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Understanding Managed Services (Learn More)

The buzzword relating to IT Support is “Managed Services”, and every day more and more businesses are jumping on the bandwagon. But what does managed services actually mean and how can you tell if an IT Support company is not just using the word as a marketing tool, but is in fact only offering “flat rate” services packaged as “managed services”?

As a definition, Managed Services allows a business to offload IT operations to a service provider, known as a Managed Services Provider. The managed service provider assumes an ongoing responsibility for 24-hour monitoring, managing and/or problem resolution for the IT systems within a business.

Managed Services vs. The Break-Fix Mentality (Learn More)

Managed services are a philosophical change in the way that a business deals with its technology. Instead of following the old-school tradition of break-fix (literally meaning wait until the server, desktops or other critical networking devices fail, then scramble to fix them), a business operating with a managed service focuses on the prevention of these issues before they disrupt employees, management and/or clients.

Managed services providers can offer services such as alerts, security, patch management, data backup and recovery, for different client devices: desktops, laptops, servers, storage systems, networks and applications. Offloading routine computer and network management to an experienced managed services professional lets the business concentrate on running the business, with fewer interruptions due to IT issues.

Why Break-fix is no longer good enough for your business

A Break-fix maintenance service fixes problems as they crop up. This means that something needs to go wrong before you receive any service, resulting in an inevitable reduction in IT system performance while you wait for the problem to be fixed.

Today, no business can really afford the risk and uncertainty of relying on a “Break-fix maintenance service” because your business is too dependent on having a reliable IT system. Furthermore, having separate suppliers responsible for different parts of the system puts you in the difficult position of trying to decide who should be delivering the service you require. You simply do not have time for this.

Don’t Managed Services Cost More? (Learn More)

Actually No! Businesses are able to control and reduce their overall operating costs with the flat-fee billing model. Cost-effective access to enterprise-level support is a reality. Read more about the true costs of IT support.

Why are so many IT Firms now promoting Managed Services?

Because it puts the IT Support Company on the same page as the business they are serving. With traditional “break-fix services”, the only way for an IT Support company to make money is if something goes wrong — which to us was a double-edged sword. If we do our job too well, we’re out of business, which happens to about 80% of all small IT Firms–they just don’t make it.

The Biggest Benefit of Managed Services: 24 Hour Monitoring. (Learn More)

Issues with internet slowness/outages, printers, phones, cell phones, and websites are handled by working directly with vendors. Because of our “always-eyes-on” network monitoring 24 hours per day, your business can experience an additional level of comfort and security. We can even discover and fix problems before they negatively affect your business.

Our Goals for Managed Services

1. Everything on your network that will result in a user symptom or risk will send an alert before or when it happens, and your local Managed Service Provider, Imagine IT, will know about it.
2. Every alert we get is something important and needs to be addressed.

The more closely we can get to these two goals, the more perfectly we can achieve a truly managed service and the more we can get away from “everything being an emergency” situation.