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The Importance of Tech Support for your Business

All businesses are generally composed of individuals who specialize in different fields that add to the value of the company. One such team that many companies usually miss out on is the technical support team. 

Having a technical support department or team is fundamental especially if your business has been highly reliant on online tools and if your brand has been building its online presence. Having a technical support department basically ensures that there is a dedicated team to maintain your hardware and software systems, addressing your employees’ technical or connectivity concerns, and resolving all office-related technical issues.

There will be no perfect situation, especially in the digital realm. In this digital age when everyone is now online, the possible online security issues that you, your website and your emails can encounter is endless. So, if your business has a dedicated technical support team, it will be easier for your team to receive support not just when it comes to troubleshooting common problems, but it will help them get back to their tasks at hand with minimal technical issues and downtime. 

Here are some reasons why a technical support team is very important to your business:

Maintenance 

The main reason why a technical support team is much needed for your business is because hardware and software systems need maintenance. For many companies, if you have a website and you advertise your business online or rely on a system for your daily operations, you need to have a technical support team to assist in addressing common connectivity and technical concerns. Your technical support department is a dedicated team that should be responsible for resolving technical problems, working on technical aspects of a project, or implementing changes on a system as needed. Having a technical support team to lean on or utilize can be extremely useful for your business and helps minimize downtime in an otherwise working operational environment. 

Assistance 

As being said, a technical support team can resolve any technical or technological issue you are facing. Doing so helps other employees complete tasks efficiently and frees you up from doing menial work that may interrupt your usual tasks, business projects or in assisting client and customer concerns. The reality is, in this day and age, your company needs a dedicated and knowledgeable technical support specialist to assist you in handling your network, operating systems and connections. Imagine a whole office with network connectivity issues or with hardware and software concerns – and no knowledgeable person to help out with the situation! What kind of a chaotic office environment that would be! 

Partnership

Speaking of partners, in all businesses it is important to have a partner to help grow your business. So, when you sign a support service contract, you effectively sign a business partner. You have invested in them, and in return they invest in you. A support service builds a relationship with you and is there to assist you and help you grow. They want you to succeed and continue with your usual operations without much distractions. In addition to the business relationship, a personal relationship is also established. The personal relationship with you allows a support technician to tailor their work in a way that is most beneficial to you based on their knowledge and your company’s needs and objectives. 

You may also read through our blog about Tech Support benefits for your business.

Share your goals with us and be our partner in building your brand. With 25 years of experience in the industry, iManila, is an IT company at its core and is now a full-service digital marketing agency ready to help you from your technical support requirements to your website development needs, your hosting requirements to taking your business online through digital marketing. Visit our website at www.imanila.ph to learn more or drop us a message at [email protected].  

Remote or On-site support: Which one fits your needs?

 

Ever experienced having to call a lineup that took so long to pick-up? Or sending emails that took forever to get a response? That pretty much sums up a very bad client support. What if you are in a hurry? What if your business suddenly slows down because your machines or server’s not working? It becomes much frustrating that there’s no one to take in your call of even send you something useful and urgent? What if there’s no one who could help you get through your disastrous days in your daily business operations?  It may sound dramatic, but it happens.

Ever experienced having to call a lineup that took so long to pick-up? Or sending emails that took forever to get a response? That pretty much sums up a very bad client support. What if you are in a hurry? What if your business suddenly slows down because your machines or server’s not working? It becomes much frustrating that there’s no one to take in your call of even send you something useful and urgent? What if there’s no one who could help you get through your disastrous days in your daily business operations?  It may sound dramatic, but it happens.

In times like this, whom should you call? Definitely not the ghost busters, even if you are too much desperate to get some help. The best thing to do is to contact a reliable tech agency to keep technical and hardware matters covered. Oh, wait do you even have one?

If you don’t have one yet? The initial step is finding a reliable tech partner to help you out.

Related reading: Outsourcing Hardware Maintenance

If you are already in the middle of the talking and you feel like you have chosen a provider, the next step is to determine what kind of support you need to include in your agreement. Below are the things you need to consider to determine which one you should go for:

 

1) Remote Support

Usually, this kind of support entails less cost because the tech guys do not need to be physically present in your office. This will best serve you if you have some personnel who has knowledge in maintaining your machines but lack the mastery of doing it. Remote support has three dimensions:

 

  • Email or Chat Support

This kind of remote support users online connection to send the communication back and forth. Some client opted to go with chat support as this one provides real-time feedback.

  • Phone call support

For some clients, this kind of support works for them. They have somehow a feeling of security because they speak directly to the support person. It saves them the effort of typing and putting their concerns into writing. They can tell directly their concerns.

Thank God (and the developers) for bring TeamViewer to business. iManila, for example, uses TeamViewer in the most challenging remote support that we need to attend to. TeamViewer enables one part to access a machine who has TeamViewer too. As long as there is a stable internet connection there will be no problem.

 

2) On-site Support

In times when a client’s peace of mind relies on seeing a support specialist in the flesh, this will the next option. The process is pretty simple, the support specialist will get his/her hand on the device to diagnose and fix what is needed to be fixed in the machine.

This kind of support is the go-to option of most SMEs because of the lack of a capable personnel to grasp the step-by-step escalation. They need the support specialist to do the repair directly in the machine that needs it.

 

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Given this two situations, which support do you think your company needs? If you do, then you are now ready to seal that deal. Just make sure the frequency of the support is clearly defined in your contract terms. Some provider caps it to two (2) remote per month, and some have 1 on-site per month.

Depending on your agreement, the frequency varies and even the inclusions of the support.

If you haven’t scored any sit down meeting with any tech agencies, talk to us!

iManila is a trusted provider of both reliable hosting services and tech support service that surely covers small and medium businesses IT concerns. Our lines are open 24/7 and our sales executives are available Mondays to Fridays to assist you with your web, IT, and digital marketing queries.

Emails: [email protected] / [email protected]/ [email protected] / [email protected]

Telephone numbers: (02) 490-0000, 01, 03 or at (02) 959-4807

Mobile number: (+63) 917-8476005

Why Should You Consider Outsourcing Hardware Maintenance?

 

Hardware is one of the infrastructures your company needs to spend a hefty amount on. They house all the applications, tools and data needed by your individual employee to fulfill their day-to-day tasks in the office. And hardware maintenance is also a crucial investment to make sure these infrastructures will serve its operational purpose till obsolescence. Imagine a day when a chunk of your computers shut down altogether in the most crucial day of the month – say a month-end reconciliation or board meetings?

That will be a disaster.

In this age when most corporate organization feel the tight competition, the race towards fulfilling the yearly targets seems so exhausting to all stakeholders, including your employees. And, it will be better for everyone to rely on a team that can do the job of hardware maintenance when the company is in need of it.

Forming an in-house Tech Team

It is not actually bad for you to form an in-house tech team. It is actually in your best interest that this team is on the lookout for any possible software and hardware failures in the organization. But this operational decision is not for every business.

There are those who opt to proceed with the business with even having one tech guy in the organization. Reasons are:

  • It is not their operational interest to form a team yet since the operation can barely support the entire organization.
  • Some business owners feel that tech team may do less than what the other department does since not all the time there are units to repair or server to set-up.

The is the usual mindset of the budding enterprises. And whatever operational decisions the management made isn’t questionable since the growth is the first priority.

However, a business that is growing with hardware that is aging with time, an IT personnel who will conduct hardware maintenance is a must. And if getting a person or a team to be your in-house IT is too much for your operational expenses, then outsourcing is the next best step to take.

Why outsource?

This question has become the most epic question discussed inside the board room. Management with their consultant will do roundtable discussion just to make the right decision whether the business needs to outsource or not. And if you are asking why, below are the two things that you might want to take into consideration.

iManila-Talk-To-Us-CTA

  • The truth is absolute; it is financially challenging for a small and medium business to keep an in-house team.

The financial discussion has been the roughest part of any management discussion. The entire business operation nestles on the company’s resources. Without tight budgeting, the operation will fall apart.

Keeping a regular employee could be a little burdensome for the financials. While putting him on contractual and casual status is unethical. This where you might consider outsourcing the job to a Tech agency who can do the job for a lesser cost.

  • The Average Lifespan of Machines

According to hardware.ittoolbox.com, the average lifespan of machines is around three (3) to five (5) years. With maintenance, a machine can last for five years. Well-maintained servers, on the other hand, may last for ten years. Most corporations also use this lifespan as their benchmark for forecasting the effectiveness of all machines and hardware. Below are the factors that IT department uses in predicting the lifespan:

  • Mean Time Before Failure (MTBF) of the hardware
  • Increased performance demands of software (requiring more powerful systems to keep performance up)
  • Depreciation rates assigned by the accountants

If you are a company operating on aging machines, you might need to heed the advice or help of IT companies to keep your operations running.

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Do not let hardware failures ruin your day-to-day business processes. Here in iManila, we have more than a million-man hour of experience in handling hardware and software issue. Entrust your hardware maintenance with us. We have Standard and Premium packages that will surely suit not just your budget but also your needs. Talk to us!