You’ve heard about it, you know plenty of other companies who talk about it, but what are business IT solutions and how do you choose the right one? Business IT solutions refer to a set of services offered by a managed IT provider that is designed to help other businesses manage technology or computer-related processes.

Many business owners or managers need to protect themselves against cyber attacks, avoid security risks, improve business and operational processes, help products work together seamlessly, and offload technology-related questions. Business IT solutions make these problems disappear through a variety of solutions.

What are the types of Business IT Solutions?

When considering business IT solutions, it’s important to choose the solution and provider that best suits your business and your unique goals. It may be easy to focus on your immediate problem, but ensure that you focus on the cost, the actual IT support you need and the timeframe you will need as well as the results you’re looking to achieve and the long term partnership.

1. In-House Support

In-house support is either an IT technician or an IT staff that you hire to work at your company. It can benefit your company if you want a technician on-site 24/7, you have the funds to hire and support your own employee, you have the time to manage them, and you have enough tasks for them to work on. Keep in mind of their experience level, if the IT technicians don’t have as much experience then they aren’t exposed to a variety of issues they would have working on other company’s IT as well. In this case, would a well-rounded pro be more appropriate and efficient?

2. Outsourced support

Speaking of a well-rounded pro, outsourced support refers to the expert technicians that work with a managed IT provider that you hire. Rather than hiring an in-house employee to implement key technology strategies, which can be expensive (and might not be right for your business), outsourced or remote business IT solutions can be a better route due to lower costs, access to experienced technicians and many other factors. The managed IT provider will provide a variety of business IT solutions including:

• Onsite IT support services – Onsite IT is a type of business IT solution that gives you a designated IT technician in your office. Depending on your provider, you may have access to other add-ons such as remote help-desk, back-up or server maintenance, and license and hardware management. This option is typically for companies where their workload might change frequently. For example, with a critical initiative you may need someone 5 days a week. However, when the project does not require as much work, you can change your support services to 4 hours a week, which is a huge perk. It means you can avoid the having to hire and fire technicians only when you need them.
• Remote IT support – Remote means exactly what it says. It’s support that’s not at your office, but is available to you via phone, email or a helpdesk program like Freshdesk or Zendesk. Typically, providers will offer two kinds of support, small business and enterprise. Both types have different needs. Overall, with remote IT support, you will get your computers, telephone, mobile and internet issues addressed and solved. This means you can offload all of the technology-related questions your employees ask, so you can focus on running your business.

3. Additional Business IT Solution Offerings

1. Data protection services
2. Virus Protection and other software packages
3. Some Cloud Services
1. Azure
2. Office 365
3. Hosted Voice Over IP (VOIP)
4. Managed Offsite Backups
4. Hardware
1. Dell HP Servers
2. Dell Computers
3. Firewalls
4. Future – Printers
5. Wireless access points

In Summary

There are plenty of things to consider and ask yourself to determine the best solution for your business. Strategically crafting an all-encompassing IT support solution may mean a combination of in-house and outsourced professionals or solely outsourced or in-house.

As an IT support company, we’ve worked with several businesses and have heard it all which is why we know that the best results come from an internal and honest look at what IT support looks like in your company.

At NetSafe, our technicians are wholly equipped to handle several business needs, including:

• Full Outsourced IT Support
• Remote or Help Desk Support
• Combination of the two