How Managed IT Services Can Reduce Your Tickets and Downtime by 90%

IT problems and issues are inevitable, right? When it comes to technology, problems come with the territory.

But that’s just not true. When you stop waiting to fix IT issues until after they’ve happened and recognize that those issues can be prevented in the first place, your company’s fortunes will improve.

Companies that don’t follow this strategy discover IT problems too late. In other words, an issue that could have been easily prevented instead causes a full-blown business disruption, often with a call for emergency service at a premium rate.

Prevent IT Issues with Proactive Planning and Management

A company that works to prevent IT issues rather than fix them after they happen makes its IT department and technology as productive as possible. The best-proven prevention strategy is to partner with an IT support provider focused on this approach.

The right outsourced IT provider can reduce an organization’s tickets and cut IT downtime by 80 to 90 percent because the provider is maintaining and working to continuously improve their clients’ technologies.

These providers perform ongoing preventative maintenance and monitoring for their clients, along with thought leadership and business advice. Essentially, they’re a client's IT department. Small to medium-sized businesses can leverage the approach to prevent issues and make their people more productive.

While you’ll find several reasons organizations choose to partner with an outsourced IT or managed service provider,  taking a proactive approach to prevention isn’t often the first reason on the list. Usually, there is a focus on response time, staff size, and certifications. Couple this with the fact that most IT managed service providers say they are proactive, making it difficult for SMB leaders to tell who will most help their business.  

Identify IT Concerns Before They Slow Down Your Business

Providers are proactively solving future issues at these organizations by asking questions like:

1. How can we use technology to make your organization more efficient?
2. Are we making the right technology decisions?
3. Are we cybersecure? And how can we stay ahead of the hackers?
4. Is there a more cost-effective way to run the business through technology?

Another benefit managed service providers bring is an end to productivity killers that take place outside the IT department itself. When non-technical employees attempt to troubleshoot and solve IT issues, they take time away from their job and risk exacerbating rather than solving the problem. Computers that take forever to boot or that crash too often cut into employees' work time. A crash could result in your employees losing valuable work they’ve spent hours or even days creating.

An organization running outdated or slow technology gets noticed by its customers, and not in a good way. Think about how you feel when you click on a slow-loading page or an outdated link or stumble across a website that plays sappy music as words scroll across the screen.

It follows that the companies that slash tickets and downtime by the greatest percentages don’t just bring in any managed service provider; successful companies take the time to select the best provider for their needs.

Pick a Proactive IT Service Partner

When it comes to prevention, ensure the provider also has an approach to ensure your data is secure and will continue to be that way. Yes, security breaches such as ransomware and cryptolocker can be prevented, too.

Seek a partner who communicates clearly, who can assure you — in writing — your company has the proper applications and technology on board, that it’s continually maintained, and that problems can otherwise be prevented before they happen.

Find a provider that meets these needs as well as a methodology to help your business scale and become more profitable.