In this day and age, the success of any business venture largely depends on a number of factors, including a product’s quality control, process management, and a deep understanding of your market, among many other things. One factor that people seem to discount is how information technology can have a lasting impact on the success of their business venture.
Having good IT infrastructure and support will basically dictate how efficient you and your employees will be at doing their jobs. With the increasing reliance on software by almost every industry today, partnering with an IT services company is what every new startup should look for before starting their business.
Whether it’s as simple as a faulty keyboard or something as severe as your servers crashing, good IT support will make sure that your systems are back up and running as soon as possible. Now, the question is: what kind of IT support would best fit your business?
Remote IT Support
With the current worldwide situation, the need for remote IT support has aggressively increased in value and will continue to do so in time. A remote IT support technician can do an excellent job of resolving any issue over the phone or by accessing your computer remotely.
Pros and Cons
For many common tech support issues, having a technician physically present to fix the problem isn’t always necessary. Through remote support, tech issues can be easily fixed with quicker response times. It’s also possible to have round-the-clock access to technicians whenever or wherever you are.
According to some studies, as much as 90 percent of IT-related issues can be quickly resolved remotely. Given that figure, it means that your employees spend little to no downtime while waiting for tech support to fix the problem. Technicians, on the other hand, can spend less time traveling and can focus on performing actual remote troubleshooting.
However, remote IT support teams do have their limitations. While the most common software-related issues can be addressed remotely, hardware problems are an entirely different issue. If your hardware becomes the problem, a remote solution may not always be available.
As a workaround, some companies will implement extreme measures to ensure their IT infrastructure doesn’t have any hardware-related problems. It’s a good practice to have—but it’s definitely a costly one. Eventually, you’ll need the help of an on-site technician to make sure your hardware is in optimum working condition.
On-site IT Support
If you’re looking for in-person management of tech issues, then you’re better off with having on-site IT support services for your company. On-site IT support can be further classified into two categories, namely remote on-site support and dedicated on-site support.
Remote on-site support involves a technician traveling to your location to deal with any hardware or software-related issues. Dedicated on-site support, on the other hand, involves an IT solution provider placing a technician at a company location for a set period of time. They will dedicate their time personally handling all tech issues that you may require throughout the day.
Pros and Cons
Having on-site support is perhaps the better option if you need to deal with more complex tech issues that require a technician to be present. They can also perform regular maintenance on your computers and your server—ensuring that everything works well for the long term.
Issues like a network crash or a hard-drive failure are almost impossible to diagnose through remote access only. If network connectivity is affected, or if there’s physical damage to a system, then only an on-site technician can perform troubleshooting on it. On-site technicians can also provide insight in justifying company expenses on hardware and network security.
An on-site technician can basically do anything a remote IT support provider can do—and more. This is an advantage for any business, but it will also cost more! If your business is just starting to take off, the cost of hiring an on-site technician is something that you need to consider.
Conclusion
Having good IT support is definitely a must for any startup or growing business. When resolving software-related issues and common troubleshooting, having remote IT support would suffice. But if you want a more comprehensive solution to all of your tech issues, then on-site IT support would be your best option.
If you’re ever in need of IT support and custom networking solutions, turn to On-Site PC Services! We are the leading provider of managed IT support and computer security services in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex area. Contact us today to get a free assessment!