5 Benefits of Proactive IT Support

If you’re a business owner, it’s important to make sure your IT infrastructure is fully functional and updated. Contrary to what one might expect, preparing for future IT problems will reduce costs instead of adding more to your business expenses. Although it can feel tempting to wait until things go wrong, repair and downtime costs can leave a big hole in your company’s finances. Here are all of the benefits of proactive IT support and why you should consider outsourcing your professional services.

Proactive vs Reactive IT Support

As the name suggests, proactive IT support focuses on prevention and alleviation strategies. This will look like a pre-established infrastructure that supervises your systems and immediately alerts you of any problems before they happen. Examples of proactive IT support include cybersecurity management, remote systems monitoring, and maintenance.

On the other hand, reactive IT support refers to immediate assistance when it’s needed. You can have all the preventative measures you need, but you’ll still run into IT challenges. Your reactive IT support team is available to help you when these situations occur. If you’ve encountered a security breach or your network goes down, they’ll be prepared to solve the problem.

Thus, the ultimate difference between proactive and reactive IT support comes down to costs, customer focus, and time. While both are necessary for a successful business, proactive IT support aims to stop challenges before they happen. If a problem were to arise, reactive IT support can step in before it gets worse. Even so, you should aim to use proactive IT support as much as possible.

Here are the separate characteristics of proactive and reactive IT support:

Proactive:

• Customer-oriented
• Less expensive
• Resolves problems before they worsen
• Time-saving

Reactive:

• Expensive
• Time-consuming
• Increased downtime
• Minor problems can develop into major issues
• Recurring errors

The Benefits of Proactive Support

The ultimate goal of proactive IT support is to prevent obstacles before they happen. This means your entire IT and cybersecurity systems are supervised to detect and resolve issues before they get worse. Plus, if something goes wrong, your IT support team will ensure the problem never arises again. This ultimately makes proactive IT support less expensive since you’ll always understand what you’re paying for and when. Here are a few benefits of using proactive IT support.

Predictable IT Costs

One may hesitate to invest in proactive IT support if they don’t want to pay another monthly fee. Plus, if you’re not currently running into any challenges, why bother fixing what isn’t broken? In reality, proactive IT support is much more cost-effective since your expenses are always predictable. Compare this to reactive IT support, which can result in very expensive costs during inconvenient times.

With proactive IT support, you’ll always know what you’re paying for. On top of that, these included services mean that your technology is continually being monitored and adjusted. This includes cybersecurity protections like updating management, web protection, and antivirus supervision. This also means they’re continually updating your technology to enhance the user experience for your customers.

In other words, if and when IT issues appear, your support team will ensure that it doesn’t happen again. By trusting them with a predictable monthly payment, they’ll return the favor by keeping your systems fully functioning. Plus, these tasks are completed by professionals who will always provide high-quality support.

Routine Maintenance

One of the greatest benefits of proactive IT support is the amount of maintenance performed on your systems. It’s one thing to prevent problems before they happen, but it’s another to ensure your technology continually performs as well as possible. Maintenance costs are often included in your monthly fees, further reducing your overall expenses.

Compare this to reactive IT maintenance which commonly occurs at unpredictable and inconvenient times. Plus, when you experience sudden crashes that require emergency maintenance, the costs are frequently very expensive. However, regular maintenance continually monitors your IT systems to avoid these situations from occurring.

Decreased Downtime

When your business experiences an IT system failure, there’s typically a period of time when some of your services are completely unavailable. Unfortunately, any of this lost time could put a significant strain on your business finances. This is where proactive IT support can be extremely helpful. When professionals are consistently monitoring and maintaining your technology, there’s less of a risk of a complete system breakdown.

In other words, with proactive IT support, there’s a chance for extremely reduced or eliminated downtime. This is because your IT support team is regularly supervising your business system. This means they’ll be the first to know if a problem is arising, putting a stop to it before it worsens. This leaves little to no room for expensive and inconvenient downtime.

Increased Productivity

Although IT disruptions are common and normal, there’s no doubt that they interrupt business operations. This can be very inconvenient for business owners and team members alike. This can lead to decreased productivity and employee morale. However, having consistently available proactive IT service takes the pressure off of team members so they can focus on enhancing your business.

Think of proactive IT support as backstage crew members. Your business is the show, providing a wonderful experience for customers while your IT support team ensures everything runs smoothly. They do this by regularly updating and monitoring your technology without needing to interrupt your business operations.

Enhanced Protection Against Cybersecurity Threats

On top of the services previously mentioned, one of the primary benefits of proactive IT support is the enhancement of cybersecurity. Proactive IT support typically involves standard cybersecurity protections. Examples include regular updates and patching. Some others consist of web protection and antivirus management.

This can be costly with reactive IT support since security threats aren’t typically detected until the damage is already done. If you’re unaware of a required device update or network intrusion, the necessary repairs could cost your business thousands of dollars. That’s why having these safeguards in place prevents cybersecurity threats before they happen.

The Benefits of Outsourcing IT Support

Another way to continually reduce your IT support costs is to outsource your technology professionals. It may seem counterintuitive to hire people outside of your company, but there are many benefits to outsourcing IT support. These professionals are experts in their industry, meaning they’ll always provide high-quality services. This allows you to focus on your own business and internal team members rather than hiring IT professionals. Here are a few more specific benefits of outsourcing IT support.

Better Planning

Likely, you’re not an IT professional. This can make it difficult to address technology issues when they arise. On top of that, if you have to spend time hiring an internal IT professional, this can take away precious time needed for your business. This is where hiring an outsourced IT support team can be helpful. Simply put, if you have professionals devoted to your technology, you can solely focus on your business.

Outsourcing IT support can help you plan your budget effectively. They can also implement new technology in a quick manner. Trying to accomplish this with an internal IT team can take weeks between hiring, training, and execution of the new technology. However, outsourced professionals can perform all of these tasks quickly while saving you time and money.

Personalized Business Solutions

No two businesses are the same, especially when it comes to IT systems. That’s why an outsourced IT service provider can provide personalized solutions unique to your company. Whether you’re in need of enhanced security, better maintenance, or overall technical support, an outsourcing company may be the solution for you.

After all, the world of IT covers a vast variety of specializations: network security, operating system upgrades, and hardware and software implementations. An outsourced IT support team can manage and optimize your IT infrastructure to further enhance your business. Plus, the overall reduced costs of outsourcing make them a great solution for small businesses.

Streamlined Organization and Improved Efficiency

Simply put, hiring outsourced IT support professionals increases company efficiency and organization. When you know that your IT infrastructure is being monitored by reputable and experienced professionals, you can focus on your business. This also makes tasks less stressful for your team members since they won’t have to worry about IT problems.

On top of that, IT emergencies can take a lot of time to resolve. In a reactive situation, you’d be forced to wait for assistance which would put an immense strain on your business. However, outsourcing IT support will ensure that they’re already on top of the issue, reducing overall risk. In other words, outsourcing IT support organizes your company and sets it up for success.

Conclusion

The primary difference between proactive and reactive IT support has to do with the execution of professional services. Most business owners are going to want proactive IT services at these decrease costs, increase productivity, and prevent technology problems before they arise. Outsourcing professional IT support is even more beneficial and affordable, particularly for small businesses. The combination of the two leads to better organization and efficiency of your company.

If you’ve been looking for experienced, certified, and reliable outsourced IT support, our professionals at Teksetra are ready to help! We provide a variety of IT services including installation, repairs, and maintenance. Contact us to learn more about how our IT professionals can enhance your business!