However, prevention is always better than a cure. Choosing proactive IT support makes better business sense. Paying for an IT company to come out and fix an issue 

can be very costly, especially if you need them to come out fast, and they charge call-out fees. On top of this, you have the cost to your business from lost productivity whilst employees can’t work or systems aren’t running, and the cost of possible reputational damage if an IT issue causes problems for your clients or customers.

What is proactive IT support?

Proactive IT support is when your IT support company continuously monitors your IT systems, software, and networks 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. When you pay for proactive IT support, your managed service provider will keep a close eye on your IT infrastructure, ensuring any potential problems, dangers, or malfunctions are detected and addressed promptly, before they become a big issue.

As well as being able to detect possible problems early on, your IT support company can fix these problems remotely, so usually, there is no need for a technician to have to come out to your site, saving you time and money.

The benefits of proactive IT support

There are several benefits for businesses who choose to enlist the services of a proactive IT support company, such as:

Boosting system efficiency: with proactive IT support, you’ll benefit from round-the-clock monitoring of all your systems to ensure they are all running efficiently and optimally. Your managed service provider will also ensure that updates of the latest software and security patches are installed and working properly ensuring your systems remain malware-free and run fast.

Prevents downtime: If a problem occurs such as a server failure or malware infection, likely the first thing you are going to do is call for IT support to get it fixed ASAP. But what can your employees do in the meantime? Often, they’ll have nothing to do other than sit by and wait for their systems to be back up and running. This can take hours, or in the worst cases, days resulting in a lot of employee downtime and lost productivity, which can be very costly to a business. With proactive IT support, the constant monitoring of systems minimises downtime as problems are fixed before they become a bigger issue.

Minimises reputational damage and lost opportunities: if your IT systems are critical to serving your clients or customers, then not only will your staff sit idly by, but so will your customers. If your customers are unable to access your website, contact your business, or log in to their accounts for some time, then your business will be losing out on possible opportunities to make money and can lead customers to become disappointed with your service. This can result in lost sales, losing the opportunity to acquire new customers, and reputational damage to your company, which can mean you lose existing custom.

A fixed monthly fee: Many businesses are under the misconception that reactive IT support services cost less than proactive IT support services with a continuous monthly cost. Whilst you won’t have to pay a service provider if there is nothing to fix that month, the cost of a single system breakdown, server failure, or malware infection is unpredictable and can be very costly. This is also a fee that is not budgeted for, so you could be struggling to come up with the money when an issue occurs. With proactive IT support, there are no surprise bills, just a fixed fee every month that can be budgeted for. This monthly fixed fee also covers not only the cost of the monitoring service but the cost of fixing something if it does break down too.

Relieves the burden on your IT department: Even big businesses with their own IT department can benefit from using the services of a managed service provider. With the help of outsourced IT support, internal IT staff will be able to focus on projects which will bring more value to the company instead of constantly trying to put out fires here and there, and keep systems updated. On top of this, very few businesses have the monitoring tools that IT support companies have that allows them to constantly check for possible problems or threats around the clock.

Is it time for you to re-evaluate your IT support needs?

Now that you know the difference between reactive and proactive IT support, it could be time for you to re-evaluate your IT support needs. In the same way that you take your car for regular MOTs and services, or take medication to deal with a health condition, your IT systems and equipment needs constant monitoring and continuous assessment so that they can run seamlessly and efficiently, and prevent possible problems.

Halcyon Networks proactive IT support services

Halcyon Networks provides affordable proactive IT support at a fixed monthly price. Our full IT support package is £25 a month per computer and is a fixed rate no matter what. For this price, you benefit from fully-inclusive IT support, with 24/7 support and monitoring of your IT infrastructure. We become your personal IT department, providing remote support and monthly updates of any work we have done for you, and if we ever do need to come out to your site, we don’t charge a call-out fee. We won’t add on any additional costs no matter how much work we put in to keep your systems in top working order.

To find out more about our proactive IT support service, visit our website, or contact our team on 0151 678 4545 or info@halcyonnetworks.co.uk.