Technology plays a major role in (almost) every business. But with technology, you get complex IT issues that interrupt your day-to-day business operations. Let’s face it, keeping up with your office’s IT needs can get demanding. You probably don’t have the time, and even if you do, you may not have all the skills to solve every one of your employees’ tech problems. Your focus should be spent on what really matters – your business. Managed IT services keep the systems that control your business running, so you have zero down days and less stress.

Before choosing any IT support services, determine what your needs are and then find the support that is right for you. This article explains what on-site tech support is, who it’s for and the benefits.

What is On-Site Tech Support?

On-site tech support is simply an IT professional, or team of technicians, who provide in-person support, maintenance, and management of your IT infrastructure. Whereas “remote support” is off site and “in-house” means hiring an IT employee, “on-site” team members are contracted out from a managed IT services company to assist you at your business. This is usually combined with additional services like a remote support helpdesk.

Here are general services that come with on-site tech support:

• Designated IT technician in your office
• Access to remote support call center and technical support concierge
• Backups and servers maintenance
• Lifecycle management for licenses and hardware

On-site support technicians provide the maintenance your infrastructure needs and eliminate your need to hire expensive, in-house IT staff.

Benefits of On-Site Tech Support

In-Person Communication. Working face-to-face with a tech team rather than through technology lowers frustration between the two parties and can drive projects forward. Onsite-support technicians understand the issue sooner, see and work on the computer in-person, and ultimately, resolve technical issues faster.

See Your Issues Being Worked On. Having a person in your office increases patience, transparency, and visibility into what your tech experts are doing on a daily basis.

Consistent Stream of Knowledge. You get the expertise of not just one person, but the entire company you’re working with. We designate a team of techs to your account to alternate days in your office for accountability, transparency and better problem-solving. On-site team members can ask their peers for help to answer your questions and are constantly exposed to other companies’ problems. One internal IT employee typically only has himself, his experiences, and Google.

Multiple Technicians Know Your Account. With on-site support, you always have someone there to take care of your needs. This approach covers vacations, sick days, and employee turnover whereas a full-time IT employee can’t always be there.

More Convenient to Ask for Help. With an on-site tech team available, businesses tend to bring up problems they normally would not because of the annoyance and frustration with explaining their issues. Resolving more problems results in healthier systems.

Minimize Your Office’s Down Days. In case of technical hiccups which happen quite often, having a designated IT expert on-site helps you resolve issues fast and ensures that your systems stay running.

Keep Your Tech Flowing Between Locations. Depending on your needs, one tech expert would suffice for managing two to three locations, or in larger companies up to two to five on-site technicians per location. It’s important to be consistent across all locations. Best practice is to contract a team from one managed IT service providers, to prevent holes or gaps in your services.

Make Your Technicians’ Schedule to Save Costs. Depending on your business and needs, you can customize the hours and days your tech team works – which can reduce your costs.

Consistent and Reliable Cost.Your IT support provider should charge you a fixed, monthly rate that covers any and all issues that may arise at your business. At Netsafe, you won’t be charged by the hour, and if something breaks, we’re there to fix it. You can expect your on-site tech to be proactive and preventative to keep your systems healthy and running.

Who Can Benefit from Contracting On-Site IT Support?

When looking for an IT support provider, you must take into consideration what’s important to you. Outsourcing an IT company will give you trained technicians who are highly skilled in the latest and greatest technologies at a fraction of the cost of a full-time employee, and without the overhead.

On-site tech support is typically for companies that:

• Constantly deal with issues related to IT and have enough work for an on-site technician to stay busy (if you don’t have enough work but still need help, remote support might be right for you.)
• Want a team of experts or an expert who is highly skilled at improving the systems that you have already in place
• Need talent quickly
• Need to meet a specific budget and don’t want to hire an in-house employee (pay wages, purchase computer equipment, training expenses, etc.). Hiring in-house can be extremely costly.
• Have been burned by their own internal IT department before due to lack of accountability

When considering remote support versus on-site support, make sure to assess what your business must do to initiate and implement an on-site IT team. Contact us to learn about our managed IT services and the remote support solutions we offer to all businesses.