NetGuard vs. Other Traditional Alternatives to IT Management

Let’s examine how NetGuard stacks up against one of three options you’re likely depending on currently to support your IT needs:

NetGuard vs. traditional reactive-based IT providers:

These are some common traits found with contracting out your IT support needs to an on-call firm “break-fix” firm:

• Network, server, and desktop maintenance are often neglected by the provider, causing intermittent downtime, security issues, and overall performance to degrade.
• The provider’s response time to resolution is poor and frequently requires intervention you’re your internal staff to assist.
• Your costs to the IT provider and internally are unpredictable and high.
• Strategic planning and guidance is insufficient.
• The provider’s IT staff is unfamiliar with your network and its users, causing internal frustration.

NetGuard vs. other IT managed services providers:

These are some common traits found with managed services providers contracted to manage your IT needs:

• You feel as though you’re still being “nickel and dimed” for services that should be included in the monthly management fee: Virus protection; onsite visits or remote support exceeding a certain threshold of time, etc.
• Follow-up is lacking when it comes to strategic planning initiatives.
• Your users are complaining about lack of response time to their issues being resolved, remotely and onsite.

NetGuard vs. in-house IT staff:

These are some common traits found with employing in-house IT personnel to support your IT needs:

• Full time IT employees are very expensive. The average salary for a Network Administrator on the Central Coast is $60,000/year. This doesn't account for other employment expenses such as payroll taxes, workers compensation, holidays, vacations, sick leave, healthcare, and other benefits.
• Soft costs are often not fully considered such as general office overhead in providing for and managing this employee.
• The cost of turnover is regularly underestimated. Turnover in IT is high and the cost to recruit is significant. What about the cost to a business that goes without IT support while looking for replacement staff. 2-weeks’ notice is often hardly sufficient.
• Small businesses tend to do an inadequate job of evaluating IT talent during the hiring process. They do not possess the internal knowledge or have a proven process to do so. Often, people are hired to do a job that they are not fully capable of doing and management has no way of knowing.
• All too often, management of small business lacks the capabilities to give proper oversight, incentives, feedback, career path, and overall leadership in the area of IT.
• IT is a rapidly changing field. Within 5 years, skills and education become obsolete. This means a constant emphasis on training is essential. Small businesses don't have formal training programs and may even overlook its importance.
• Employees' do not come bundled with tools, technology, systems, and processes. Many of the tasks associated with best practice IT management should NOT be done by people; rather they should be automated with tools and technology. This is the only way to ensure consistency. Yet the tools and technology to do this are outside the financial reach of most small businesses.
• A complete IT solution requires different types of personalities and skills. CIOs, Network Administrators, and Help Desk agents are very different. While one person may try to fill all these roles, they are likely to come up short in some areas.
• Even the best staff member cannot possibly know as much as a whole team of IT experts. A company that specializes in IT can maintain areas of expertise that may only be needed few times in a year. A team of IT professionals can share information and skills making each member of the team stronger and to promote learning.
• A single individual does not benefit from economy of scale. Often, 75% of an IT task is research and 25% is implementation. For example trouble shooting a problem may take only 5 minutes to fix but may take 30 minutes or longer to figure out how to do it. An outsourced IT solution benefits from this concept as research for one customer applies to all others.
• Dealing with IT is a distraction from an organization’s core business and all too often it robs it of time and energy.

TechXpress has solved these and many other problems commonly associated with legacy outsourced IT solutions or using internal IT staff. Small businesses should focus on what they do best and leave everything else to trusted experts that do it with better efficiency. Could your business use NetGuard? Click here to schedule an in-person comparison and find out.

Need to see some client references first? No problem,  click here to check out some of our client video case studies or contact us to request client contact details to follow up on your own.