MSP Companies Near Me” vs. Remote Managed IT Services – Which Is Better?
Each functional area of a business is as important as the next. For example, IT is just as important as sales: What good is bringing in new business if, for instance, proprietary client data isn’t stored properly? A competitor who gives their hands on this data could steal your clients, or a leak could be damaging to your business’ bottom line and reputation.
Each functional business area, therefore, should have a strategy to ensure optimization and continuity.
When it comes to IT, business owners often outsource these tasks. Outsourcing work to specialized professionals saves time and ensures the data is protected properly. When it comes to outsourcing, the business owner has two options:
- They can choose a local company – searching for “MSP companies near me” and picking the best of their options
- They can opt to hire a remote managed services provider
In this blog post, we’re going to compare the benefits of choosing either one of these options, specifically when dealing with managed IT services. Let’s start with a local company first.
Benefits of Choosing “MSP Companies Near Me”
It’s important to know why local managed IT service providers can be a very potent part of a business’ toolbox. Here are a few reasons:
- There might be a shorter wait time
- You can build rapport with your providers
- In-person services may be available
Getting Support Quicky
Have you ever called the support line of a major company? Let’s say you have a question about your phone bill or service.
Many times, it can take a considerable time to wait to get connected to support. If you have a pressing IT matter, you don’t want to wait. You want to get it resolved as fast as possible!
Local managed service providers inherently may have fewer clients if they only do business locally. Alternatively, they may largely focus on local clients. This means you should be able to get the help you need faster.
Building Rapport with Your Provider
Having a specific point of contact is great for many reasons. One big reason is that they will have a much greater physical familiarity with your IT setup. If a problem ever arises, they’ll just continue where they left off last time.
A local managed service provider can get to know you and your business. They will be able to tailor their expertise to your needs in a deeper way. Furthermore, they may even offer in-person services. Let’s examine that in more detail next.
In-person Services with a Local Managed Service Provider
In our day and age, most IT tasks can be done remotely. However, there’s something to be said about getting the work done in person.
Maybe you want to learn more about the IT services you’re receiving so that you can complete some tasks yourself in the future. Well, if you’re watching someone do it live, you can learn that way. You can ask questions and the professionals will be able to show you every step they take.
At the end of the day, if the problem is that a cable is plugged into the wrong port, an in-person managed IT services provider might be able to notice and fix the problem much quicker than remote assessment can.
Benefits of Choosing a Remote Managed IT Services Provider
Let’s switch gears now and examine why it would be a good idea to hire a remote managed IT services provider.
Reasons to hire a remote provider include:
- The ability to receive 24/7 service
- Expertise only a larger organization can provide
Let’s talk about 24/7 service first.
Getting Help Around the Clock
Remote managed IT service providers are typically larger than local providers. Additionally, many of them come with the perk of always being available to help you..
In a perfect world, IT problems would only happen during normal business hours. We know, however, that it doesn’t work that way.
Let’s say that you’re working on an important business task at night and then you experience a critical computer issue. Perhaps you can’t retrieve data for some reason, and you need it at that very time. That’s when a remote managed service provider comes in.
Because these remote service providers are often available 24/7, they will be able to provide support just when you need it.
Granted, if you built enough rapport with the owner or technician of a local services company, they might be able to help as well. But smaller local MSPs might not have the expertise and manpower to offer round-the-clock service. What happens when the single technician who best knows your business is out on maternity leave or in another country on vacation?
A remote managed IT solutions company that regularly offers 24/7 service will simply be better prepared to do so.
Large, Remote Organizations Offer Expert Service
Remote managed IT services providers look for clients everywhere. Because of this, they may have a greater number of clients than a locally focused business would.
A remote managed service provider with many clients has probably seen many different types of scenarios. They have empirical knowledge and can apply this same knowledge to any problems you want to solve.
Whether it’s better data security, migrating to the cloud or disaster recovery, an experienced remote organization will be able to help you.
Red River: Combining the Benefits of Both
At Red River, we provide managed IT services no matter where you’re located. We offer 24/7 help desk support with no hold time. Therefore, we combine the best of both worlds when it comes to local vs remote support.
We offer a properly tiered help desk (Tier 1, Tier 2, etc.) depending on the complexity of your issue. That way, the problem will be properly assigned and therefore be completed faster.
Our expertise is vast and we offer support for the following verticals:
- Cloud
- Collaboration
- Data
- DevOps
- Mobility
- Networking
- Security
- And more
Head over to our managed services page to learn more about how we can help you and your business. Alternatively, visit our contact page if you have a specific question or would like to get in touch with us. We look forward to hearing from you and working together.
