While major major corporations already had their online presence well in hand, the pandemic made small businesses IT Support take the leap online as well. Of course, many of the small businesses that had avoided going online did so because they lacked much in-house tech-savvy.
While WYSIWYG solutions for building a website might get the job done initially, most small businesses quickly realize that they’ll need more IT support than that. That goes for hardware, as well as access to the necessary tech skills. Without IT salaries often proving far out of reach for small businesses, they must lean on IT support companies.
If you’re a business owner in this position, keep reading for some of the core IT support services you can get through IT companies.
Help Desk
Did you ever spend a whole afternoon going back and from Google searches to some malfunctioning program or piece of tech equipment and still not find a solution? Most small business owners have at some point. It gets even worse when you get multiple employees working off of several computers, tablets, or related devices.
Even for the dyed-in-the-wool DIY entrepreneur, the time spent trying to fix tech problems isn’t cost-effective. If nothing else, the time you spend on that is time you don’t spend working on your business. Fortunately, many IT companies offer help desk support services.
Rather than you trying to figure out the problem, your employees just call the help desk. The help desk walks them through the most likely solutions.
If those don’t work, they make recommendations for additional options you can try in person.
IT Consulting
For the business that’s making its first steps into the world of online business and information technology, IT consulting is often a good first step. IT consulting focuses on understanding your business’s current needs and, within reason, projected needs over the next few years.
The consulting service can then suggest a set of hardware, software, and service solutions that will meet your current needs or your projected needs. For example, let’s say that your business is growing fast. You’ll likely need far more processing and storage capacity than you currently have just to meet your core needs in two years.
The service takes this information into account when making recommendations about hardware. If they’re familiar with your industry, they can often recommend software suites that help you better manage workflows.
Cybersecurity
Remember when data breaches made headlines and were discussed in the nightly news? These days, breaches happen with such regularity that no one even reports them unless it affects millions or tens of millions of people. Yet, businesses that suffer breaches can suffer severe financial consequences and government scrutiny.
That is one of the reasons why cybersecurity professionals enjoy huge salaries. It’s also one of the reasons why so many IT support companies offer cybersecurity services. Everyone needs those services because a data breach can do untold damage to your business.
Cloud Services
Cloud services fall into two general categories. There are cloud services that IT companies offer directly and cloud services that IT companies help you manage.
Companies often directly offer services such as data backups and remote server management. For these services, you typically work off of the companies servers.
Then there are cloud services offered by the huge cloud players, such as AWS, Microsoft, and Google. Some IT support companies will help you set up and manage your services through these major players.
If you work through one of the big players, you’re likely looking for specific services. A few common examples include big data analytics, machine learning, or running all your business applications out of the cloud.
On-Site Technical Support
Help desk services and remote management can help you deal with a lot of problems, but some technical problems just boil down to a hardware issue. This is when you on-site technical support.
Not every company offers on-site technical support. Some companies limit it to a strictly controlled local area. Others offer a broader coverage area but limit how often you can request on-site support.
With on-site support, though, you get an IT professional who comes out to your place of business and tracks down the problem hardware. If you’re lucky, they can even fix it or get a replacement in place that day.
Network Management
Another popular choice for businesses with rapidly growing IT needs is network management. With these services, the company helps you design your network and select hardware. Then, they install and configure that hardware.
This service typically comes with a network monitoring feature after the network is up and running. Network monitoring helps you track patterns, identify irregularities, and may even include security responses to unusual activity.
Managed IT Services
Larger businesses might pick services à la carte based on their in-house IT recommendations. Small businesses often opt for managed IT services.
Think of managed IT services as a bit like a cable sports package. You get a bunch of services bundled together for a much lower cost.
These iam managed services typically include things like cybersecurity, network monitoring, data backups, and some cloud services. Depending on the company and the contract, you may also see compliance support, software support, and communication services like VoIP.
Most companies offer established packages of services and some will give you tiered options for scaling up or down.
IT Support and Your Business
Unless you run a very well-staffed and well-funded IT department, your business can benefit from some level of IT support. Even if you only help with getting up to speed on the cloud, professional help will cut the learning curve way down.
If you run a smaller business that you only recently took online, you’ll probably see more benefit from a managed service. These services cover the essential bases and provide a more secure IT infrastructure.
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Also read about: Why Do Companies Outsource The Ecommerce Support Service?
