Why So Many Agencies Outsource Their IT to the Pros

How often does your technology experience trouble? If your business is constantly dealing with technical hiccups, your assets, which are meant to help your agency grow, can quickly become a nuisance that holds you back. How can you take better care of your technology, and use it to usher in a new era of productivity?

First, you should know a little bit about what is called "break-fix" IT services. This is what you normally get when you take your technology to a traditional tech company. They take a look at your technology, tell you what’s wrong, and provide their services for a hefty cost. They typically won’t take measures to help you mitigate technology problems down the road. After all, their livelihood depends on your technology breaking down, and they are not strategic partners of your business, so why should they have your budget or long term goals in mind?

The other type of IT service, managed IT, seeks to prevent issues from becoming major problems that cause downtime. This enables your business to save money and time by not having to deal with constant technology troubles. The idea is to use preventative maintenance in order to detect minor issues, and resolve them before they can escalate into costly problems that could derail your budget.

Some examples of effective managed services include:

• Server hosting: Your server units store critical data, so it makes sense to take proper care of them. However, the average small or medium-sized agency might not have the staff or skillset necessary to care for or accommodate the physical server component. Businesses will often outsource this responsibility to guarantee the consistent uptime of crucial systems.
• Network security: Do you know the difference between viruses, malware, trojans, phishing scams, and other online threats? This is one of the many reasons why organizations would rather outsource their network security to cyber security professionals. Managing and maintaining a security solution that includes a firewall, antivirus, spam blocker, and content filter, can be tiring and knowledge-intensive.
• Remote maintenance and management: Oftentimes, business professionals might be able to effectively use technology, but don’t notice telltale signs of degradation. Many of these signs can be spotted remotely, and the patches can swiftly be administered without a costly on-site appointment.
• Backup and disaster recovery: Small businesses need to preserve their data at all costs. It’s been proven that businesses that fail to restore their data following a loss incident are likely to go out of business within one year. This is why so many organizations turn to outsourced managed IT services to handle data backup. With Backup and Disaster Recovery (BDR), backups can be taken as often as every 15 minutes, and data can be rapidly deployed in the event of a data loss incident.

Does your business have trouble managing and maintaining its critical technology assets? At SMART Services, we take care of your IT, so you can focus on growing your agency book. To learn more about any of the above services, call us at 586 258-0650 .