Working from home has many distinct benefits for employees. They can set their own hours, avoid the dreadful morning commute, and get some peace and quiet from the office chatter.
But it doesn’t mean remote workers are free from IT headaches. There’s always a possibility that computers will slow down to a crawl or cybersecurity issues arise.
What’s important is that your remote team has adequate IT support whenever they need it.
Here are seven signs you need a managed IT services provider (MSP) for your remote workers.
1. Declining productivity levels
When employees work from home, they’re often left to troubleshoot IT issues on their own. This usually involves resetting devices, checking network settings, and looking through online forums for advice. However, no matter how tech-savvy your employees may be, they shouldn’t be spending their day fixing IT problems.
These interruptions can add up and prevent remote employees from doing the jobs they’re hired to do. In fact, a report found that businesses can lose up to 545 hours of staff productivity per year because of technical issues. That’s a lot of money down the drain, and the frequent disruption of such issues also affects employee morale, which in turn leads to more productivity loss.
Top-notch MSPs provide 24/7 help desk services to assist your employees whenever they experience technical issues at home. What’s more, MSPs can remotely access employee devices to troubleshoot problems, so your workers can focus on critical tasks that add value to your company.
2. Outdated home devices
Legacy devices are unacceptable by today’s standards, not only because they have sluggish performance, but also because they pose a serious security threat. If you’re going to let remote employees use their own devices for work, their devices must be fast and secure.
MSPs support you in this area with proactive patch management, virtual desktops, and operating system updates. Most of them are also partnered with industry leaders like Dell, Apple, and other manufacturers, so you get the best deals on technology.
3. Inefficient collaboration
While collaboration comes naturally in the office, it’s a different story when employees work from home. They need cutting-edge collaboration tools to share files, communicate, and manage tasks with their colleagues who can literally be miles away.
Fortunately, MSPs are always up to date on the latest technology trends, whether it be cloud computing, internet-based phone systems, or productivity software. They assess your company’s IT infrastructure and business processes, enabling them to recommend and implement the best solution for your remote teams.
4. High risk of security breaches
A major problem with work from home policies is that employees access company files and apps outside the corporate network. This means remote employees are no longer protected by corporate firewalls and defenses, leaving them exposed to a wider variety of cyberthreats like phishing scams.
If you’re not actively mitigating risks or if you’ve experienced a breach in the past, it’s imperative that you partner with an MSP that specializes in cybersecurity.
These providers will support your business in the following ways:
- Weed out bad security habits with phishing simulations and penetration tests
- Implement endpoint protection tools like Microsoft Endpoint Manager to protect company devices and set access controls from a single console
- Roll out company-wide security updates
- Monitor your security policies and update them in accordance with industry standards like HIPAA, PCI DSS, and CCPA regulations
- Advise your company on security awareness training programs
5. Difficulty connecting to meetings
It’s not uncommon for technical issues to arise when conducting virtual meetings via business messaging and video conferencing apps like Microsoft Teams.
For starters, employees may be in areas where network connectivity and internet bandwidth is slow and unreliable, causing latency issues that lead to choppy audio, frozen video feeds, and pixelated screen sharing experiences. Virtual meeting apps can have bugs and glitches that affect call quality. Other employees could experience hardware issues, such as microphones and webcams picking up video and audio feedback. Meanwhile, inexperienced workers may have trouble using video conferencing tools and don’t know where to find certain functions and options.
IT support providers ensure you never have to worry about these problems. They offer network monitoring services and help set up fast home networks to optimize call quality. For example, providers may recommend using Ethernet cables over wireless connections to ensure fast and stable network performance for phone calls. They also proactively patch your systems, troubleshoot hardware issues, and provide software tutorials so everyone can connect to meetings without fail.
6. No remote work-specific backup plans
If your remote employees’ idea of backing up data is saving it in an external hard drive, they could be putting your business at unnecessary risk. External hard drives are not only susceptible to loss or theft, but they can also get damaged due to improper handling. Plus, your company may have strict policies regarding saving classified files and customer information in personal hard drives and devices.
By partnering with an MSP, you and your staff get a much more comprehensive data backup strategy. Instead of leaving backups to your employees, MSPs identify what records and data need to be backed up and store them in highly secure cloud servers.
This way, employees can access data from any company-authorized, internet-enabled device. The best MSPs even have backups of backups in multiple locations to ensure your data is completely safe in case of accidental deletion, ransomware, or natural disasters.
7. Increasing IT expenses
Having an in-house IT department manage a distributed workforce is expensive. Since remote employees can set their own hours, you may have to pay your in-house technicians overtime to handle support calls.
When you sign up for IT support services from an MSP, you usually pay a predetermined price for a service package that provides precisely the services you need. You’re not paying a full salary for one in-house IT technician; instead, you pay an affordable monthly subscription fee for a team of professionals to look after your systems.
Ultimately, partnering with a reliable MSP can make managing a remote workforce a whole lot easier. You get access to a team of IT experts, enterprise-grade technology, and peace of mind. Dynamic Solutions Group is an MSP that guarantees you all these benefits and so much more. Consult with us today to find out if we’re the right service provider for you.
