Why You Should Get Managed IT for Your Business

Business owners are used to wearing a lot of hats to make sure their business is successful, and their customer needs are always met. And while you may be an expert in helping your customers find the right home medical equipment that will allow them to live healthy and maintain their independence, there are some aspects of your business that should be managed by experts. Chief among these is your business IT needs. Having a partner for managed IT services will not only free up your time as a business owner, but it will also give you peace of mind that your business is secure and current in key aspects of digital infrastructure.

But what are the essential elements of choosing a partner for managed IT services? At VGM Forbin, we’ve compiled a list of standard services that you should expect from your managed IT services provider.

24/7 Remote Computer & Server Monitoring

Your digital hardware is critical to the success of your business. You use your computers and servers every day to make sure you’re serving your customers to the best of your abilities. When that hardware isn’t working properly, it negatively impacts your business. Your IT provider should offer remote monitoring for both your servers and computers, even if that means after-hours support. We would also recommend working with a provider that offers monthly on-site checkups to ensure you can have answers to your questions and have all the support you need.

Patching Services

We’ve all received those notifications prompting us to update our operating system or the Microsoft Office 365 apps on our computer. Can these updates be annoying? Yes. Are they essential for the security of your business? Big time!

Those updates often contain important security updates for your systems, new features for the apps you use every day, and patches to fix potential holes in your operating system. When you partner with a managed IT provider, these patches and updates can be pushed to your systems remotely by your provider as soon as they’re necessary. This ensures your systems and equipment are always up to date and secure as possible.

Enterprise Anti-Virus

Every business fears being impacted by cyber attacks. Your company’s computers and servers hold a lot of valuable information that criminals want to gain access to. The best way to protect your business is to use an enterprise anti-virus plan through your IT provider. What should your anti-virus package include? Here are some key features you should look for:

• Anti-virus and malware scanning

• Network credentialing

• Email encryption

• Anti-spam filters

• Cloud-based rollouts for updates

• Network firewall

• Solutions that can be configured to your network’s unique environment

• Off-site backup

• Data recovery

We also recommend scheduling reboots for your computer to ensure that updates are completed on your hardware.

Backup Monitoring

We’ve all heard the old phrase “Hope for the best. Prepare for the worst.” You should apply that mentality to your IT services. It’s important to have a plan to recover important data if there is an issue with your network or hardware. Your plan should include off-site backup for recovery. In addition to your hardware, your backup should protect data that includes:

• Protected Health Information (PHI) for Customers

• Custom & Company Financial Information

• Company Proprietary Information

• Operational and Inventory Information

To make sure you know how everything is performing, your IT provider should provide you with monthly network health reports. These will allow you to monitor your performance and address any potential concerns as soon as they appear.

At VGM Forbin, we are ready to help businesses of any size address their IT needs. Please contact us to schedule a no-obligation evaluation with our team to discuss how we can develop a plan for your business.