Sourcing your IT services offsite is becoming a very popular and effective business move for many businesses. This approach is cost-effective, too, saving a lot of money and in many cases, a lot of downtime.

Business IT issues

There are limits to the capabilities of any in house IT service. Increasingly, the old in house IT support services are being found to be inadequate to deal with the multiple roles required in the modern business IT environment.

The problems for in house IT services are many:

• Upgrading- The big budget hits usually come from the generational changes in computer and mobile device requirements.
• Servicing capabilities- Some things can be done in house, some need external help anyway. Major jobs are invariably contracted out.
• Security- Software patches, anti-virus and anti-malware must be maintained regularly. These are critical jobs, particularly for those conducting online businesses.
• Technology issues- Servers, computers and other business equipment need to be upgraded on an erratic, expensive basis.

Businesses have a further problem, and it’s a costly one. Doing everything in house can be a very cumbersome way of managing IT issues. Businesses are regularly required to make critical decisions about their IT. They have to fund and cost their operational needs.

They’re at a big disadvantage, and there are potential problems:

• Businesses often wind up with hybrid systems which involve running multiple different types of software and equipment of varying vintages and capabilities. These ad hoc systems simply can’t be as efficient as fully designed, integrated systems.
• Businesses do sometimes make mistakes about their IT choices. It’s not exactly unknown for even major businesses to purchase software and hardware which is inferior quality and/or requires frequent servicing. These choices are effectively losses, including downtime.
• Business management is often inflicted with a lot of non-core work in dealing with IT issues. That’s not cost-effective use of time, and lumbers management with a lot of extra work on top of its own work.
• Contracts for IT purchases are an “acquired taste”, particularly for medium sized and small businesses, which really don’t need extra costs and warranty problems.

Remote IT services basics

Remote IT is based on obtaining all your IT services from a remote location on a contract basis.

The outsource handles everything, including:

• Installations
• Software
• Server and desktop support
• Network support
• Backup services
• Hardware
• IT system management
• Servicing
• Security
• System design consultation, where applicable

These services are pretty much anything a business could ever need. Everything is managed by the IT outsource support service.

Anyone in business will tell you that IT support is no joke in terms of its requirements for time and money, particularly if there are problems. If things go wrong, the in house costs can be horrific, and so can the downtime, creating more problems.

For a lot of businesses, it really doesn’t make commercial sense to try to manage so many different IT operations in house. Remote IT services cover everything, seamlessly, and these services can be tailored to meet the needs of any business.

If you’re looking for IT solutions, start with the remote IT services. You’ll find you can cost these services and measure the benefits easily.