Boost IT FAQs
Q. How can managed IT services help boost my business?
First, our entire mission is solving IT problems and planning for future IT needs. All our resources, people, processes, and partnerships are dedicating to making your information technology tools work for you, not the other way around. Second, your best and brightest people can concentrate on your mission instead of trying to make your information systems work like you need them to. Third, we can make your IT infrastructure and management a predictable investment instead of the varying costs of either supporting IT systems in house or with other service providers.
Q. What services do you offer?
We have concentrated our services in areas that have the most impact on your business. Experience tells us that most small businesses struggle to have adequate security, backup and recovery as part of business continuity plans, help desk support, and systems monitoring and management to keep all their technology in the best possible health. But individual companies differ in their requirements, so we also offer procurement support, maintenance, cloud services like Microsoft Office 365, business continuity planning, ISP (internet provider) selection and onboarding, consulting, mobile device management and internal and external security reporting. In short, we can collaborate with you and our partners to provide complete IT support services.
Q. Can managed services really save me money?
Large enterprises have been saving millions with managed IT services for years. Because of their scale they realized that downtime for networks and applications costs enormous amounts money through lost productivity of their workers. But until recently, only businesses with thousands of users could afford superior quality managed services. We have negotiated with the same world class providers used by global companies so that we can contract at volume levels and offer these services to your small business at prices that are attractive to constrained budgets. The result is that, over time the total cost will be less for better service than you are getting by supporting your IT in house or with other service providers.
Q. Will I still have control?
Usually more control than ever. Because we design service plans around your needs, you tell us what your priorities are and what level of support you expect. In addition, with the right tools to support our processes we can provide detailed reports on the health of your systems and what we have done to keep them in top condition. It is likely this reporting will be more comprehensive than you are getting from either in house staff or from your current provider. This detailed documentation of your assets and configurations is worth its weight in gold when it comes time to make business decisions that will change your technology needs with upgrades or additions.
Q. Is my data secure and are my business plans confidential?
We team up with partners who operate from audited data centers with 24 hour physical security and provide HIPAA or Sarbanes-Oxley compliant solutions when appropriate. These data centers are geographically dispersed for the highest protection from natural disaster and the human resources that support them and you 24/7 and are located in the US. We work hard to ensure your network, your devices, and your data are secure. The plans you share with us are kept confidential and only shared with our partners as necessary to provide you with the best systems and services.
Q. How do you work with my people?
We have found that simple processes make it easier to engage with your people for the best results. First we ASSESS your network with diagnostics to determine how well your current configuration performs. Consulting with your staff, we then STABILIZE your network based on the data from the assessment and what you tell us are your requirements. Then we deploy tools to MANAGE the network by providing all the support your business needs, whether through your existing IT staff or with us acting as primary provider. We can customize your IT environment to GROW according to whatever your business plans dictate. When it is time to move to the next level of technology, we will be there to help you INNOVATE with a game changing plan.
Q. Can you help me align my IT capability with my business processes to make my business more profitable?
Making more money is not always simple but is often a matter of making an existing critical business process more efficient or planning to seamlessly support a new business process with information technology. This is where managed IT services hits it out of the park. Whether you are an engineering firm struggling with how to collect and integrate field data with new devices, a healthcare provider minimizing human error and maximizing reimbursement by making sure only the right data is entered only one time, or a financial services firm integrating a new, feature rich reporting function, Boost IT can consult with your business experts to ensure the right IT solution is implemented. Then making sure your IT solution works perfectly every time by managing the solution 24/7 is a piece of cake.
Q. What type of agreement is required?
Some of our services are time and materials only and require no agreement at all. Of course, we can subscribe for longer terms with our suppliers to get the best terms and lowest costs for you. In general, the best discounts apply to the longer term agreements. We will work closely with you to define length and cancellation terms that meet your needs.
Q. What is the cost?
In all cases, what you spend on support will be far less than the real cost of information technology that is unstable and unusable. We offer comprehensive email, Microsoft Office and file sharing for as little as $15 per month per user. But we also bundle many of our support services together to give you a complete 24/7 help desk supported, secure IT solution with local or cloud backup for a few dollars per day per user. Backup and disaster recovery plans are usually dependent on the volume of data you need to protect. We can also monitor your systems and deliver trouble tickets to your in house staff for pennies per day for each device we monitor. We have a plan that will fit your budget.
Q. How can I be sure you can provide the support I need on time and on budget?
We guarantee it! Part of the stabilization process is to develop a Service Level Agreement. This spells out in detail what our mutual expectations are for a support environment that meets your business need. When we contract to provide you services, we guarantee that your service expectations will be met or we will rebate part of our fee.
Q. How can I tell if I’m a good candidate?
Our experience tells us that most small businesses are faced with some or all of the following issues:
1) The IT environment experiences problems that keep employees from doing their job more often than is acceptable.
2) IT environment is on budget but does not work as planned.
3) IT environment seems okay but is over budget.
4) Management wishes the IT systems would be as worry free as the lights or air-conditioning.
If you have had one or more of these thoughts lately, you should take the Self-Assessment below.