On-Site IT Support vs. Remote Support

As a small-to-medium sized business, you likely rely on technology to perform almost all of your day-to-day operations. As a result, you have to grapple with the reality of bugs, corrupted files, licensing issues, security risks, and all the other challenges that come with IT. Having a high standard of IT support that focuses on finding solutions for these issues is crucial. 

While having on-site IT support can often seem like the best option to solve a lot of these problems, in-house teams can struggle with downtime and other distractions. This can lead to employees being left waiting for a response, and lost productivity until their issue is addressed. This wait time becomes even longer when the problem occurs outside business hours. 

If you’re currently encountering these challenges, you may be considering remote IT support for your SMB, which involves outsourcing IT management to a Managed Service Provider (MSP). While remote IT support offers a host of advantages, business leaders can find themselves weighing up these benefits against having an on-site IT team. To help you reach the best decision for your business, this article breaks down both concepts and provides the pros and cons of each.

On Site IT Support vs. Remote IT Support

Although it’s pretty self explanatory, the main difference between on site IT support and remote IT support is simply where the team is located. On site support will come into your office or is already within your office and will help you in-person, while remote IT support can help you from anywhere as their services are digital. 

How Does On-Site IT Support Work?

On-site IT support usually translates to a dedicated IT professional (or team of professionals) employed directly by your company, working from an office location. They offer IT support to your employees, work with you one-on-one, and will likely be embedded into the organization’s structure. 

Having an on-site specialist who you can interact with face-to-face can offer business leaders a sense of security and consistency. Being able to ask questions and have last-minute issues addressed may seem like it is only achievable through on-site IT support, although this isn’t necessarily always the case.

How Does Remote IT Support Work?

Remote IT support involves allowing a managed service provider to control IT tools from a location outside your business premises. The MSP provides tech support over high-speed connections and can usually relay solutions over the phone, through email, or via live chat. 

These external technicians will need to have remote access to your IT infrastructure through advanced solutions. Oftentimes, basic remote support is incident-based, although many MSPs also offer more strategic services as well as ongoing monitoring and support.

Pros and Cons of On-Site IT Support 

When it comes to on-site IT support, you essentially have IT professionals integrated into your business. As a result, these professionals can end up with a greater understanding of the business, which could help with running the IT infrastructure as efficiently as possible. 

An additional advantage is that it becomes possible to foster a relationship with your IT team, which can be leveraged in the future. Specifically, working with the same team over long periods translates to these individuals having a greater grasp of your systems and setups, as well as your business goals and metrics of success. 

On the other hand, having on-site IT support has a few downsides. For starters, it can be almost impossible for these professionals to get everything done within the available resources of an SMB, as they will likely end up bogged down by day-to-day IT needs. This can leave no room for creative technology solutions that would see greater innovation and growth. 

An additional disadvantage of having an on-site support team is that the business can end up with a star IT team member who has access to all its critical information and infrastructure. The impact of this is increased key-person risk. IT professionals are in high demand, and employee turnover can have serious consequences.

Finally, depending exclusively on the on-site team can be challenging when the IT issue is beyond the scope of the experts at hand.

Pros of On-Site IT Support

• In-person relationship building

• Business knowledge and experience

Cons of On-Site IT Support

• Risk of turnover, lost knowledge

• Inability to keep up with demand

• Stifled innovation, limited expertise

Pros and Cons of Remote IT Support

The first advantage of outsourcing your IT support is that you gain access to experts that know their stuff, having amassed knowledge through working with diverse companies. MSPs will often have a large pool of experts with a wide range of expertise that an on-site team might not be able to replicate. 

When you partner with a seasoned MSP, they will also offer you strategies to manage your IT infrastructure and optimize existing practices. Moreover, remote IT support experts could be instrumental in boosting your bottom line. Your business benefits from having a team of senior-IT experts without having to pay each a salary. The alternative is an on-site team that requires competitive wages and benefits, and the in-house cost of device procurement, training, and career development. 

Finally, with remote IT support, you can ensure round-the-clock availability of professionals to resolve out-of-hours issues. Overall, by bringing an MSP on board as a partner, you effectively take care of some of the bottlenecks that on-site IT experts might not sufficiently cater to.

While this solution provides quite a number of perks, there can be some downsides to having remote IT support. SMBs must do their research when selecting an MSP to avoid potential issues such as inflexible contracts, additional charges for certain services, slow response times, or an overall lack of visibility. 

Pros of Remote IT Support

• Access to expert knowledge and high-standards of support

• Strategic insights to optimize existing IT infrastructure and practices

• Cost savings and consistency of service

• Out-of-hours support

Cons of Remote IT Support

• Rigid contracts and/or unforeseen costs

• Lack of visibility

• Slow response times, depending on provider

On-Site IT Support vs. Remote Support: Which is Best?

As your SMB grows, it’s natural for your IT demands to increase too. As such, outsourcing IT support to an MSP can be the best choice for businesses as they scale. SMBs already have to grapple with the challenges of having a small team – removing IT support from your plate means you can focus on core processes and leave IT issues to the experts. Moreover, having remote IT support means you can be confident in security patches, firewalls, intrusion detection, and any other problems that might come up within your IT infrastructure. For a managed service provider you can rely on to deliver rapid responses, customized support, and full visibility into your IT, contact Toniolo today.

Managed IT Solutions: What’s Best for Your Business?

If you work in a small to medium-sized business, chances are you have pondered over whether to manage your IT solutions internally, or if you should hire a consultant or external service provider. Having a third party to manage all your technology offers a number of advantages in ensuring your IT is managed both effectively and efficiently – particularly for companies that may not have the technical know-how or financial capital necessary for in-house IT experts. If you’re trying to decide on the best approach for your business, keep reading for everything you need to know about managed IT solutions. 

What are Managed IT Solutions?

Managed IT solutions refer to the external contracting of critical IT management to a third party. This service provider is expected to take on your business’s IT by supporting operations throughout the organization. Their responsibilities may include infrastructure management, data backup and disaster recovery, cloud storage, and network monitoring and security. Additionally, the managed service provider (MSP) is typically responsible for maintaining the organization’s wireless and mobile devices, as well as managing both software and cloud configuration.

What are Managed IT Cloud Solutions?

Suppose your business is looking to move pertinent data to the cloud. A managed IT cloud solution is one curated to offer your business partial or complete management of cloud resources. For this kind of solution, the third party service provider takes care of the migration, configuration, optimization, security, and follow-up maintenance.

A managed cloud service provider (MCSP) is the third-party vendor that essentially replaces the in-house cloud IT expert. In some cases, however, you could have the MCSP simply supplement the in-house team by helping them through the different functions mentioned above.

The benefit of exclusively settling for an MCSP is that your business ends up with greater resource optimization. These professionals can help you choose which cloud services best fit the needs you currently have. What’s more, they can provide you with unbiased reports and performance metrics on existing resources. This provides you with a unique opportunity to improve the configuration that you currently have.

An additional advantage of an MCSP as a managed IT solution is that your business benefits from integrated cloud services. This is particularly useful in a remote or hybrid working environment. These experts take on both the on-premise and cloud resources, thus ensuring everything runs smoothly.

Why Should You Consider Outsourced Managed IT Solutions?

Outsourced managed IT solutions promise a number of advantages for small to medium-sized businesses. Rather than undertaking all of the management involved in the efficient running of your IT infrastructure, outsourcing this responsibility will free up internal resources for other work. When you avail of a third-party service provider, you can also expect cost savings and increased access to a wider range of experts than you may have in house. 

4 Benefits of Outsourced Managed IT Solutions

Regardless of the organization’s size, businesses can reap a number of benefits from outsourced managed IT solutions. These include:

1. Efficiency

You free up your in-house IT team when you outsource to a managed IT solution. This means they can then direct their energies and expertise towards revenue-generating tasks that improve your profit margin. Besides, by expecting your IT department to take care of all of your IT needs, you risk overwhelming them and taking a significant toll on their productivity. 

2. Better Management of Uptime

When you outsource your IT management, you basically hand it over to a team that is not tied down to the same schedule that your in-house team is. This means that the management of said functions can still go on during holidays and off-hours. That translates to no delays when it comes to system updates or maintenance, and can help eliminate any loopholes that a hacker might intend to exploit.

3. Less Pressure to Find IT Talent

IT is a critical department for any business. It could be argued that it holds all business operations together. In view of this, you want to invest in the very best IT talent available. Unfortunately, this can be quite expensive and time-consuming. Going with a managed IT service means that you do not have to find the best of the IT talent pool yourself – you simply gain access to a skilled team from day one. 

4. Predictable Spending and Cost Efficiency

Most MSPs provide you with a tiered subscription system that breaks down the different costs that you pay depending on the range of needs your business has. This means that your business is able to predict just how much you will end up spending for your specific requirements. 

What is the Difference between IT Management Solutions and Hiring a Consultant?

Understanding the difference between IT management solutions and hiring a consultant will help you determine the best IT support for your business. With IT consulting, you hire a third party that will provide you with advice on how best to improve the productivity, communication and efficiency of your IT department and infrastructure during the period of the contract. In many cases, a consultant will be brought on for a short time to support or lead a specific IT project. 

On the other hand, management solutions evaluate the overall function of the business, with the intention of providing both short and long term improvements that are expected to bring about greater operational efficiency. When you hire an MSP, you essentially get a partner who provides you with solutions after they have diagnosed any problems you might have. 

Concisely, managed IT services remotely monitor and manage all of the business’s IT hardware and infrastructure. Usually, the service provider is in charge of configuring, monitoring, and managing cloud services. What’s more, this IT management solution can provide security services, monitoring, penetration testing, threat hunting, and incidence response in a world where small and medium-sized businesses are consistently being targeted by cybercriminals.

Toniolo Powers Managed IT Solutions

Outsourcing managed IT solutions offers extended benefits to small and medium-sized businesses. At Toniolo, we have created structured solutions to meet your business’s IT support and security needs, whether in the office, in a remote working environment, or under a hybrid model. Contact us today and let our experts walk you through our range of modern IT solutions.

How MDM Helps with Compliance

Today’s small and medium sized businesses have a greater need than ever to focus on mobile device management (MDM). In recent years, we’ve seen an accelerated uptake of employees working remotely and in hybrid environments, which in turn has encouraged businesses to adjust and improve their policies on the use of mobile devices. 

Not only does an effective strategy in this space improve employee efficiency, MDM also helps with compliance in a workplace where employees are accessing sensitive data from multiple locations. The main objective of MDM is to improve the security and functionality of all mobile devices used in a business, which helps organizations meet their regulatory compliance obligations. Keep reading to learn more about mobile device management, the role it plays in compliance, and the best practices you should implement in your business. 

What is MDM? 

Mobile Device Management is a piece of software that supports the proper management of devices by a business’s employees by enforcing security policies on tablets, smartphones, and laptops. This technology is ideal for all small businesses since it allows you to remotely monitor, control and secure all data that employees have access to, and reduce your risk of cyber attacks. 

So, What is the Role of MDM in Compliance?

Businesses have always had large amounts of essential data to protect, and a strong business interest in keeping their customer information secure. However, with the rise of data protection mandates such as General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and Know Your Customer (KYC), organizations also have a legal responsibility for ensuring all data is secure and safe.

Whether your business deals with B2B or B2C sales, the ability to meet all regulatory compliance requirements is crucial. Compliance with all of these laws can be challenging, especially if your business operates in multiple geographic locations that are subject to a variety of regulations. However, MDM is an extremely useful tool in simplifying any compliance issues.

Your MDM solution should help you comply with regulations to protect data by providing insights into how device apps are being used and what kind of data is being accessed. It should also help keep corporate and personal data separate and maintain accurate data audits.

Non-compliance can be an organization’s downfall. It has costly consequences, including lawsuits and fines, plummeting stock prices, loss of shares, and a damaged brand reputation. These punishments extend even to non-wilful violations, hence the need for MDM.

How Does MDM in Compliance Work?

Mobile device software can function on-premises or in the cloud. Your IT team should be equipped to configure policies and manage all work-dedicated mobile devices remotely through your MDM software. All devices – whether company provided or BYOD – should be enrolled in your MDM software to facilitate configuration. This allows your business to control what happens on all work-related devices and ensure any usage of these devices meets compliance requirements. 

This process typically works when the MDM server pushes a particular set of commands to be followed by the device through the Application Programming Interfaces (API). Although key to a company’s success, small businesses and organizations must balance the need to secure their company’s data with the employee’s right to privacy. IT administrators can use compliance policies or privacy settings to avoid overstepping on users’ privacy and prevent mistrust.

How MDM Helps with Compliance

Whether you are running a small business or a huge corporation, the use of MDM in compliance will provide you with undeniable benefits. Here are some reasons you need MDM.

Device Control for Simplified Management

With the current business environment dominated by the mobile-first or mobile-only approach, it can be challenging to monitor and control all work-dedicated devices in use and unify the devices for proper management. MDM gives you better options for managing all devices as the technology controls all data and monitors any security breach. Your IT team can apply configuration policies to the devices to keep all data in one place and enhance your management strategy.

Data Security

Without proper management of work mobile devices, a business is at risk of cyberattack. MDM helps protect your business data and devices from these attacks by taking charge of all security measures. This is particularly important considering remote devices can be more vulnerable to such attacks.

Security of corporate data and all devices is achieved by various restriction settings and configuration policies, such as passcodes and using specific apps that align with the business set standards. However, you must ensure your MDM system stays compliant with the rules and regulations provided when applying the remote control.

Reduced Business Costs and Increased Productivity

Mobile Device Management allows you to efficiently manage all devices from a remote location, which helps save time and money. Similarly, MDM usually does not require large investment plans or the hiring of an IT expert. 

The use of MDM also offers an automated management option for multiple devices. This leads to more productivity as technology decreases human errors while increasing speed. Users also reduce time wastage by accessing all company data they need without calling or visiting an IT office.

3 MDM Best Practices for Regulatory Compliance

While it is crucial to protect the integrity of a business by monitoring and securing data through mobile devices, restrictions and prohibitions safeguarding the user’s privacy must be maintained. Follow these MDM best practices to stay compliant with regulatory requirements.

1. Apply Current MDM Technology

Keep your MDM system up to date with the latest developments and upgrades to find new and improved ways of supplementing current approaches. Aim to maintain compliance by adding new strategies regularly.

2. Maintain Data Audits and Governance

Frequently analyse and audit your business data to ensure efficiency and consistency in management and reduce the risks of regulatory compliance violations. Data governance helps you identify the data source, who benefits from it, and how and where it is needed. 

3. Choose an Appropriate MDM Solution

The right MDM solution will align with the compliance requirements and policies of your business. Create an MDM policy that outlines your demands and expectations before implementation to avoid disappointment and improve functionality.

Use MDM to Achieve Compliance

Given the current trends and the percentage of businesses relying on mobile devices to deliver quality products and services, small businesses must leverage valuable data for efficiency and performance. MDM is essential in achieving this goal while also adhering to all regulatory compliance requirements. If you are exploring MDM implementation for your business, or an upgrade to an existing system, Toniolo is here to help. 

What Is MDM (Mobile Device Management)?

The extent to which employees are using mobile devices continues to rise steeply. This trend brings about a new set of considerations for connectivity, privacy, security, and management. Employees have devices running on different operating systems and mobile service providers. This has led to the widespread use of Mobile Device Management (MDM) software.

What Is MDM (Mobile Device Management)?

MDM, or Mobile Device Management, is software that enables IT administrators to secure, control and enforce policies on smartphones, tablets and other devices being used in the workplace.

With the continuous rise in security and data breaches, the MDM software is essential to the modern workplace. The intent of MDM is to optimize the security and functionality of mobile devices within your company while simultaneously protecting the corporate network.

MDM software typically runs either in the cloud or on-premise. Through MDM’s management console, you can remotely manage and configure devices. However, before that, the devices need to be enrolled in the MDM server. This could be done by adding the devices manually with a QR code, a token or email/SMS or via NFC or through vendor-specific enrolment programs that Samsung, Apple and Microsoft offer.

The management console can be used to push applications and configurations to mobile devices over the air. Technically speaking, the MDM software sends out a set of commands applied to devices via application programming interfaces (APIs) directly built in the operating system.

What Are the Features of MDM?

With many providers and several options available in the marketplace, MDM features vary extensively from provider to provider, but below are some of the most crucial:

Productivity

• Device Provisioning

• Application distribution and management

• Application configuration

• Device and app. management from a central console

Inventory

• Automatic, real-time visibility into a device inventory

• Device health (including OS version, battery health, and warranty information)

• Device reporting

• Asset management (only from premier MDM solutions)

Security and Compliance

• Enforcing device data encryption

• Managing device settings and configurations

• Remotely wiping a device when it is lost or stolen

• Organization-wide policy enforcement

What are the limitations of MDM?

While MDM solves an immense challenge, it can be bottlenecked by poor implementation and lack of expertise.

1. Customization: Because every company is different, every implementation of MDM must be tailored to a business’ specific set of challenges.

2. Implementation: MDM typically costs upwards of $5,000 for implementation + $3-9/device/month — Toniolo absorbs these costs.

3. Complexity/ongoing management: Things get complicated quickly when you’re dealing with multiple employees, devices, operating systems, applications and tools. There’s a reason MDM is chiefly a component of enterprise mobile management. It takes an IT staff with specialized knowledge and an extensive track record to get it right. That’s more than many smaller businesses can handle on an ongoing basis.

What Are the Advantages of Using MDM?

Given that mobile devices are easily stolen or lost, you do not want your valuable corporate data being viewed by some random guy or a cab driver. You need the ability to lock, wipe and locate devices used in your workplace, and that’s where MDM comes in handy. Regardless of the size of your business, mobile device management provides vast and indisputable benefits. Here are the top 4 advantages of MDM software.

1. Gives You Control Over All Corporate Mobile Devices

When a variety of devices and operating systems are being used, it may be hard to keep track of them and build unified device management processes. With MDM, your organization can have better visibility over its devices as the software pulls valuable information from managed devices. Since you know the devices in use and their security level, it becomes easier to manage security risks.

MDM also gives you full control over the use of devices and the whole device lifecycle. You can configure devices remotely, replace them on time and handle updates. And if by any chance an employee leaves the company, you can be able to delete all business-related information from the device.

2. Lower Costs and Increased Productivity and Efficiency

With MDM, you can manage every step of device management proficiently from a single platform as well as automate device configurations and enrolments, which helps save time and eventually money. When managing several devices, automation could bring valuable benefits — devices could be set up to thirty minutes faster, and human errors would be decreased. Generally, mobile device management helps you secure devices without massive investments and makes it easier to allow Bring Your Own Device (BYOD).

Additionally, MDM helps enhance employee productivity when end-users don’t have to use excess time visiting the IT department or setting up devices themselves. Rather, they get pre-configured devices and access to necessary applications and data from day one.

3. Meeting Compliance Regulations

Operating by the IT guidelines and standards is of utmost importance to your organization. Nevertheless, it can be hard to ensure that all devices are in compliance when you have so many devices to keep track of. With MDM, compliance initiatives could be managed from one unified console, enabling better protection while operating within the legal requirements.

4. Device and Data Security

Unmanaged mobile devices pose numerous cybersecurity risks. Whereas laptops and PCs normally have pre-installed malware protection, mobile phones and tablets are more vulnerable to cyber-attacks. MDM provides an effective way to secure data and devices. Device and data security can be made certain by several restriction options and configurations.

The use of certain device apps or functionalities can be prevented and the use of passcodes enforced on devices. In the case of the same device used both in the free time and at work, the user’s work data could be separated from personal data, ensuring that sensitive data is secured.

Is MDM Software Secure?

With the widespread use of mobile devices by employees, MDM is no longer a luxury but a necessity for your organization. Whether it is preventing malware, data loss, or your own employee negligence— installing MDM software on your organization’s devices can substantially reduce security risks.

Here are some ways how MDM makes your organization secure:

• Enforcing strict login rules (e.g., two-factor authentication)

• Encrypting all data on devices, making devices inaccessible without an encryption key

• Remotely securing or wiping all the data on a device

• Automatically pushing patch and OS updates

• Standardizing policies company-wide

• Restricting applications by user

In a nutshell, your organization needs MDM software to keep pace with the growing complexity of device types. MDM solutions play a great role in protecting and controlling the configuration and data settings for any mobile device in your network, whether company-owned or personal.

How Can SMBs Benefit from MDM?

Small businesses that cannot afford a dedicated IT professional or team often pile technology tasks on de facto employees. Usually, it’s the person most adept with technology and least intimidated by everyday tech challenges.

Your de facto IT person might be able to manage a few mobile devices, but every additional employee makes that expectation more unrealistic. After all, your de facto IT person has other work to do. Who’s left to do their work when they lack MDM expertise from the start?

The challenges of inventory control and application management are daunting enough. When you add in the security risks and reputation risks, the value of mobile device management becomes readily apparent.

At Toniolo, we partner with industry-leading MDM providers like Addigy for Macs and N-Central for PCs, to automate processes that keep your devices healthy, secure, and up-to-date.

Figuring out all your bases to cover pertaining to MDM is not an easy process to navigate, especially in times like these— and that’s why Toniolo is here to support your organization.