At Venom IT we provide a whole range of services to clients of all sizes. For our small business customers, that includes a choice between Managed IT and IT Support. But is managed IT and IT support the same thing, and if not, what’s the difference?
This guide will give you a better understanding of both terms, how they’re similar, and the difference between managed IT and IT support. If you need any more help deciding between our small business IT services, please contact us directly and we’ll be happy to help.
Is Managed IT and IT Support just the same thing?
Before we dive into a full comparison of managed IT vs IT support, let’s deal with the big question: Is managed IT and IT support the same thing?
The short answer is no, it’s not the same thing. One key difference between managed IT and IT support is when and why you use the service.
In simple terms:
- IT Support responds on-demand to specific incidents and outages
- Managed IT is ongoing support and maintenance to avoid problems
So there’s a difference in scope and in the ‘style’ of support you receive. You can think of it as being similar to planned and responsive maintenance on your premises. Managed IT is the preventative maintenance that keeps things running smoothly, and IT Support is the reaction and repair following an outage.
IT Support explanation
IT Support is a key part of our IT Consulting service. A comprehensive IT consultation plan should allow for the potential of future problems, no matter how carefully you mitigate risks or improve Cyber Security.
There are many elements to an IT Support contract, covering round-the-clock telephone support and rapid response in-person engineers to repair damaged hardware.
At Venom IT we offer specific support for Microsoft 365 applications (including Outlook 365 email) and for small businesses with remote workers.
We offer a 24/7 business-critical response service with two-hour SLAs (including for cyber attacks) to minimise the negative impact on your business and reduce disaster recovery times.
Managed IT explanation
Managed IT is another way in which Venom IT helps small businesses to thrive. The success of your business should not depend on your personal understanding of server load balancing or how to encrypt email on a Microsoft Exchange server.
You might prefer to think of it as outsourced IT management. We worry about your hardware, software and the security of your data, so that you can focus on the activities that make you money.
Managed IT underpinned by an in-depth Cyber Security Risk Assessment not only improves your business continuity, it can also protect you against costly fines and reputational damage associated with a data breach.
Venom IT blocked more than 200,000 viruses in emails in just 12 months, leading us to include Threat Migration Services on our list of top technology trends in 2024. These numbers are likely to get higher in the years ahead, making outsourced IT management a crucial investment for any growing business.
Key differences
We’ve already touched on the major difference between Managed IT vs IT Support, in terms of one being an ongoing service and the other being largely responsive in nature.
By outsourcing your IT management to Venom IT long-term, you’ll benefit from us having a deeper understanding of the systems you have in place. We can also spot problems when they are only just emerging, before they have any real negative impact on your operations.
IT Support is an essential safety net when you need it. Even if you have some in-house IT expertise, it’s good to have an external IT consultant on hand for when something happens that you’re not sure how to fix.
Remember too that keeping your IT infrastructure in good condition requires continual optimisation, hardware upgrades and software updates, or your systems will eventually become obsolete.
Managed IT can cater for this with regular IT audits, whereas IT Support can cover one-off expansions of your network. It all depends on what you need.
Which is best for a small business?
The vast majority of small businesses who use IT systems in any way could benefit from having a Managed IT contract in place. The potential to reduce your admin burden, prevent IT outages and free up time for profit-making activities is huge.
But whether or not you have an ongoing Managed IT arrangement in place, one-off IT Support is also there for you if and when you need it. It’s not a case of either-or, it’s all about keeping your systems running, and restoring them if they ever fail.
Conclusion
Venom IT’s versatile IT services for small businesses span fully and partially managed contracts, outsourced IT consultancy and one-off IT support. Whatever you need, we’re here for it.To find out more, contact Venom IT today and our friendly team will talk you through all the options.
