On-Site Vs. Remote Support: Which Is Right For Your Business?

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Working with a computer consulting firm for your IT needs can reduce your monthly expenses while ensuring that you receive expert support for your company's technology. Getting the most from this partnership means choosing the right consultants for your organization. When evaluating candidates, you'll need to answer an important question: how much on-site do you need?

Modern technology has made remote IT support more effective than ever, and many software problems can be resolved without a technician ever showing up on-site. This arrangement can be advantageous if your company is currently operating with a skeletal on-site team due to social distancing restrictions. These three questions will help you to decide the role that remote services should play in your company.

1. What Are Your Hardware Needs?

With cloud services growing endlessly in popularity, many large organizations have moved much of their technological infrastructure off-site. If you still maintain a significant amount of on-site hardware, you'll like need some on-site personnel for maintenance and repair. If you have in-house IT staff, you can minimize your costs on this front by only using consultants for larger projects or serious problems.

On the other hand, remote support is ideal if your company primarily relies on cloud services. Remote consultants can help your employees troubleshoot issues and even provide training where necessary. Since your company is not responsible for maintaining the physical hardware that your services run on, your IT costs can go directly into supporting your staff in productive business work.

2. How Much Help Desk Support Do You Require?

Remote IT services shine if your company has a strong need for help desk support. Whether your employees need help with computer tasks or more complex problems, remote support can usually provide the same service level as on-site IT. Since most modern infrastructure supports remote management, even local networking issues are usually solvable by off-site technicians.

When evaluating your help desk needs, be sure also to consider your staff's computer competency and comfort levels. Not everyone will be comfortable receiving all of their tech support by phone or videoconference.

3. Do You Have Access to Appropriate Technology?

Not every organization has the same technology needs or access to the same resources. Outsourcing the majority of your tech support to a remote company typically requires, at a minimum, a stable business-grade internet connection available to all employees. Without this essential infrastructure, your remote support staff will be unable to assist your employees reliably.

Of course, many consulting firms can help get your company set up with the technology and tools you need to make their services work. If you can afford to perform these upgrades for your organization, then you'll have the opportunity to improve your technology infrastructure while also providing your employees with the IT support they need.

For more information, contact a local computer system consultant.


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