Find the Right IT Support

For those of us who consider our knowledge of information technology passable at best, there is nothing worse than seemingly insolvable technical hitches to really ruin a day at work.

In the event of a car breakdown, most of us would call a recovery service, and this peace of mind is invaluable - in the same way, small businesses could benefit significantly from having a reliable support service on hand to handle any IT malfunctions.

A recent survey from HP found that more than half of small to medium sized businesses in Europe felt that their IT providers were inflexible in terms of offering solutions and support to match their needs.

So what should small businesses be looking for when organising IT support to suit their requirements, in order to ensure the service they sign up for will be of benefit and value for money?

Benefits to business

Apart from the feeling of security that having professional assistance waiting in the wings will offer, there are a number of other benefits to IT support.

• Reduce the cost of any disruption as the cause can be identified and dealt with quickly and expertly.
• Maintain customer satisfaction as fast responses from a support team can get business processes up and running quickly.
• Improve staff productivity as any time spent waiting for systems to be reactivated is reduced.
• Minimise the risk of lost data as a result of an unexpected technical problem.
• Reduce overhead as the need to hire in-house technical staff is eliminated.

What to look for

Any small business looking to organise an IT support service should consider a couple of things before signing on the dotted line. Think about whether you need the supplier to install the software and hardware for you.

Also check the nature of call-outs, whether it is a phone, email or online service, and whether staff will need training. It's also good to seek information on guaranteed response times and the cost of site visits.

For small business a remote IT support service is ideal as any problem solving or trouble shooting can be conducted by professionals working off-site. This means that most issues can be dealt with quickly, as there is no waiting for a technician to be sent to your site. In addition, this saves businesses money as paying on a monthly basis rather than for individual call outs tends to be more economical.