it can be maddening and frustrating. This is because there is seemingly an endless amount of options available, all of which promise to help build a better business. The thing is, not all technology that works for one business, works for another.
The technology consultants at Point North Networks work daily with Minnesota businesses to help them get the technology to drive their business initiatives forward. This isn’t just about getting computers set up, it’s about getting the tools into a business that can work to make productivity easier, automate menial tasks, and build an efficient workforce that doesn’t have to struggle to collaborate.
The value of modern IT can be immeasurable if it is implemented and supported correctly. That’s why having experienced technicians that understand both the fundamentals of supporting business technology and how it works to improve a business’ operational effectiveness is important.
Experience With Business Technology
As far as delivering the right technology, technicians with experience not only understand how a business can utilize certain solutions to solve operational problems, but they also understand the potential value it has to a business as a whole. The procurement of new technology can be difficult for people that don’t know exactly what is needed to accomplish organizational goals.
Since most businesses have to be diligent about choosing prudent technology investments, having experienced perspectives is a great benefit that can go beyond dollars and cents; it can create environments where workers can be the most productive and allow business leaders to build processes that can bring a level of consistency that isn’t found in businesses that don’t have expert perspective driving their IT investments.
In business today there are a lot of considerations to be made about IT. Does your business use remote workers? Does it have systems that need more security or more transparency? Most important of all, can it build the dynamic IT infrastructure you need to forge ahead confidently? With Point North Networks consultants working to help build your business’ technology, you can gain the peace of mind needed to know that you are getting the IT you need affordably. This makes for a more reliable technology environment.
Experience with Support
Getting the right technology is only half the battle. If it isn’t supported, managed, and maintained correctly, you might as well flush money down the toilet. The key to a reliable IT infrastructure is expert support. This means experienced IT technicians that know what they are looking for/at and that are able to reliably keep your technology up and running efficiently and securely.
Today, there are more threats than ever, and that is before you consider that technology breaks. To ensure that your business doesn’t grind to a halt with technology problems, having experienced IT experts actively working on keeping your IT running effectively is more important than ever. Of course, you can hire IT staff to accomplish this, but if your business can’t afford the thousands of dollars a month that a professional IT technician would command, considering a managed service provider like Point North Networks is your best option. Not only can you have experienced IT technicians at the ready if something happens, they work proactively to ensure that you don’t have to deal with productivity-sapping downtime.
Business IT can get complicated, but at Point North Networks we pride ourselves on being a solution to our clients’ IT problems, not another problem. Give us a call at 651-234-0895 today to talk to one of our consultants about how we can help you get the most out of your business.
Who’s Behind the Wheel of Your Business’ Technology?
There are countless issues that could arise when it comes to managing and maintaining your technology, but the people who are in charge of the process should not be one of them. If you don’t have a dedicated IT team to take care of your business technology, you might not be properly maintaining your technology. Thankfully, there are ways to get around limited resources, and it might not be what you think.
Who Manages Your Technology?
As is often the case with businesses with limited resources, more employees wind up doing more tasks than they should be. Sometimes businesses expect their employees to have a baseline understanding of technology, but it is not necessarily the case. In fact, assuming this can be dangerous, and untrained employees should absolutely not be maintaining your technology solutions. Under the wrong circumstances, an untrained employee could cause irreparable harm to your infrastructure.
Plus, consider the fact that poorly functioning technology can get in the way of employees doing their jobs properly, reducing productivity and impacting your bottom line. Employees who don’t know any better will simply let the dysfunctional technology be, which is why it’s better to have professionals handle the maintenance on a regular basis.
One of the biggest hold-ups for businesses without internal IT resources is that they don’t have the budget to hire full-time technicians to take care of all their technology challenges. They might choose to address problems as they occur rather than before they occur, and this could impact operations in a negative way.
The conundrum is that companies need regular IT maintenance, but they can’t afford or access it. So what’s the solution? It’s actually pretty simple: managed IT services.
The Good News
Whether you have an in-house IT team or not, all businesses can gain access to the IT support they need to be successful in the business world, and it’s all thanks to outsourcing. Most maintenance and management of technology systems can be performed without the need for an on-site visit, so it doesn’t matter what your geographical location is. Plus, considering how affordable it is compared to adding more salaries to your budget, you’ll find that it saves you time and money.
Point North Networks wants to be your go-to IT resource for all of your technology needs. To learn more about what we can do for your business, reach out to us at 651-234-0895.
Managed Services Isn’t Just IT Support
Managed IT services are well known for being an incredibly useful service for a business as it helps offset the cost of keeping their technology up and running. What they aren’t as well known for are all the other services that they do to add value for their customers.
Your Business Technology
The first thing that people new to managed services should understand is that, yes, IT support is our number one function and most of our services are bundled because it is the best way for our clients to experience close-to-optimal operational continuity at a price point that works for them.
That doesn’t mean that we are fixing computers all day.
In fact, in the scope of things, fixing computers is just one of the myriad of things we need to accomplish every day to ensure that our clients’ IT infrastructures are working as intended. Today, we thought we would take a look at some of the services we provide, and how collectively, the service can absolutely pay for itself.
Remote Monitoring and Management
The first thing you’ll need to know is that we find that when our technicians are at your business, that productivity slows. Having IT technicians poking around onsite can be distracting. Besides, we aren’t trying to react to IT problems, we are trying to keep them from happening in the first place. How is that possible? With secure, remote technology.
We’ve invested in enterprise-grade, cutting-edge technology to constantly monitor your entire IT infrastructure and network to ensure that if any piece of equipment is not working as intended that it is fixed before it becomes a problem. This proactive nature to IT is the most valuable part of our offering. We fix issues with your IT before they can be profit-destroying problems. Think about how much downtime hurts your bottom line.
If you could curtail your exposure to situations where IT problems cause your downtime and do it at a fraction of the cost of hiring a team of IT experts, you’d consider that value, right? Most decision makers would, which is why MSPs today need to deliver more. Let’s take a look at some of the other services we provide that are meant to add to our value.
Regular Reviews
One of the issues with technology is that as soon as you get a piece of technology there is something better (or worse, more suited to your needs) coming right behind it. This means that if you are going to look outside your door for IT support and services, you need them to keep you in the loop.
At Point North Networks, Inc., we adhere to regular reviews because we want your business to be the best it can be. Around every quarter we will schedule a call or meeting to go over what your goals and priorities are for the upcoming months. Not only does that give us the ability to help you plan your technology investments, it allows us to follow up on any issues we may have had in the weeks leading up to the meeting.
Vendor Management
Vendor management is a relatively simple service, but it can make a big difference. Think about how much time you spend dealing with your technology vendors in a given month. They follow up all the time and try to upsell you. Sometimes those investments make sense, but often they are just trying to make sales.
Our vendor management service basically removes this responsibility from you and your staff. We will be the point of contact for all of your technology vendors. This not only puts a technology professional in place as a point of contact, it also allows you to separate yourself from those relationships that take away time and attention from your ultimate goals for your business.
Patch Management
Software is a major part of every business’ operational strategy, and if it isn’t updated regularly, it can actually expose your business to risk. Unpatched software often leaves your network vulnerable to outside attack. Today’s hackers only need one opportunity to get into your network and steal your data or infect your business’ IT with malware. With patch management, you never have to worry about that again.
Backup and Disaster Recovery
Another massive value we provide comes in the form of a backup and disaster recovery solution. We offer full and partial backup programs that meet industry best practices. You will get a network-attached BDR that you can use to quickly restore from if need be, but you also get incremental backups stored in the cloud should something more severe happen. With your data protected from loss, you can have the peace of mind that if something happens, your business’ continuity will be strong.
Fix Computers
While we try to maintain every piece of your IT infrastructure, sometimes machines fail. It goes without saying that should the need arise, our professional technicians will fix your hardware onsite.
If you would like to learn more about our professional managed IT services, or you would just like to have a conversation about your business’ technology goals, give us a call right now at 651-234-0895.
