So you have had your ‘light bulb’ moment and started a brand new business! Little did you know you now need to become a specialist in areas of business you never even knew existed. The results mean that many new business owners are working long hours, spinning many plates and have a huge amount of stress.
When a business owner tries to be a ‘jack of all trades, master of none’ you have a risk of not concentrating on your own business but needs must when you first start out. Here are some of the roles we all have played in the beginning….
- The King/Queen of your own business
- Website Designer and Management Whizz
- Hardware Investigator, IT Support Technician, IT Expert and Cyber Security God
- Payroll Wizard
- HR Hero
- Tax Advisor and Accountant Extraordinaire
- Health & Safety Expert
- Insurance Guru
- And of course Networking Beaver
So it is a wonderful feeling when you start to see the fruits of your labour. You can think about employing staff or indeed having enough money to outsource some of these roles to people that are experts in these fields.
We have highlighted the benefits to outsourcing your IT support previously.
But we have had many conversations with business owners about Ad Hoc Support Vs Managed Service Support. What’s the difference? What are the pro’s and con’s of both? When do you move from Ad Hoc to MSP?
Well here are some points to think about.
Ad Hoc IT Support
Ad Hoc support is a reactive method of IT Support.
The problem usually needs to arise for the support to be implemented. Businesses who are confident in their own management of IT may feel this is the right type of support for them.
As long as the business is happy to spend their own time diagnosing issues and rectifying the majority of problems then this can work quite well. It can also be the right type of support for businesses with only 1 or 2 people in them.
Costings will be a one off call out and diagnosis but you must be prepared for the additional costs that the unknown problem can generate to actually get things fixed.
Pro’s
- One off charges
- No monthly costs
Con’s
- No monitoring of your systems (which enables quick diagnoses)
- No forecasts of potential issues
- Disruption to business continuity
- Your time, worry and effort prior to the help arriving
- Unable to clearly quote the cost due to having to diagnose the problem first
- Ongoing call out
- Possible system downtime
- No ongoing development
Managed Service IT Support
Managed service support is a proactive method of IT Support.
Managed service IT Support is available remotely (or on-site depending on your agreement) during office hours (or like Southern Solutions 24/7 depending on your contract) as and when you need them. It involves monitoring which in turn leads to the early diagnoses of potential problems. This will also provide active prevention and management of your systems.
Pro’s
- Benefit of experts any day, any time. Experts that you actually know
- The company knows and understands your business and the systems within it saving time to diagnose issues
- Saves you time and worry
- Ensures updates are carried out on workstations and servers
- Will set up all of your security requirements
- Education and training for your staff
- Back up and Disaster Recovery planning
- Consistent costing each month
- IT consultancy
- 24/7 monitoring
Con’s
- A growing business needs to incorporate IT support into their yearly budget planning and sometimes the full cost of this can feel daunting.
- Some IT Companies can try to tie you into unnecessarily lengthy contracts
IT Support from a trusted provider is key for your business. Whether this be Ad Hoc or Managed Service you must do what makes you comfortable and makes you feel that your business is safe.
Ad Hoc support absolutely has its place, however, in our opinion if you are a growing business and ready to outsource then a Managed Service from a trusted IT partner is the superior model. It will not only benefit your business but brings piece of mind.
An issue we have seen with businesses previously supported with an Ad Hoc agreement is the lack of development on their systems. No forethought and planning for the future of their IT systems have left them dated and in many cases insecure.
Usually once you add up your time, potential business down time, Ad Hoc call out charges and potential security disasters then an Ad Hoc service can sometimes work out more over a year than a Managed Service yearly contract. An MSP will also remove one of the many plates that we all have to spin.
Southern Solutions provide customers with bespoke tailor made managed service solutions for their business. We believe this is the safest model to provide the highest level of service, care, support and security.
If you’re still not sure what type of IT Support your business requires, feel free to give us a call to chat through your requirements. Our MD, Oli, would be happy to discuss what he feels would be the best solution for your business.