Virtual IT Department (IT & Server Support)

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

What is a Virtual IT Department?
In plain and simple terms, this is an outsourced IT department. Instead of a client having to employ up to 10 (differently skilled in different technologies which you may have) IT staff, you simply outsource your needs to a company who can provide everything for the price of just one engineer. A virtual IT department can offer everything from network installation to Microsoft Exchange server support, wireless LAN connectivity and even installing an operating system such as Windows Vista on a computer. A virtual IT department offers everything you can think of in regards to IT, even web development!!

How it Works
A client will usually come to an agreement with an IT solutions provider to provide certain services which would be listed in a contract. Then, whenever a problem arises in the clients IT network, they would give a call to the IT company who will first try to resolve the issue over the telephone. If this doesn’t work then the call will be escalated to a more senior engineer who will also try to resolve the issue over the phone. If the problem is still not resolved then an engineer would be assigned to visit the site to view the problem in person. This will most likely sort the problem out. If it still isn’t resolved then there is an obvious hardware or software issue which must be replaced.

Who are the Users of this Service?
The main users who use this service are small and medium sized companies who can afford to outsource all their needs to a specialist who can provide the services to an exceptional level. The large corporations do not usually outsource all their needs as their departments are too large for one company to handle. They would normally have their own IT department to deal with all problems and requests.

Advantages and Disadvantages of a Virtual IT Department
The best advantage is to small and medium sized companies who don’t have to employ several IT people to do the same job which an IT company can do better for less than ½ the salary which you would pay for two to three full-time IT personnel. You have the advantage of having engineers with years and years of IT industry experience who know exactly what you are looking for in regards to your IT infrastructure. The downside is that the IT company is not always onsite to see any problems face to face and turnaround times can be anything from 2 hours to 24 hours.

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