Managed IT Services

by Shakeel Rashid, Technical Services Engineer of Supreme Systems
For more information on our products and services please contact me on
0845 009 5430 or alternatively email me on shakeel.rashid@supremesystems.co.uk


What is Managed Services?
A managed service is when you gather all your IT needs into one easy to understand contract. A managed service contract would usually include services such as: -

· Virtual IT Department (Helpdesk Support)
· Onsite Support
· Network Management
· Remote Working
· Backups & Recovery
· Software & Hardware Purchase & Installation
· Health Checks
· Training

These would be the most common services that a potential client would ask for before signing a contract.

How it Works
An IT company would usually have a team of engineers in place (who specialise in the certain fields listed above) ready to deal with any issues that would arise. When a company is having a problem, they would give the helpdesk team a call to see if the problem can be resolved remotely. The call would be logged and the team would try and tackle the issue. If the problem is resolved then the call would be ended and the helpdesk team would usually note down how the problem was solved. However, if it wasn’t resolved then the call would be escalated to a more senior engineer. If the problem is resolved to this point then the same as the above would happen, if it isn’t then an engineer would be assigned to visit the site and sort the problem out. The engineer would only fix those problems for which the customer is entitled to in the contract. If they aren’t covered then an hourly fee plus the labour costs would normally be charged.

Who are the users of this service?
The most common users of this service would normally be SME’s. They have enough cash to support their IT infrastructure but not enough cash to hire two or three full-time in house employees.

Advantages and Disadvantages of Managed Services
The greatest advantage of this is the fact that you can outsource all your requirements to a specialist company who can deal with any queries you have in a fraction of the price of what you would pay a full time staff. When you outsource all your IT needs, you can essentially concentrate solely on your core business instead of worrying about who is going to sort your IT requirements out and what you are going to do if something goes wrong. The only disadvantage is the fact that it may take some time for an engineer to come on site for business critical issues.

http://www.supremesystems.co.uk/