- The same IT problems keep coming back
If you're regularly calling for help with the same computers, applications or network problems, fixing the immediate fault may not be addressing the underlying cause.
Managed IT support looks beyond individual incidents to identify recurring problems and reduce the chance of them happening again.
- Your staff are waiting for IT problems to be fixed
When a computer fails or somebody can't access an important system, you're not just paying for an IT repair. You're potentially paying an employee who can't work.
As your team grows, IT downtime can quickly become an expensive problem.
- Nobody is proactively monitoring your IT
With traditional pay-as-you-go support, the IT company will usually only know there's a problem after you tell them.
A managed IT service can include proactive monitoring of computers and systems, helping to identify potential problems before they become major disruptions.
- Nobody is taking responsibility for updates
Windows, applications, security products and other software need to be kept up to date.
If everyone assumes somebody else is taking care of updates, important security patches can easily be missed.
Managed IT support provides clear responsibility for monitoring and maintaining the systems your business relies upon.
- Microsoft 365 has simply grown with the business
Many businesses start with a couple of Microsoft 365 accounts and gradually add more users, shared mailboxes, Teams, SharePoint sites and devices.
Before long, nobody is quite sure who has access to what, whether security settings are appropriate or whether old accounts have been properly removed.
As Microsoft 365 becomes more important to your business, it needs active management rather than simply adding licences whenever somebody new starts.
- You're not completely confident about your backups
Ask yourself a simple question:
If we lost an important system or company data tomorrow, how quickly could we get it back?
Having a backup is only part of the solution. You also need to know that backups are running successfully, that the right information is protected and that data can actually be restored when required.
- Cybersecurity is becoming a bigger concern
As your business grows, so does its digital footprint.
More employees, devices, email accounts and cloud services can mean more opportunities for phishing, compromised accounts, malware and other security threats.
Measures such as Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA), endpoint protection, managed updates, access controls, backups and Cyber Essentials should form part of a wider security strategy rather than being considered individually.
Reactive IT Support vs Managed IT Support
The biggest difference is fairly simple.
Reactive IT support waits for something to break and then fixes it.
Managed IT support takes ongoing responsibility for maintaining, monitoring and protecting your IT environment, while still being there when something does go wrong.
For a growing business, this makes IT spending more predictable and, more importantly, changes the conversation from “How quickly can you fix this?” to “How can we stop this happening again?”
At Q6IT Services, that's exactly how we believe business IT support should work.
If your business has outgrown occasional IT support and you'd like a more proactive approach, talk to Q6IT Services about moving to a managed IT service.