Preparation is key, and never more so when it comes to your business’s IT services. From ensuring that your IT solutions are prepared to grow alongside your business, to making certain that you, your employees, and your clients are protected from the many cyber threats and dangers facing your network, securing IT support that harnesses the right level of foresight and responsibility will make a world of difference to your day-to-day operations.
Businesses of all sizes are realising the benefits of taking a more proactive approach to their managed IT services. We live in an increasingly digital age and, now more than ever, business owners are finding reactive IT support to be an insufficient and potentially risky course of action.
If you’re thinking of implementing a proactive approach to your IT services, then read more about the differences between reactive and proactive approaches to IT support below.
What is Reactive IT Support?
In the past, you may have heard others refer to reactive IT support as the ‘break fix’ approach. In other words, a business following a reactive approach will aim to repair issues as and when they happen; rather than, say, working to prevent a security breach, they will ‘react’ to the issue when it arises, and call-in help to fix the problem.
In general, businesses who opt for a reactive approach to their IT services are hoping to lower costs by contracting help from IT companies only when there is a pressing issue in need of repair. The trouble is, issues with your IT tend to result in downtime, which brings its own financial outlay — not to mention stress, damages to your business’s reputation, and, potentially, significant data breaches which can incur further fines. When it comes to IT support, it is always better to be safe than sorry; proactivity brings with it more advantages — and fewer risks — than a passive, reactive approach.
The tools used by cybercriminals are growing more intelligent every day, and they are always looking for weaknesses in business’s networks. For this reason, your IT support must be ready to change and evolve in order to remain protected, and up and running.
What is Proactive IT Support?
Whereas a reactive approach is based on eliminating issues and minimising damage after they have happened, a proactive approach is designed to eliminate and minimise potential problems before the business is affected by any damage or downtime.
Rather than waiting for issues to arise, your IT consultant will review your managed IT services and in order to pre-empt any potential threats or weaknesses within your business’s infrastructure.
Proactively addressing dangers to your network security, and finding areas where your IT systems fall short, will not only keep your business running more smoothly — it will also mean that your IT is ready to foster growth and developments within your business as a whole. Your managed service provider will be able to monitor your systems remotely, or through site-visits, and will also implement extra fail-safe measures to ensure that, in a worst case scenario, you do not lose hours in downtime while repairs take place.
A proactive approach also means that your business won’t run into unforeseen expenses. It is impossible to predict when you will run into an issue with your IT services, and if you are contracting IT support on a reactive basis, you could find yourself needing costly and time-consuming fixes. UK businesses are hit by a cyber attack every 50 seconds, and due to the rapidly evolving nature of cyber crime, a proactive approach is a far safer option for any business hoping to minimise their risks online.
If you choose to outsource your IT services, then look at IT support companies who offer flexibility with their contracts. A proactive support does not need to take up all of your time, or cost thousands in overhead, to give your company the level of IT support and guidance it needs.
Get in Touch
At Omicron, we take a proactive approach to every element of IT support. This means implementing a collaborative relationship with our clients, so that we are always in the right position to provide help, assistance and guidance with all of your managed IT services.
If you’re wondering whether your IT support and data management could do with a boost, then we can provide you with a free, no obligation evaluation of your managed IT services. We take a flexible and personalised approach to our clients, and will provide your business with a proactive and effective strategy. Simply get in touch to find out how we can work with your business to keep you up-and-running at all times.
