Fixed cost IT support services can take a ton of work off your plate. When you hire an IT staffing firm, you’ll get fast, reliable technical support daily—and you won’t have to carefully calculate your IT budget every month.
However, while there are many benefits to fixed cost IT support services, you might wondering whether these services are right for your business. To make that decision, ask these five questions:
- Are you looking for ways to reduce operational expenses?
- Does your company experience frequent downtime?
- Is your current IT payment process complicated or time-consuming?
- Are you satisfied with your current IT support process?
- Which fixed cost service is right or your business?
By answering these five questions, you’ll know for certain whether a fixed cost system is the right choice for your needs.
Can Fixed Cost IT Support Reduce Operational Expenses?
One of the most common reasons why business owners make the switch to fixed cost IT support is because it can lead to a reduction in total operational costs. The amount of savings you’ll see from these services depends on your business structure, strategy and the complexity of your IT needs.
To calculate your expected cost savings, consider whether your current IT support system is all-inclusive. In other words, your IT team should be able to handle all of your basic needs, ad-hoc maintenance, and servicing if something goes wrong.
If you don’t use a fixed cost IT support system, you may pay more for these additional services. If you want to start analyzing a new set of customer data or generating financial reports more frequently, the IT support team may ask for more funding to meet these goals. This leads to higher operational costs whenever a piece of equipment fails or you want to pivot to a new business strategy.
Your business should be flexible—not your IT budget. By paying a flat rate every month that includes a full range of managed services, you’ll ensure that your business is supported without dealing with any unexpected fees.
Does Your Company Experience Frequent Downtime?
Another question you should ask yourself is whether you’ve experienced any significant downtime in the past few years. What caused these incidents?
The most common causes of system downtime are:
- Hardware or software failure;
- Operational errors; and
- Equipment damage caused by natural disasters.
A fixed cost IT support system can help you prevent at least two of these causes: Hardware or software failure and operational errors. That’s because reliable fixed cost systems include maintenance and operational services. With frequent maintenance, hardware (e.g., any given server) is much less likely to fail, leading to less downtime. IT firms use the most advanced software and keep it updated, causing fewer software-related problems. Finally, IT staff are highly skilled, meaning that they make fewer operational errors that cause downtime.
Fixed cost IT support can even help you mitigate the effects of natural disasters on your daily operations. Your IT team is on call 24 hours per day to help you find solutions if you experience sudden, unexpected downtime.
By staying up-to-date with your maintenance schedule and having a team of experts available to troubleshoot problems as they happen, you’ll see a significant decrease in downtime. This, in turn, improves your bottom line.
Is Your Payment Process Complicated and Time-Consuming?
How much time per month does your accounting or HR department spend calculating IT expenses and processing invoices from IT firms? If you use à la carte services, this may complicate your billing process and waste valuable time and resources. You’ll have to pay for services individually as they are rendered, rather than processing just one predictable payment once every month.
With à la carte services, you have to balance the company checkbook, ensure that the IT firm has received your payments successfully, and verify that you’re sending money to the right account or accounts. In the process, payments could get lost or checks might not be deposited in a timely manner, making it difficult to balance the budget.
Fixed cost IT support services free up your HR or accounting department’s time and resources. They won’t have to track IT expenses or payments as carefully. Moreover, you already know how much the bill will be every month, so your accountants can earmark this amount. As an added benefit, the best fixed cost IT support providers accept direct, automatic payments, making the billing process a no-brainer.
Are You Looking for More Efficient IT Support?
Fixed cost IT support may also improve the quality of service you receive. How? Fixed costs incentivize IT experts to do their jobs more effectively and encourage you to take advantage of more IT services.
When you pay an IT firm the same amount of money each month regardless of how much work they do for you, IT staff have to find the most efficient methods to meet or exceed your expectations. Having a streamlined workflow and performing frequent maintenance saves them time.
This benefits your business because your system will run more smoothly. If you have any technical problems, then the IT firm will have to work harder to fix these issues, which decreases their total profits. With fixed costs, IT firms have an active interest in making sure that your system is working properly at all times.
Fixed cost IT support also makes it easier for you to implement new technologies and use services like advanced data analytics. You might not request these services from an à la carte provider because the IT firm charges more for them. If these services are already included in a fixed cost IT support firm, then you can make use of them as often as you’d like. You won’t have to feel guilty about spending more on these top quality services.
How do You Find a Reliable Fixed Cost IT Support Firm?
One final question you should ask if you’re considering fixed cost IT support is whether the provider you have in mind offers all of the services that your business needs. The best IT firms will include:
- Data storage, integration, visualization and blending;
- Accurate, detailed data analytics;
- Customized visualizations, reports, dashboards and portals;
- IT consulting and offshore staffing; and
- 24/7 maintenance and troubleshooting.
These services are essential for a wide range of industries. Many IT firms even go above and beyond by offering customized contracts tailored specifically to your business strategy and long-term goals. When you identify an IT firm that can offer you all of the services above or more, you’ll see all of the immense benefits of fixed cost IT support.
If you’re ready to make the transition to fixed cost IT support, contact Tek Leaders today. Our highly-skilled team of IT experts offer our clients a full range of IT consulting services, including advanced analytics and 24/7 tech support. Or, if you have more questions about the IT services we offer, you can reach us by email directly.
Shashank Reddy Tummala.
