Associated costs
When you hire an IT technician, you will need to budget for more than just their salary, estimated at over £25,000 in July 2023. There’s the initial recruitment costs to consider, as well as training and development, sick leave, and even maternity pay.
The alternative is to use a dedicated MSP who will have their own team of dedicated technicians. The cost of doing so would be included within the plan you choose.
Full coverage with an MSP
Hiring an individual can come with risks. There will be times when they are absent from work on annual leave, sick, or dealing with other commitments. This will leave your IT hanging in the air. Should something go wrong, there will be no one there to rectify the errors.
Having MSP in place allows you that peace of mind to know that the IT support team will be able to highlight and fix errors during your working hours. As this will be a team, rather than a single person, you don’t need to worry about absences on their end, as there will always be at least one individual on-call to help you.
Growing with you
IT is always changing. This means that the software and platforms in use today will become outdated within the next few years.
An internal IT technician would then need to take time out of their regular working day to be able to attend training courses to learn about the newest systems and updates, at your expense.
At Syn-Star, we like to put education at the forefront. We believe it’s important for our technicians to have a wide range of working knowledge, and always be up to date on the latest technological advancements.
This includes the newest apps used by businesses, as well as any updates that have come out Microsoft Word and other Office products.
MSP expertise
Each technician within an MSP will have trained to be able to complete both basic and difficult IT support repairs before being allowed to work on a client’s system.
From here, expertise and experience can be gained. You won’t be the only client that an MSP has, meaning they can use their experience of working with your company and others to harness and refine their skills.
At times, an issue within your system may have been previously dealt with when working with a different client. This will have given the technician insight into how to quickly deal with the problem. They can use that particular experience to put fixes into place.
An IT technician working solely for your company would not have that wealth of current experience, so would take longer diagnosing errors and then attempting different methods to rectify them.
Additional services
Depending on the provider, you may also be able to add other services onto your MSP package, such as telecoms, cyber security, and even hardware repairs. Being able to encompass a number of IT needs within an MSP can help to keep your documents secure without the need to contact a number of different operators when things go wrong.
Data recovery
Whether due to neglect, malicious tampering, or genuine human error, there may come a time where important documents get lost or deleted.
You may be unsure of how to fix this, or even face legal complications should there be no resolve.
An MSP may be able to recover lost items for you, and even pinpoint exactly who caused the issue in the first place.
Proper file storage and management on an EU-based cloud server is vital for GDPR, so using IT support can be a great way of avoiding legal ramifications and ensuring all your files are safe and accessible.
Using an MSP is environmentally friendly
Outsourcing your IT support to a remote MSP is also incredibly economical.
Rather than having someone drive to your location to implement repairs, an MSP can do the same job from where they are based.
A lack of physical paperwork and documentation can also help to cut down on wasted paper, as all your documents will be emailed directly to the person in control of the contract.
This may be important if you want to show investors and clients that you run a sustainable company.
Clear budget
Opting for pay as you go IT support may seem like a good idea in practise, but you will then need to factor in call-out fees, especially if problems are severe or urgent. You won’t be able to adequately budget for them either, meaning you won’t know what there is to pay until you receive that invoice.
Small companies in particular may struggle to pay for their IT support if the budget doesn’t stretch that far. Alternatively, you could end up having to reroute funding required in other areas which can stunt your company growth.
Failure to pay an invoice on time due to budgeting problems may result in late payment fees adding to your financial stress.
Having an MSP package in place will give you the support you need when you need it. You would pay a fixed rate each month, usually depending on the number of systems you wish to cover. Any additional products, like the aforementioned telecoms, would also be shown on your invoice.
This can enable you to budget your company finances knowing you won’t face any nasty surprised when your invoice arrives.
Suitable for all companies
IT support is vital regardless of whether you’re a sole trader or international trader. You may worry about the cost of IT support, but there isn’t a one-size-fits-all package. Companies with only a single system should pay far less than those with hundreds of systems.
Opting for an MSG that tailors the package to suit your brand, and allows you to pay only for the systems you cover, can help even the most frugal of traders.
At the same time, it can be important to think about the costs and problems that would arise from serious technical faults. More often than not, the cost of recovering data on a singular occasion may be much greater than to have IT support on-call at all times.
Realistically, you would insure your car, home, belongings, and even pets, so why not have some assurance in place for your business IT?
Reduce downtime
Consider, for a moment, how long it may take an engineer to reach your business location. For businesses located in high-traffic areas, this may not be too much of an issue.
However, many businesses operate from rural locations, or have employees who work remotely. In these instances, it may not be feasible, or even possible, to call out an engineer.
An IT technician employed within your company will also only be able to work on one issue at a time. They are, after all, just one person. Should a number of errors flag up across numerous systems, you may have to wait quite a while until it is your turn to receive help.
MSP is a much better option, especially with a two hour guaranteed emergency response time. The team aspect again works in your favour as each technician on call that day would be able to work on a different error. This will see your systems restored to good working order vastly quicker than the alternatives.
Want to know more about MSP coverage for your business?
At Syn-Star, we take pride in a job well done, regardless of the difficulty level. Whether you have one or one hundred systems, we can help to keep your business operations running smoothly.
Using an MSP can remove the headaches of technical difficulties. With an emergency response time of a maximum of 2 hours, you can count on us to solve issues promptly.
For more information on our bespoke IT support, get a quote, or speak to a talented member of the team, fill out the form below.
