There are two basic areas of distinction:

1. The support approach of proactive vs. reactive: In a reactive model, many companies setup their systems, get them to a functional state and then leave them alone until a crisis occurs. They tend to avoid their IT technology until there is a major issue and business operations are impacted. Then, when there is a crisis, they call in help. The help then charges an hourly rate to work on the problem. A proactive approach is about consistently doing the things that help keep systems performing well. Routine maintenance, patches, updates and system work are performed to keep things in shape. Systems are monitored and when resources or problems start indicating a problem it is reported prior to a major event and service is dispatched to address the concern before it impedes the business.

2. Financial Alignment: In the reactive model, the vendor makes their money when you are in crisis. They are really happy when there is a problem. They feed when you bleed. If there were no problems they would go out of business. Their focus is on recovering from issues not avoiding them. In short, they gain when you are in pain.

Managed IT Support is different because there should be a performance guarantee. That way the Service Provider loses money (just like you do) when there is a significant IT problem. Managed IT Support focuses on avoidance of problems vs. recovery from problems.

• Servers & Desktops 
• Ongoing, pro-active (remote) monitoring of Servers and Desktop PC’s, installing patches, updates and resolving issues before the user even knows there is an issue!  Also includes telephone, email and online chat support to resolve any issues quickly.
• Security
• Security provides a managed firewall, security policies, managed anti-virus/malware suite and core services to align with the MA Privacy law for all Massachusetts based businesses.
• Backup and Business Continuity
• Instead of dealing with changing tapes, tracking backups, dealing with online backup targets, a business continuity service provides data backup along with a full business continuity plan.
• Infrastructure / Network Monitoring
• Management and monitoring of internet, phone circuits, VPNs, switches, wireless access points and network room components such as storage, network printers and key network devices.

• You are a do-it-yourself type and only want help when you cannot figure it out yourself.
• Why pay someone else if you can figure it out yourself?
• Your IT plan is kept running until the wheels fall off. Then we will deal with it.
• You do not measure the performance of your business and employees.
• You are dependent or content creating “work-arounds” to problems.
• You do not care how your employees use business resources during business hours.
• You think “Those IT problems” are not too bad, we can just work harder.
• You believe a PC should last 5+ years.
• You enjoy spending free time learning how to fix computers.
• You really do not care if employee efficiency or morale can be improved.
• You depend on “non-professionals” to help you out with IT.
• You maintain that business productivity and performance are secondary to IT costs.
• You don’t have an IT budget and are not interested in creating one.

Many businesses rely on IT technology, but technology support and networking is not their core business focus. In that case, you need to ask yourself if spending time away from your core business is really cost-effective.

You can go the “wait until it breaks” route, but you need to understand what lower performance and reliability is really costing your company in lost productivity and lost opportunity costs. This is even more evident when your IT infrastructure is more ‘ad-hoc’ and has grown organically rather than being professionally designed and maintained.

If you relate to 4 or more of these categories, you can benefit from outsourcing via a Managed Services approach:

• You just want it all to work!
• You did not choose your career to monkey with IT issues.
• You understand what it costs your company for you to not focus on your top priorities.
• You do not want to be in the IT business.
• You do not want to deal with IT.
• You are done trying to get techies to understand what you really need.
• You realise the hourly cost of downtime and business interruption is so much more than a technician’s hourly rate.
• You are finished with trying to manage depreciating assets.
• You are done with finding, hiring, and managing IT staff.
• You realise that like death and taxes, your business depends on IT technology and IT technology cannot be avoided.
• You never want to deal with Technology vendors blaming each other while you pay their bills.
• You realise that many support engineers are not incentivised to fix your problems since they make their money from you having problems!
• You put up with IT support issues because you do not want the trouble of changing to another support provider.

You control the IT costs by virtue of your pain threshold. You only pay when the pain is unbearable.

You have no real financial commitment.

• Focus on Business Activities
  Time spent on your business vs. time spent on tech support adds to your bottom line.
• Reduced Stress
  Dealing with non-expertise areas is stressful, which adds to the fact that problems in these areas may cost cost thousands of dollars.
• Controlled Cost
  You can budget expenses and hold the Managed Service provider accountable to the results.
• Reliable Performance
  The service level agreement guarantees performance or a penalty is applied to the Managed Service Provider.
• Efficiency of Scale
  Managed Service Providers have the experience and knowledge from supporting many networks. This experience cannot be gained by supporting one network.
• Increased Security
  Managed Service vendors generally have resources that proactively manage and maintain business critical components such as firewalls, employee usage and virus/malware suites.
• Full Back-up and Business Continuity
  You no longer have to remember to back-up media and tapes, Managed Service Providers provide automated systems that provide back-up and business continuity services to return your business to operational within minutes.
• IT Accountability
  Have you ever wished you could have more control over your IT results? Without an agreement with a Managed IT Support provider, you are trading hourly IT help for money, and often you do not get what you desire.