It wasn't too long ago that we had to lug a computer into the shop to get it fixed if something were to go wrong with it. Frankly, with the pace that business is conducted at today, this approach simply isn’t effective for businesses any longer. Now, with the support of a managed service provider, support is available much more efficiently and affordably than ever.

Consider something for a moment: aside from their size and the resources at their disposal, what makes a small to medium-sized business so different from a large, enterprise-sized one? If you really consider it, there isn’t all that much. This is why many SMBs have turned to managed services… to receive IT support comparable to what the large businesses get.

Some parts of running your business’ infrastructure involve a lot of time… time that you simply don’t have in the day. Applying patches, monitoring network traffic, and updating software solutions are all the usual culprits. In light of this, we recommend that businesses implement a solution that allows for management to occur remotely, as it can provide a great benefit for businesses with both limited workforces and budgets.

In business today outsourcing your IT management or project management is routine. It wasn’t always so. For the first couple of decades of IT for business, that was the only way you were going to get a piece of technology up and working again without massive capital investment. Today, we will take a look at the break/fix method to IT management and how it is far more expensive than you may think.

No business can be successful if it’s constantly suffering from data breaches. Therefore, you should take measures to mitigate the issues caused by these threats before they present themselves. Here are four of the biggest issues your business could face in the field of network security.

Chances are that you’ve dealt with the following scenario: You are working along fine and you try to open an application only to be rebuked by an error message on the screen that tells you that there is some type of critical error. You close that out hoping that it was a one-time exception, but nope, it pops up again. You think to yourself, “Why does this always happen?”

Tech-support scammers traditionally are people who dial random numbers and try to convince the people on the other end of the phone that their computer has problems and they can fix them if the user allows them to remote into the device. They use tactics that are as generic and vague as possible, to avoid having to mention any specifics; and, since some people (especially those who have computers that are a few years old) find that their system’s performance is sluggish, they will give these people access. This typically ends in disaster.

Vendors… how many do you have to deal with? Chances are, quite a few. Now consider how much time is spent managing each of them. Wouldn’t it be nice if there was some way to reduce this time to effectively nothing? Well, we have some good news for you.

Businesses of all sizes use varying degrees of technology to improve organizational productivity, efficiency, and security. The more a business depends on its data, the more crucial it is for them to manage and maintain the systems in which this data is dependent. For organizations that have a lack of financial resources to support these systems, it is often left to unqualified employees, putting your business at risk. What do you do when you need expertise that you lack and can’t afford to hire in-house staff?

IT is meant to help your business function more smoothly, not hinder operations. This is the cornerstone of the way that most organizations need to think about technology maintenance. Unfortunately, there are some organizations that either don’t have dedicated IT support, or waste valuable time and resources working with break-fix providers who don’t have their business’s best interests in mind. To keep your organization from falling victim to these practices, you should consider managed IT for your technology maintenance.

Your business relies on mission-critical hardware that keeps its infrastructure running, including servers, workstations, and networking components. However, these pieces of technology require maintenance in order to function properly, and replacement every so often to keep the risk of downtime and hardware failure to a minimum. Thankfully, modern managed IT services have yielded a solution to this issue that can make managing your hardware infrastructure as easy as possible: Hardware as a Service.

While many may consider an audit of any kind to be a pain in the neck or worse, they can actually be an effective way to ensure that businesses are following best practices and remaining compliant. After all, nobody wants to be the company that failed an audit. Despite this, many companies aren’t up to standard where their IT is concerned, and it has an impact.

Two major concerns of every business owner are the protection of their company and making sure their technology does what it’s supposed to do. It can be overwhelming to manage these two aspects on your own, which makes outsourcing the security and maintenance of your IT such an attractive option.

Let’s say you get a bill in the mail for technology support, but you don’t necessarily know why you got it. Pretty troubling, right? Clearly someone in your organization isn’t privy about the proper method of getting help for their technology, but if you regularly work with a break-fix IT provider, this kind of correspondence (and cost) is unavoidable. Thankfully, there’s a simple solution to make sure that something like this doesn’t happen again.

When was the last time you had to reach out to IT support, only to have to wait for the tech to drive to your office and resolve the problem far too late? This is a common occurrence amongst business owners, and if your technology is mission-critical, you can’t afford to deal with more downtime than necessary. How can your business more effectively take advantage of technology support? A remote monitoring and maintenance solution may be just what you need.

When your organization is suffering with failing computer hardware, you will almost certainly experience increased downtime that will result in operational inefficiency and an overall lack of productivity. In order to keep your business technology properly working for you, you will need access to knowledgeable technicians and their years of IT expertise.

There was once a time when businesses would only seek out technological expertise when it was necessary. This would be when a major component was on its last leg, or if they required new technology following a major hardware failure. Today, a better type of IT service model allows businesses to avoid the downtime and unexpected support costs associated with broken technology, by practicing proactive maintenance.

It’s already a couple of months into 2016, are you still relying on a break-fix company to fix your technology problems? Using technology comes with its own set of problems. For example, dealing with an influx of new devices in your office, determining whether or not your technology can take another year of use, and budgeting around new technology expenses, can be suffocating. If you haven’t done so yet, now is a great time to cast aside the break-fix IT policy and take your technology maintenance and management seriously.

Are you experiencing performance issues with your computer network? Does it seem like it’s not running as effectively as it used to? Given the nature of technology, eventually, you’ll have to replace all of your computer hardware. But before you do, give your network a boost by trying these four IT maintenance best practices.

How involved in your operations is your IT department? Does your SMB even have an IT department? Many organizations tend to consider IT an afterthought because they don’t believe themselves to be targets for hackers, or don’t anticipate costly technology issues. However, these business owners underestimate the power of complete transparency between an organization and IT.