Crisis Highlights The Importance of IT Specialists
Giving You Less to Worry About During Trying Times
Periods of crisis can create dire predicaments for businesses. Unpredictable situations like the one created by the outbreak and spread of COVID-19 creates shake ups in how work can get done, and numerous other factors can all contribute to added stress that exists on top of the already present strains of managing an organization.
For businessowners and their employees alike this added pressure can compound and make it seem overwhelming to keep productive. Work can begin to pile up, and soon you may find the load insurmountable. During these times, finding any kind of solace and peace of mind can be instrumental in keeping daily operations running, and ensuring that your organization can survive until things return to a state of normalcy.
One place that you should never have to worry about during times like these is technology. While you may have to change how and where you work, you shouldn’t have to do so with the fears that your computers, phones, and other devices are going to fail at their primary function. However, as technology changes, and updates are rolled out to applications, this is a very real concern that many working may have.
Thankfully, there are people that can help. While many companies are adjusting to the new normal, IT support specialists are working to ensure that your devices are working as intended. Acting as the vanguard of technical support, good IT support can solve problems before they happen, and make sure that even in the most trying times you can focus on growth and caring for your team rather than worrying about tech maintenance.
What Makes a Good IT Support Specialist?
In order to ensure that you are getting the best support, you must first ensure that you know what to look for in an IT support specialist. There has been a rise in tech support scams over the past few years, and a surge in them during the quarantine period imposed by COVID-19. Likewise, as people are in need of support to help establish new working parameters during times of lowered incoming revenue, there may be a temptation to work with an IT support company just because of their enticing price tag.
While it is understandable to want to save costs, that isn’t always the best move for your business. Before entering an agreement with any IT support company, or hiring the services of an IT technician, make sure that you are aware of what makes a good tech support specialist.
Attention to Detail
One of the most important traits of any good IT support specialist is an acute attention to detail. No matter how big or small your enterprise is, there are going to be intricacies and nuances to it that make it unique to others. You will need support that can identify and understand your system and workstations and work with you to get familiar with it.
Doing so helps both you and them out as in the event of any potential problems, there will be less time needed to identify any of the offending issues. That means quicker solutions can be put in place which gets you back to being productive.
Certified Knowledge
There are a lot of different databases, software suites, operating systems, and other applications that get used by a variety of organizations every day. Because of this, any IT support specialist that is worth the money is going to have a good knowledge of many of these systems.
But that raises the question then, how do you tell? Well thankfully a few ways to do so.
The first and most obvious are certifications. Many applications and pieces of software have certification programs that users and IT technicians can utilize to prove an aptitude and mastery of the service. By doing so, they will get a certification proving that they have completed the courses and tests associated.
These certifications typically will last from 1-5 years, after which the IT technician will have to retake the test to remain certified. Often times with managed service providers and other outsourced IT companies, multiple members of their staff will have certifications, or they will have specialized members of their team that are focused on an application or software to handle issues related to it.
By seeing these accreditations, you can be assured that the IT support specialists have the knowledge and knowhow to take care of your tech needs.
Network Security Specialists
Ensuring software stability is an important part of any IT support plan but ensuring that your data and network is protected is another.
Anyone can tell you that having good security for your enterprise is important and knowing what to use can be hard to figure out. Especially during times of crisis, there are often increases in scams and viruses that can leave long term, lasting damage to an organization.
This is again where your IT specialist should come in. Whether it is at the beginning of the working relationship, or during it, they should ensure that your network and organization are being kept safe from hackers, malware, and other detrimental things.
Your network deserves the best protection, and a knowledgeable IT support specialist can get you that security. By working with your organization and getting into the details of your systems, the technician can identify any potential gaps in your protection. After doing so, they can put the best fixes to it, and make sure that your anti-virus and anti-malware will keep you safe from threat. With more and more people continuing to work from home, ensuring that remote employees are connected via secure networks is a challenge. Technologies such as Office 365’s Advanced Threat Protection can enable teams to collaborate remotely while offering the peace of mind that private data remains secure.
Network security threats are always changing, and new, more advanced ones are often built to try and circumvent the advances in security. IT support helps with this as it is an area where they can focus to monitor and respond to threats in an active, immediate capacity.
Proactive Management
Good IT support should always feel like a partnership. In a healthy working relationship, your tech support should feel like they are part of your company rather than just a service that you are using when there is a problem.
Many good managed service providers will work to stay ahead of any problems, updates, or end of life dates for your technology, and will alert you of any changes or updates that are needed to be made to ensure device stability. In many cases if the foreseen issue is small enough, they can just fix the issue and alert you of it, allowing for no interruption of services.
In other instances involving updates to software, or necessary transitions (such as the case of one version of an application no longer being supported or being shut down) to new versions of your applications, your IT technicians can ensure that the groundwork has been lain out for a smooth shift.
Most times, your IT support should be able to handle the workload and ensure that your systems and network do not have to be down for long and have great stretches of time where their work is interrupted.
This is something that is quite important as having reliable IT should come with a comfort knowing that your IT support specialists care about your wellbeing should be people that you can count on.
Moving Forward
Situations brought on like the coronavirus pandemic necessitates that companies take measures and adjust their normal protocols to adapt to the changing situation. As these situations continue to evolve, and your organization adapts, you can not only survive the situation but find yourself better positioned when things return to normal.
With good IT support specialists a your side, you can make sure your tech is safe, stable, and that no matter where you have to work, or how you have to work, they will be there to assist and keep you focused on what’s most important.
