A Compelling Case Why Managed IT is Better Than Break-Fix IT

Be honest: how do you feel when a snag suddenly pops up in the IT systems your business has put in place? It’d be a surprise if you answered with anything more than an irritated groan at the thought of another issue. If having to manage your solutions feels (at least to you) more like a problem, you aren’t alone.

Many business owners have similar feelings as you do: that tech and the constant “improvements” it undergoes has made everything more complicated, too expensive, and/or less efficient than just doing it the way that they’re used to. Plus, it seems like every time they turn around, some other aspect of their IT is on the fritz, keeping employees from doing their jobs and thereby wasting the business’s money.

However, IT doesn’t have to work like that anymore, thanks to an approach known as managed services.

Moving away from the traditional “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” approach that IT has long been parodied for, managed services are much more sensibly founded on proactivity and prevention. By monitoring a system for upcoming problems in order to minimize them (if not avoid them outright) a user group may experience maximized uptime and utility from their computing resources.

Another benefit to managed services is the fact that your systems are monitored for more than just threats. Is there an updated version of one of your current solutions available that won’t interfere with your other mission-critical functions? Your managed service provider can handle implementing the updates on your behalf via a remote connection, as most of an MSP’s work is performed. This keeps distracting traffic in your office to its usual levels, reducing the effect on your other employees and their productivity levels.

Speaking of your other employees, there very well may be an internal tech team to consider as well. While managed services may seem at first glance to be a method of replacing your in-house resources, that is not the case. Rather, with less time spent resolving issues and updating solutions, your in-house team could increase their innovations and improve your processes.

Expense was another common grievance with the older school of IT thought, as there was no way to predict when an issue would arise and therefore no way to include IT costs into a budget with an acceptable level of accuracy. Because of this, an unanticipated IT expense could wreak havoc on any financial planning a business had attempted. Managed services, on the other hand, are available for a predictable (and therefore budgetable) rate on a set billing schedule, permitting companies to maintain better control over their spending while benefitting from the reduction in downtime that preventative monitoring provides.

If more reliable IT systems at a more predictable cost is something that you’re interested in, let us know here at SCW by calling (509) 534-1530. We can provide you with managed services so you can experience these benefits for yourself.