Business today relies on computers and networks that connect your employees to each other and the world. If your computer network is not working properly, work interruptions, missed deadlines, and communication breakdowns can result.
Manage Your Network
You can set up internal support for your company but it will require you to hire some IT (information technology) employees to manage your systems. If you do not have any background in IT, it is sometimes hard to find employees that are knowledgeable. The most important thing is to hire a knowledgeable IT manager that can work with you to build a team for your company. If you do not have the budget for a dedicated department, there are other options that might work better for you.
Hire Managed IT Services
One option you might want to consider is hiring a managed IT support service for your company. The IT staff will not be on site but will be able to access your system and help your employees with anything they need. The managed service can work directly with employees over the phone and in most cases, can access workstations remotely to handle larger tasks for your employees.
Network management can also be handled from offsite by your managed IT company. They can handle most things for you including daily backups, server updates, and system upgrades, but if you need to have hardware upgrades, they will have to come in and do the work on location. In some cases, a workstation may require a tech to come to look at it but that is rare.
Manage IT Costs
A managed IT company often bids the services out on a flat rate. For normal day to day operation, the price is not going to change. This allows you to manage the cost and plan for the expenditure month over month. It also allows you to have as many techs available to your employees as are needed. If you have to hire techs, you may only have a couple and someone may be waiting that really needs to hit a deadline.
Hiring an outside service allows you the flexibility to change your level of support and add or remove services as your companies needs change. A growing company may need to add support services or expand the type of support they need, if the network changes or if you start to hire remote employees. Support for employees working at home is much more efficent if the support is able to connect to them while they are offsite.
