Why is making the right choice in a Managed IT Services provider so important? Every day, Toronto businesses experience IT issues that harm their operations, ranging from email failure to cyber-attacks that lock every PC. The success of your business depends on having access to reliable and always available IT services and support. But finding the right, IT support provider in Toronto for your business can be a challenge. In this blog, I’ll give some tips on how to source IT services and support to suit your business and your budget.
The IT Support Provider Challenge for Small and Medium Organizations
Getting high-quality IT services and support can be challenging, especially for small and medium businesses that don’t have big IT budgets but need IT quick help when it fails.
Sure, you can hire your own IT staff and run your own IT services and support, but that might not be the best solution; here’s why:
- Recruiting and retaining good IT staff isn’t easy.
- How will you provide IT services and support cover for sickness, holidays, and off-hours?
- Keeping IT skills up to date is challenging, especially in critical areas like cyber security.
- IT services and support operating costs can be unpredictable.
- Unless your business provides IT services, having staff who are only there to be an IT support provider can be a costly distraction.
- Trying to deal with IT issues like sourcing broken computer hardware components at the same time as running the business can cause significant problems.
Challenges like these are why increasing numbers of successful companies in Toronto are finding out for themselves the benefits of partnering with an IT support provider for fully managed IT services.
A traditional IT support provider is only there to help fix your IT when things go wrong. If they can’t resolve the issue over the phone, they might send someone out to you. Meanwhile, you will have downtime that costs your business time and money.
Why Are Managed IT Services Different?
Managed IT services and support providers are also there to fix your IT issues, but there are some key differences:
- A managed IT support provider looks after your IT for you, 24 x 7 x 365.
- They ensure that IT systems are always available, proactively maintain software and hardware in a computer, and use proactive monitoring to fix issues before they affect your business.
- Continuous protection from cyber security threats.
- IT services and support costs are predictable.
- Systems are maintained to operate at maximum performance.
- And more.
Selecting a Managed IT Services Provider
Deciding which IT support provider in Toronto to trust with your IT services and support for you is a key decision. Making a wrong choice can be costly, both in dollars and lost productivity. Here are some tips:
- Rather than just finding someone to call when things go wrong, you should select an IT support provider with a wide range of services covering all aspects of IT management:
- Helpdesk, with hours to suit your business
- Hardware & software support
- Email management
- Desktop support
- Cyber security services, including anti-malware and anti-virus management
- Software license management
- IT procurement
- Pro-active monitoring
- Disaster recovery
- And more
- Be wary of any provider of IT services and support that has a fixed offering – you will either end up paying for services you don’t need or face unexpected additional costs for ‘extras’ that emerge. Some IT support providers know this and bid low to get the contract, knowing they can charge highly for extras once the client is tied in.
- A good IT services and support provider will work with you to understand your business needs and then tailor a package to suit your requirements and budget.
- Look for evidence of satisfied customers who have stayed with the same IT support provider as their business has grown and changed.
- Don’t get tied into an inflexible deal. Choose an IT support provider that can scale and modify the services as your business grows or your complexity increases.
- IT continually develops and changes, so your IT services and support provider should have a track record of keeping up with industry standards and maintaining technical expertise so you don’t have to.
Benefits of Working With an IT services and Support Provider Like CG Technologies
Small and medium businesses in Toronto that use an IT support provider have seen these benefits:
- No unexpected IT downtime leading to increased business productivity.
- More time to focus on growing the business.
- Better return on IT investment through reduced IT costs.
- Increased protection against cyber security threats.
- Dramatically improved employee satisfaction with reliable IT support technicians.
- Predictable IT costs with a fixed monthly managed IT services cost.
CG Technologies has over 25 years of experience delivering exceptional services to 100’s of companies in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA). Partnering with them can deliver the same benefits to your organization – keeping you secure, delivering reliable and trusted IT solutions and expertise. Their industry-leading IT solutions will allow you to focus on what matters most – your business. Contact us to discuss your IT service and support needs.
