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In Part 1, we discussed the financial cost implications that outages can have on a business and how MSPs can mitigate those costs. If you haven’t read that article, you can find it by clicking on the link below.

 Part 1: Another Outage?! This Has To Stop!

In the previous article, we presented how MSPs can help reduce the financial costs of an IT outage. However, are there other advantages MSPs offer with respect to managing downtime? Many small- to mid-sized businesses either use a break-fix model, where they hire outside IT support when needed, or they scramble with internal resources to address an outage when it occurs. Often this is the result of limited resources, both financial or staffing limitations. However, regardless of the reason, this approach usually tends to be a “reactive” one, and can result in an unknown amount of downtime due to unexpected problems.

If you follow a reactive approach, you will only look for IT support when you face an outage or need an upgrade. You will have to initiate a request for support every time there is an issue, and the response time from the hired IT team could be unpredictable. It’s also impossible to predict how much to budget for IT services. You can’t know when the next failure will happen or how expensive the fixes might be. If you are spending your time preparing and anticipating for the next outage, chances are that there is no time left to plan for the future IT needs for your business. You may therefore miss out on the latest and best network management and automation systems for your business. Ultimately, there are simply too many unknowns and uncertainties when you follow a break-fix reactive approach.

In contrast to this, the managed IT services model follows a “proactive” approach to IT. An MSP relies on providing you with ongoing updates, maintenance, and support that helps you prevent outages from happening in the first place. This allows you to completely focus on running your business and not worry about the next IT issue. The MSP will monitor your systems 24/7, which can relieve a lot of pressure from you or your small in-house IT department. They will be set up as your own expert, remote IT department and will be aligned with your business goals. In the event of an outage or failure, your MSP can provide IT support remotely even before you need to raise a request for support. Although some instances may require in-person care, such as hardware replacements, most day-to-day operations can be carried out remotely. That’s not all – one of the biggest advantages of hiring an MSP is the flat-rate payment model, where you pay a flat monthly rate no matter what. This enables you to budget for your IT far more effectively (more on this in the next article).

The choice between the two approaches comes down to this: inconsistent, unreliable, and more expensive break-fix services? – Or proactive, reliable, and affordable managed services that also provide:
24/7 monitoring, increased productivity, increased operational efficiency, up-to-date IT solutions, security patches and fixes, controlled IT costs, and peace of mind.