Why Reactive IT Support Approach Is Dead

Most companies are still using a reactive IT support approach. They wait for things to break first instead of preventing the issues in the first place. This approach is very bad for modern business. Proactive approach will help you in finding problems before they even occur. Thus, you can proactively protect your network. This is very important as it will help you in reducing the downtime of your applications and network. In this article, we are going to talk about why the reactive IT support approach is dead in the digital era.

What is reactive IT support?

Reactive IT support simply means that your IT support team will first wait for things to break. After that, they will focus on fixing the IT issues. Due to this, your network can be down for a long time. The reactive IT support approach doesn’t focus on preventing the problems before they even occur.

Reactive IT support was used heavily in the 2000s. It was the only type of approach possible. However, there are various system management and modern analytics tool available in the market. These tools will help you in monitoring your systems and networks. The game is again changing after the rise of the AI predictive models. These AI models can learn by checking your network. Thus, they can predict events before they even happen.

However, still, some businesses are sticking with the old reactive approach. These businesses don’t understand the damage caused by reactive IT support.

Most companies go for the cheapest IT support option available in the market. They will work with the IT provider who is providing IT support at the lowest possible cost. These IT providers generally don’t have access to a proactive approach. They don’t have access to advanced tools that they can use for preventing problems. These IT providers will use the old break/fix approach to solve your issues. It will also help them in getting a better margin for your clients.

Disadvantages of reactive IT support approach

1. Your core applications will remain vulnerable

IT is very important for your business. Every department is now dependent on technology. If there is some problem with your IT, then it will have a huge impact on your business. Your employees can’t complete their work if your network is down. If you are providing some online service to your customers, then downtime will be very bad for your business. Your customers will move to other platforms due to frequent downtime.

If you are using a reactive IT support approach, then these problems will become more frequent. You will constantly deal with these large and small problems. Reactive support is actually not bad at fixing problems. However, sometimes this approach can be too late for your business. Your IT support team will first waste a lot of their time in finding the actual cause of the problem. After that, your IT team will start working on the problem.

The issues will first cause pain in the reactive approach. Due to this, you can lose a lot of potential revenue.

The continual improvement mindset is also missing in the reactive approach. This mindset is actually the main benefit of the proactive approach. In a reactive approach, you will never know about the issues before they start impacting your business. You can’t use past experience for dealing with current issues. A proactive approach will help you in using the past experience for solving the current issues. This will help you in eliminating all the common issues from your IT infrastructure.

A proactive approach should become the default mode for businesses. However, very few IT providers are actually providing a proactive approach to their clients. Experienced MSPs like Bleuwire are using a proactive IT support approach for reducing the downtime of their clients. They will proactively monitor your network for issues. This will ensure that your issues will get fixed before they even impact your business. In case of an issue, this data will actually help you in finding the root cause of the problem. Thus, you can quickly fix the problem. This will help you in minimizing employee downtime and reducing damage.

2. Negligent to your customers

Your clients will feel the effects of the issues before your IT support provider starts working on them. Sometimes a virus in your web server can slow down your website or make it unresponsive. Due to this, your customers will be locked out of your website. A failed piece of equipment or hardware will simply mean that you have lost important data. These types of issues mostly happen when you are working with a reactive IT support partner.

Outages are probably the biggest problem that businesses are facing. If your clients are facing frequent outages, then they will simply move to other platforms.

You might also have SLAs with your clients. It is important to ensure that you are meeting these SLAs. If you are not meeting the minimum standards, then you might need to pay some penalties. However, the financial penalties are actually not the biggest problem. You will lose your customers due to this. Also, this will hurt your business reputation.

3. Allows issues to grow

In a reactive approach, you will only fix the problems after they are having an impact. This simply means that your IT partner will ignore the issues that are not having an impact on your business. Due to this, they will let some issues grow. These issues will become big with time and cause huge damage.

For example, consider that the laptop of your business director was hacked by attackers. They are asking for ransom for unencrypting the data. Due to this, you will lose access to important files. You might try recovering your files from the data backup. However, you might find out that the backup snapshot is actually weeks old. The backup tool was facing some problems. Due to this, you have lost most of your data.

This is the main disadvantage of the reactive IT support approach. In a proactive IT support approach, your partner will always look for issues in your network. They will make sure that your backup is working properly.

There are several other cases where you can waste a lot of time due to the reactive approach. Your marketing or finance department might find out that their tools are not working. Their software license key is expired. It will now take days or even weeks to get a new license key. Your team will waste a lot of time due to this. This will reduce the efficiency of your employees. In a proactive IT support approach, your partner will check your tools regularly. If your software license is about to expire, then they will send an alert to your IT team. You can renew the software before it stops working.

There is also no guarantee that in reactive IT support your issues will be fixed properly. Sometimes the same issue can arise in the future. Thus, you need to pay again for fixing the same issue. This can be solved by using the proactive IT support approach. It will help you in finding the root cause of the problem. Thus, your IT partner will help you in fixing the root cause of the problem. It will also store the problem in their database. If a similar problem occurs in the future, then they will solve it quickly.

Experienced IT providers like Bleuwire will flag important issues as non-conformances. They will make sure that these issues won’t arise in the future by using the appropriate controls. You don’t need to worry about fixing the same problem again and again. Your IT infrastructure will also become more resilient with time.

4. Blind to vulnerabilities

Most businesses only think about DDoS or ransomware attacks when they hear about cyber attacks. These attacks are visible to everyone. However, most viruses are designed in a different way. The main aim of malware is to steal data without getting deleted. Thus, attackers will make sure that this malware will stay hidden in your network. They will try to steal as much data as they can. You can lose your entire business due to this.

According to a report from the Fireeye, businesses find malware after almost 146 days. Malware will steal most of your data at this time. Thus, it is important to make sure that you are using the best monitoring tools available in the market. However, monitoring is actually not done in the reactive IT support approach. Thus, your IT infrastructure will be open to hidden vulnerabilities. It will become impossible to find hidden malware in your network.

Hidden spyware can steal most of your business data. This will result in a data breach. You might also need to face a GDPR fine due to this. Ransomware can also move into your network before striking your business. They will first start from an employee system and finally move to all the other systems. Due to this, all your systems and files will get locked.

Many attackers are also using crypto-hacking now. These attacks can wear down hardware. Hidden viruses can also affect your business devices. You will waste a lot of money and time in removing these hidden viruses.

Proactive monitoring will help you in avoiding these problems. Experienced MSPs like Bleuwire will always check your network for vulnerabilities and malware. This will ensure that you can quickly find the malware present in your network. Thus, a proactive IT support approach will help you in minimizing the damage caused by cyber-attacks.

5. Normalize failure

If you are using reactive IT support, then issues will become more common with time. The volume of these IT problems will overwhelm your employees. Due to this, your employees can either leave your company or they will get used to it.

If your employees are leaving your company, then you need to spend money on hiring new employees. The cost to replace a trained employee is too high. Thus, it is important to retain your employees.

Employees are getting used to these issues will also become a problem for your business. They will waste most of their time.

6. Reduced efficiency

In a reactive approach, you need to deal with every small issue. Your employees need to waste their time solving these small issues. You might need to call your IT support service desk. This will reduce the employees of your employees as they can’t complete their work.

For example, if a simple problem is taking 10 minutes to identify and fix and all your employees are facing the problem once every day. Your employees will waste 33 hours every week due to this small problem. They will waste around 132 hours every month due to a simple problem. In a year, more than 1500 hours will be wasted.

7. Proactivity is feasible

This list should convince you to switch to the proactive IT support approach. However, these points don’t highlight all the dangers of using a proactive IT support approach. The proactive support approach is an upgrade. You can’t compare it with the old reactive approach. Many good MSPs are providing proactive IT support services to their clients.

How can Bleuwire help your business?

IT support is very important for every business. Bleuwire can provide IT support services to your business. They are using a proactive IT support approach for improving the quality of IT support. Bleuwire will regularly monitor your IT infrastructure for bugs and vulnerabilities. This will ensure that your network is protected from bugs. Also, they will help you in solving your IT queries. Thus, you don’t need to worry about hiring your own in-house IT support team. Your IT team doesn’t need to worry about solving simple IT problems. They can focus on your core applications. If you need more information regarding IT services, then you can contact Bleuwire.

Contact us today to learn about Bleuwire™  services and solutions in how we can help your business.