5 Things to Consider when Hiring IT Support for Remote Teams
According to GlobalWorkplaceAnalytics.com, 4.3 million employees – or 3.2% of the American workforce – now work remotely at least half the time. And 40% more U.S. employers offer flexible workplace options than they did five years ago.
Many companies have found that offering full-time or part-time telecommuting has a positive effective on employee productivity, efficiency and morale. But what happens when their computer crashes? Or they need email support? Having IT support for remote teams is essential to ensuring your company reaps these benefits. Working with the right managed service provider (MSP) is important.
Here are 5 things you should look for in an MSP that provides IT support for your remote team.
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Remote support for all users
The number-one thing you should look for when hiring an MSP to provide IT support for remote teams is the ability to effectively resolve issues remotely. Technology today allows IT support teams to access users’ workstations remotely. Techs can resolve issues as if they were sitting in front of the computer themselves. Meaning, the tech could deliver the same level of service whether your employee was in the same room or across the country.
Our engineers often resolve issues in the first call and can troubleshoot larger or more complicated issues remotely. All while talking the user through the possible issues and gathering the information they need. This ensures your remote team is taken care of should an IT emergency pop up while your team is away from the physical office.
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A fully managed environment
Second, it’s important to work with an MSP that will fully manage your IT environment rather than provide break-fix support. Within this fully managed environment, the MSP can work directly with employees to provide IT support for your remote team. This means the user can call the support desk directly. It removes the middleman and shortens resolution times so your team can get back to work.
At Atlas, we’ve found that this direct contact with users has improved the client interaction and provides a personalized experience, resulting in high customer satisfaction scores. Our clients have gotten to know our engineers and feel comfortable working with our techs at their most desperate IT hour.
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A network to support local emergencies
Most IT emergencies can be resolved remotely. But, there are times when a tech needs to assess your remote team’s hardware in-person. Rather than have your employee take his or her computer to a local computer shop, work with an MSP that can deploy a local tech to swoop in and resolve the issue quickly.
Atlas partners with a network of IT professionals across the nation to supplement our IT services, including IT support for remote teams and branch locations. This rolodex of providers can work directly from our system and provide seamless IT support for your team across the country.
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Strict security protocols
With the flexibility of telecommuting comes the option to work from anywhere, including coffee shops and hotspots with unrestricted internet access. This can be a security nightmare for organizations that manage sensitive data such as financials or protected patient information. For that reason, it’s important to work with an MSP that takes a stringent approach to cybersecurity when providing IT support to remote teams.
When you partner with Atlas, all users are set up with antivirus software, malware protection, and spam filters. We also encourage the use of a secured virtual private network (VPN) for access to company resources and the use of data encryption on your devices. This ensures that, regardless of where your team connects to the internet that day, your information is safe.
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End-to-end support
In the unfortunate event that an employee is working remotely and his or her computer crashes beyond repaid, what would you do? If you’re working with an MSP that provides end-to-end IT support for remote teams, the answer should be to call them. The best MSPs can purchase and deploy a new workstation quickly to get your employee back up and running.
This is one of the many end-to-end IT services we offer at Atlas Professional Services within our managed service agreement. We work with the parent company to load the necessary software and anti-virus protection. Then we ship the computer directly to the employee. Thus, taking the burden off of the internal IT department or operations.
Interested in hiring an MSP to provide IT support to your remote team? Contact us to find out more about our managed IT services.
