A Little IT Maintenance Saves A Lot Of IT Support

If you are a small business, you need your IT to work. As a small business owner myself, I believe we're in fact more reliant on technology than big business. Let’s face it, we really need to sweat our assets to help us to compete with big companies, and technology enables us to do this. We can deliver better customer service than the big boys, and react every bit as quickly as they can ... just as long as our IT keeps running.

Since the onset of the internet age, the speed of everyone’s business process has accelerated beyond anybody’s expectations due to email and E-commerce, so it hurts when your IT fails. What’s more I’m convinced that technology has its own sixth sense that tells it exactly the right time to throw a hissy fit to cause us the most inconvenience. It can be when I have to get a quote out, get some marketing material together for a deadline, or just when I want to clear everything up before I go home. That’s when the technology gremlin strikes! Fortunately I have my own support department at hand that I can call on when I need them. If you’re a small law firm, accountancy practice or marketing company, you may not have such a luxury!

When we get a call from a new customer, it is almost inevitably because ”the wheels have fallen off” their IT. We have even experienced one business owner who was scared of re-booting his Windows server in case it didn’t come back on again! I can understand business owners not wanting to take their time managing IT, but surely living in fear of a power spike is no way to run a business?

The idiom that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure is especially true when it comes to IT. If you only ever spend money on your IT when it fails I can only guarantee you that your IT will keep failing, and we all know the problems when that happens. Invoices don’t get issued, customer service can grind to a halt, and your sales person suddenly becomes an impromptu IT engineer. He may well know a bit about computers, but shouldn’t he be looking after your clients or chasing down new business? Your IT will work better and more reliably if you spend money on preventative maintenance. That way you will experience fewer failures, your blood pressure will be lower, and your salesman can get back on the telephone.

Am I biased? Well, I run an IT support company, of course I am! … But it’s hardly rocket science is it?

6 Valuable Tips to keep your IT Running Smoothly

IT is increasingly becoming a consumable service, and we aim to provide the most efficient service available. The way in which we do this is to use Best IT Practices to keep our clients' systems running as reliably as possible and to ensure that we are able to recover your systems as swiftly as possible when they fail. 

Like a lot of good practices, the procedures themselves aren't complex. If there is any magic to managing IT efficiently, it is in ensuring that the procedures are followed rigorously.

Even if you don’t yet feel that the time is right for you to outsource the running of your IT, the methods that we use will help you to make sure that you are on the right track if you manage your own IT. The practices listed below are no great secret. The question for you to answer is whether you want to employ your own staff to manage your systems, or outsource the process to a company like us:

Managing Workstations - Create a standard build for workstations on the network and store it on a network storage device. You can then use this image to rebuild workstations when necessary. This reduces rebuild time from 6 hours (by the time all of the Windows patches are installed) to less than 60 minutes.

Data Backup - PC's and servers will fail from time to time, and when they do you need to make sure that you can recover your data as quickly as possible. Server data should be backed up to online storage to ensure that you are able to recover in the event of flood / fire / theft as well as to an onsite server to ensure swift recovery in the event of a server failure. Workstation data will then be backed up to online or onsite storage as appropriate. 

Routine Maintenance - You should ensure that routine tasks such as disk defragmentation and clearing out temporary files is carried out on a regular basis to ensure that you get the best performance from your IT Systems.

PC Security - Check your PC's regularly to make sure that the latest Windows patches have installed properly and that your endpoint security / antivirus software is up to date. It is vital to keep Windows patches and virus definitions up to date to protect you against Internet threats. When a PC fails to install updates automatically, it is likely that some malware has infected your PC. In all probability, it will already be running more slowly than usual as a result of the malware infection, and the system should be reloaded as soon as it is practical to do so.

Keep A Spare PC - When a PC fails, the highest cost will be in loss of staff productivity while you are waiting for the system to be rebuilt. A spare PC preloaded with your company's standard build eliminates lost staff productivity. You simply restore data to the hard disk from the latest backup and your employee an be back up and running while the faulty PC is being repaired / rebuilt.

User Rights Management - Minimise the number of people who can install software onto your PC's. PC problems generally only arise when changes are made . By managing the change process you will be in a much better position to minimise and identify the source of system problems.

Many small businesses simply don’t have the time or resources to ensure that these essential housekeeping tasks are carried out on a regular basis, and that can be where the trouble starts. If you don’t have the latest Windows patches installed, your PC’s and laptops will be vulnerable to internet threats which can steal your employees’ identity and cause your systems to crash. If you don’t test that your backups restore properly, how can you be sure that they aren’t corrupt and that they will restore when you most need them?

That’s where we can step in as your outsourced IT Department, making sure that your systems run as smoothly as possible, and providing you with a single point of contact to resolve all of your IT issues.

If you would like to know more about our IT Support services, please visit our web site, or download our Managed IT Services White Paper. Alternatively please send an email to info@clearview.co.uk . We would be happy to answer any questions that you may have.

How should your growing business manage IT?

Small businesses now rely heavily on IT, and the proliferation of Apple and Android tablet devices only serves to increase reliance on technology that many business owners don't fully understand ... But it sure needs to work!

As companies grow it becomes impractical to rely on ad hoc support contracts to keep their systems working reliably. IT Systems need regular maintenance to perform at their best and remain protected against internet malware, so business owners need to take a decision to either employ a full time IT Manager or outsource to a Managed Service Provider.

Why IT Management is difficult for small businesses.
Larger companies can cost justify employing a full time IT team including teams of first line support engineers, experienced systems professionals and an IT manager. The system is proven and works well because junior members of staff have clear opportunities for career progression, senior technicians can roll their sleeves up and get to grips with new technology, and the IT Manager can occupy himself with developing IT strategy to meet the businesses' needs and managing his team. Unfortunately, it’s a different story for SMB’s. Skilled IT staff are thin on the ground and command good salary packages, so you need to make sure that you are going to be able to keep them busy.

IT Managers Need A Challenge
SMB’s are not always attractive employers for good IT professionals as they have fairly simple IT needs. Since most IT Managers are techies at heart, they like to be able to get to grips with the latest technology. Given that most of the tasks required to keep your systems running smoothly are routine in nature (e.g. updating antivirus software and ensuring that required Windows Updates are installed) , a small company is unlikely to be able to offer an IT professional the opportunity to build the infrastructure of their dreams. There is therefore a relatively high rate of turnover amongst IT staff in SMB organisations with IT staff leaving to seek new challenges in larger companies where they can gain experience in the latest technology. 

Losing an IT Manager causes its own problems. Suddenly, the one person who knows the ins and outs of your systems is gone, so it can be a turbulent time while you go through the process of finding a replacement which in itself diverts you from the process of running your business.

Should You Use A Managed IT Service Provider?
The alternative to employing your own staff to run your IT systems is to employ a Managed IT Service Provider (MSP). For a fixed monthly fee, a managed service provider will perform all of the functions that you would expect from an IT Manager, but at a lower cost. What’s more, you don’t need to worry about keeping them occupied, or whether they may leave your company.

Equally important is that an MSP is equipped to carry out the routine system management tasks required to keep your systems running smoothly and to do so as efficiently as possible using automation software. Unlike a break/ fix contract, an MSP gets paid no more money for sending an engineer to site to re-build a PC that has crashed, so they will do everything possible to make sure that they don’t.

Because of this, many larger companies with their own IT Manager (50 - 100 staff) use a Managed Service provider to support an in-house IT Manager. This way, your IT Manager can concentrate on the bigger picture of how you can use IT to make your business more efficient, and leave the routine maintenance tasks to the MSP who can carry out the work more cost effectively than employing additional staff.

What About Cloud Computing?
he move to cloud computing will undoubtedly be an accelerator to the adoption of managed IT services by medium and larger sized organisations. Organisations who run their business applications as cloud services will have no need to employ a full time IT Manager, but PC’s, printers and firewalls still need to be maintained, and an MSP is perfectly positioned to provide these functions efficiently and cost-effectively.

Want To Know More?
If you would like to know more about our IT support or managed IT services, please download our white paper or contact us at info@clearview.co.uk .

Managed IT Services - A 60 second introduction

Small businesses without in-house technical expertise can often find managing their IT a challenge. To start off with, the task of IT management may fall to the person who knows most about computers, but as a company grows it becomes necessary to call in a specialist when problems arise. As the company grows past 5 – 10 employees however, a more structured approach to IT Management is called for to ensure that your data is properly managed. At much the same time it will probably become apparent that there has to be a better way of managing IT than waiting until something breaks before you fix it. It can take up to a day to re-load a PC from scratch due to the number of updates that need to be applied, and onsite engineering charges can easily start to mount up to a point whereby a single call-out can cost in excess of £500.

If you can't justify employing your own IT Manager, your best choice could well be to engage a managed IT Service provider, but although the approach has been around for some time now, and can deliver significant benefits for small businesses, many business owners don’t fully appreciate what is involved in handing over management of their systems to a Managed Services Provider (MSP), or what they get for their money and so they have shied away from it so far.

What does a managed service provider do?

A managed service provider can either run every aspect of IT Support for you, or can offload day-to-day administration tasks from your current IT manager, allowing them to concentrate on developing your IT to meet your business needs rather than performing routine maintenance tasks. It really depends on what suits you best. In general terms however, a Managed Service Provider provides you with all the benefits of a specialist IT department without having to pay out the associated full-time salaries, or worry about the HR hassles of managing your own IT team.

How can your IT be managed by a Managed Services Supplier (MSP)?

Remote Management software is installed on your PC's and servers and allows an MSP to monitor your IT systems and report back on potential problems such as low disk space, failed Windows updates, or out-of date security software so that preventative maintenance can be undertaken before a system fails. Many of these routine maintenance tasks can either be automated or undertaken remotely, minimising the cost of delivering support by cutting down on the need to send an engineer to your offices.

What happens when IT systems fail?

A managed services supplier should make provision to be able to recover your systems as swiftly as possible in the event of failure. To minimise system rebuild time, a spare PC should be kept in your offices together with a snapshot of your standard PC build. Onsite / offsite data backups are then take to ensure that systems can always be recovered in the event of a system failure, fire or flood.

What about system security?

Robust security is an essential component of best IT practices that MSP's use to make the job of managing your IT easier. By implementing best IT practices such as restricting who can add new programs to your PC's, and making sure that antivirus and Windows updates are installed, your MSP incurs less cost in managing your system which allows them to keep their service costs down.

Managed IT Services allow you to benefit from the same level of professional IT management as a FTSE 100 company without having to maintain your own full time IT team, or worry about your IT manager going off sick or taking a holiday. You can concentrate on growing your business knowing that your IT is being maintained as efficiently as possible. Please download our Managed Services White Paper or visit our web site if you would like to know more. Alternatively, please contact us on 01707 255060 or by email at info@clearview.co.uk. We will be happy to answer any questions that you may have.