Reactive vs Proactive IT Support

In the past, small and medium sized businesses (SMBs) typically took a “wait and see” approach when it came to IT support—basically, they’d only call for help when something broke.

Today, more SMBs have shifted to a proactive IT strategy, instead of waiting for problems to pop up. They’re partnering with Managed Service Providers (MSPs) who keep a constant eye on their systems. The goal? To catch and fix potential issues before they turn into big, expensive headaches.

In this article, we’ll take a closer look at both reactive and proactive IT support models, along with their benefits and drawbacks. You’ll be able to see which model may best fit your organization.

What Is Reactive IT Support?

Reactive IT support, also known as the “break-fix approach,” is when organizations only react to issues after they’ve occurred – and potentially done damage. There tends to be a lack of IT strategy in these organizations, causing them to have higher variable costs when dealing with technical issues. 

Examples of this include:

• An organization's server goes down
• Staff is locked out of internal data applications
• An employee clicks on a link inside a spoofed email message
• A ransom note is received from a cyberhacker

When an event such as those listed above occurs, SMBs often contact an outsourced IT service to diagnose and remedy the issue. This could take minutes or this could take months. The longer it takes, the more damage may be done.

Either way, events such as these, result in operational downtime, disrupting daily business activities and hindering productivity. Resolving these issues demands significant IT resources—whether internal staff or external support—to identify, repair, and restore affected systems. Both the loss of uptime and the need for intensive IT intervention contribute directly to higher overall IT costs for the organization.

Oftentimes SMBs feel that they aren’t big enough to be targeted by a hacker. But they are wrong. In fact, a recent report showed that 71% of cyberattacks target SMBs and approximately 60% of SMBs go out of business following a cyberattack.

The reality is that SMBs need access to the latest cybersecurity measures and proactive IT support services.

What Is Proactive IT Support?

In a proactive IT support model, an MSP monitors the status of your networks and equipment – 24/7, 365. Often this is done with the help of AI monitoring through large amounts of data, searching for anomalies. If an anomaly is found, rules programmed into the AI’s infrastructure will be used to quarantine the suspected area of the network and trigger an alert to human administrators. The MSP will then take a closer look at the findings to determine if the identified anomaly indicates a false alarm, threat or breach. If needed, action will then be taken to solve issues.

Benefits of Proactive Managed IT Services

Proactive Managed IT Services simplify budgeting with a fixed cost each month. In the case of an emergency, such as a server failure or cyberattack, the partnership with an MSP will certainly “pay for itself” many times over. 

While cybersecurity is often the primary reason why SMBs initially consider an MSP partnership, there are several others that are equally as important, including:

• IT Consulting for business process management, software implementations, technology and business goal alignment and more.
• vCIO Services and IT Strategy to create a forward-thinking IT roadmap, geared towards your organizational goals, with regular check-ins to update for real-life organizational changes.
• Microsoft Licensing Optimization to keep everyone connected and focused, in a streamlined and budget-conscious manner.
• Cloud Services including design, architecture, migration, hosting and maintenance.
• Project Work outsourced to an MSP partner can help accomplish larger IT initiatives.

SMBs can partner with an expert MSP to bring in additional IT staff when and where they are needed. Whether that means around-the-clock helpdesk support, setting up technology at a new location or conducting a security & compliance audit – partnering with an MSP can be a booming benefit to an SMB.

Elevity’s 4S Approach to Managed IT Services

Elevity provides proactive, Fully Managed IT Services for organizations with 20 to 100 employees without an internal IT team. (We also provide Co-Managed IT Services for larger organizations with internal IT staff, too.)

SMBs love Elevity’s comprehensive approach as we’re ready to take care of all your technology management needs – from strategy to setup – cybersecurity to troubleshooting – and everything in between!

We do this by implementing our 4S framework which is comprised of:

• Strategy to let the experts deal with the tech hassles while your employees are empowered to focus on achieving organizational goals.
• Security to protect your critical data and deter cyber threats by using a multi-layer approach that includes employee training, Security Incident and Event Management (SIEM), data breach response protocols and more.
• Solutions designed to work towards your organizational goals for growth by creating a comprehensive IT roadmap focused on your productivity and security.
• Support to resolve unexpected issues quickly. This includes options for proactive onsite and remote support. You have questions? We have the answers.

Are You an SMB? Partner With the Best in Managed IT Services

You’ve built your business. Now is the time to ensure your IT strategy for continued growth and success. Contact the experts at Elevity to schedule an introductory consultation to find out if our 4S approach to Fully Managed IT is right for your business.