Reliable IT support services are essential to keep your digital infrastructure and operations efficient and secure. If you’ve hired an IT Managed Services Provider (MSP) before, you already know that the right partner can make a real difference in competitiveness, productivity, and staff morale. Conversely, an unreliable and unresponsive one can spell disaster for your business, and it may not be too long before you must switch providers.
This article explores the costs of poor IT support and the benefits of working with an experienced and reliable MSP. More crucially, it examines how to tell if an MSP is a good fit for your business. Let’s dive in.
Unveiling the Risks of Poor IT Support
Inefficient IT support can have many serious consequences, including these common scenarios:
- Extended Unavailability of Service
- Poor support typically results in recurring system errors, slow speeds, unexpected downtime, frequent disconnections, and other IT problems. Failing to resolve these issues promptly creates compounding effects, impacting end users, other employees, and customers dependent on the system outputs.
- For example, suppose the local area network in one of your locations got disconnected and wasn’t restored immediately. In such a scenario, many employees couldn’t access critical systems or perform essential tasks, leading to delays in operations and service delivery. The longer the outage persists, the greater the issues that would arise.
- Low Staff Morale and Productivity
- End users rely on high-performing IT systems to streamline workflows, perform daily tasks, and communicate with customers and colleagues. Incompatible, unreliable, or sluggish systems could leave them unproductive, frustrated, and stressed. Further, it could lead to resource wastage, especially if the MSP is unresponsive to requests.
- Greater Risk of Security Breaches
- As cyberattacks increase and become more sophisticated, the chances of falling victim to a data breach increase without a partner who proactively monitors and responds to threats. Poor IT support puts your organization at an extended risk of attacks as it often leaves systems outdated and without necessary security patches.
- Financial Repercussions
- The financial costs of poor IT support are also significant. When end users constantly deal with poorly functioning systems and rush to put out the subsequent fire, productivity and revenue are lost. The ripple effects of unavailable service on customers could easily lead to churn and decreased sales. Bottom line: ineffective IT support severely hurts the bottom line.
Given these challenges, it’s easy to see why starting with a reliable IT MSP is wiser. Below, we explore the benefits of such a move for your business.
The Advantages of Working With an Experienced IT MSP
Reliable MSP provides efficient IT support, allowing you to focus on strategic initiatives without getting bogged down with technical issues. They take on the strenuous legwork of managing critical systems, helping you stay competitive and grow with minimum friction. More specifically, they bring your business the following benefits:
1. Reduced Downtime
Effective MSPs provide proactive tech support to your business. They monitor critical issues around the clock, deliver timely patch management, optimize IT processes, and address issues before they turn problematic. Moreover, they always conduct a root cause analysis on every issue to prevent it from recurring. In other words, reliable MSPs like Core BTS help you minimize downtime and maximize uptime.
2. Access to Experts and the Latest Tech Stack
Top MSPs have experienced experts in multiple solution areas such as cybersecurity or datacenter mondernization. These professionals are an extension of your team, helping you leverage best practices and business processes to keep the organization safe and deliver maximum value and customer experience. Plus, they understand how to supercharge innovation with the latest technologies and can advise which IT investments have the best ROI.
3. 24/7 Support:
Experienced MSPs work around the clock to ensure your critical systems run smoothly. A full-service IT firm like Core BTS can be there 24/7, providing remote support and on-site resources to tackle technical issues hands-on as they occur during and outside regular business hours. You can rest easy knowing there'll be limited disruptions to operations.
How To Choose a Proficient Managed IT Service Provider
Selecting an IT support provider is a critical decision impacting your day-to-day operations and resilience in the rapidly changing digital landscape. Therefore, a careful and systematic approach is necessary to ensure you find the best fit for your business needs and goals.
These considerations will guide you in finding a suitable MSP:
- Services: Examine Service Level Agreements (SLAs) to understand potential MSPs’ scope of services and how they measure performance. Do they offer IT consulting, network management, cybersecurity, data backup, cloud computing, and other types of support that you need? Can they deliver support remotely or on-site per your requirements?
- Capabilities: Evaluate potential MSPs’ experience and expertise in providing IT support in your industry, including their proficiency with applicable compliance standards like GDPR and HIPAA. Conduct an assessment to validate they have the essential tech stack and personnel to handle all requirements.
- Reputation: Explore case studies, industry recognitions, reviews, and testimonials to understand what it’s like working with the IT services provider. The ideal MSP should have a track record for reliably and efficiently supporting business needs similar to yours.
Core BTS: an MSP fit to Support All Your Business’s IT Needs
Your business needs quality IT support, and Core BTS is the perfect partner. We deliver reliable, around-the-clock, remote, and on-site support to maximize end-user satisfaction and productivity.
Whether you need help improving processes, patch management, or any other IT issue, you can count on us to optimize and effectively manage those service areas.
Explore our success case study: How Core BTS enhanced a NYC nonprofit’s end-user experience.
