If you want to run your business and leave technology to the IT guys, managed services might be for you. In this article we'll describe what managed services are and who often finds them beneficial. We'll start with the basics and go from there.

We've all heard the same advice about backing up data over and over. Nobody wants to do it on a constant basis, which means it typically gets passed on to an employee. Sometime down the road it turns out that the backup wasn't run porperly, stopped working, or some other issue occurred. This turns out to be the case more often than not. The solution is a managed backup. A managed backup is monitored by your service provider and data is encrypted to be transferred to an offsite location. If the backup fails, your service provider is already aware of the issue.

A slightly more complex, yet beneficial scenario...We have a helpdesk application that can be easily installed on computers. By clicking an icon you can send a request for service. This helpdesk system allows us to track service history on each system. If there's an intermittant problem developing it allows us to gain more insight. We can also keep reference notes regarding how equipment is setup at your location or if an employee needs access to a specific program that the others don't.

Besides being a helpdesk and service tracking component it can also benefit you by allowing us to provide remote support. Obviously you've seen those mysterious error messages, maybe didn't know what to click, or would have had some benefit to having a technician available for a moment at some point. Remote support provides the ability to do just that if you click yes to allow a technician to connect to your computer.

There are additional features that managed services can provide. For instance, it is possible to implement monitoring of things such as hard disk health. This can send your technician an alert of impending drive failure before data loss occurs on your computers. Keeping service packs, system updates, and anti-viral programs up to date can also be accomplished. These are just a few of the benefits managed services can provide.

Most of the organizations using services like these have more frequent need for technical support. For instance some of the dental, medical, and accounting firms have enough technology that they have at least one service call a month. Typically there are 4-5 computers at a minimum. This applies to other businesses as well, but these are just a few examples.