Do You Require an Onsite IT Support Person?

Oh, darn. You logged into your computer this morning to send a big file to your boss, but it’s gone. You’re sure you didn’t delete the file, but you can’t find it anywhere. Technical snafus like these have become a little too common in your office lately. It has your company pondering whether it’s time to look into different IT services. For instance, would onsite IT support in Dallas help your company?

Having an onsite IT support person for your Dallas business is a good idea for these reasons:

• If your staff needs guidance on how to use a certain program or computer feature, they can get it in-person rather than through the phone
• Onsite IT support can address hardware as well as software issues
• An IT support person can come to the office after-hours in an emergency
• The onsite IT pro can identify security or tech vulnerabilities to prevent attacks 
• You can build a relationship with an onsite IT pro so you always know what kind of service you’re getting

Ahead, we’ll discuss the differences between onsite and offsite IT support as well as delve more into the reasons above why hiring an onsite IT support person might be best for your business. You’re not going to want to miss it! 

What Is Onsite IT Support?

Whether you’re a small business with a handful of employees or a Fortune 500 company, having IT support is integral. With an IT professional or team on your side, you can work through computer and tech issues as they arise so productivity never suffers.

IT support can be divided into two categories, onsite and offsite services. Let’s define both and discuss some of the differences between them now. 

Onsite IT Support

If your company enlists the assistance of an onsite IT support person, this pro will physically come to your office and provide their help in person. If your staff has issues with either hardware or software or even both, the IT support pro can look at the affected computer and get to the bottom of what’s wrong with it.

You’ll probably choose to hire onsite IT support rather than go freelance. This way, you can ensure you’re working with the same person each time. As your company grows, you might find the need to expand your onsite IT support services with a team rather than one pro. 

An onsite IT support person might work the standard hours your company is open and/or be on-call for emergencies after hours. Compared to using other IT services such as a helpdesk, onsite IT support is the more expensive option. 

Offsite IT Support

The other option for your Dallas company is offsite IT support. As you could probably guess, an offsite IT support person does not physically work at your office. Since you don’t have them in close proximity, your IT person could be located anywhere, be that elsewhere in the state, clear across the country, or even in another part of the world. That said, the offsite IT support shouldn’t have such a time zone difference to yours that you can’t reach them at crucial times. 

Going offsite with your IT support may be cheaper, but you lack the physical presence you get with onsite services. That can work for some businesses, while for others, they prefer having the presence of an IT pro to rely on.

Like with onsite IT support, offsite IT may include a single person handling the company’s computer needs or a team of individuals working together.  

5 Ways to Know Whether You Need Onsite IT Support

Determining whether it’s best to hire onsite or offsite IT support for your Dallas office can be a daunting task. Although going with the cheaper option may seem incentivizing, cheaper isn’t always better.

Per what we discussed in the intro, here are 5 signs that an onsite IT support person or team is the better choice for your business. 

You Prefer In-Person Guidance When Learning New Tech and Software

When your company updates its software, as it regularly should every few months or so, do you always understand all the new updates or do you need help? If you decide to switch software solutions, is the migration process smooth or do you run into a few bumps along the way? What about the learning curve for the new software? What is that like?

It’s okay if you and your fellow employees struggle with software updates or learning a new program. That’s what an onsite IT support person is there for. They can sit down with you and your staff to go over the program and the updates, showing you in person how it’s supposed to be done.

With offsite IT support, you can get help too, especially with today’s screen-sharing capabilities. However, the assistance you receive over the phone isn’t quite the same as having someone by your side to show you the ropes. That kind of help can only come from onsite IT support. 

You Need Hardware as Well as Software Help

Besides computer software, you may have issues with your hardware from time to time as well. Perhaps it’s a computer that lags unnecessarily, or it’s random blue screens. You could even have an issue like the one we described in the intro, where your files seem to disappear although you didn’t delete them.

Even with today’s screen-sharing abilities, offsite IT support only goes so far. They can’t look at your computer hardware through a screen, as that’s just not how it works. You need an onsite IT support professional who can check both your computer hardware and software and assist when and where you need it. 

You Sometimes Need After-Hours Help

Although both offsite and onsite IT support do offer emergency assistance on nights and weekends, having an onsite IT support person is more advantageous in this area. If you’ve employed an offsite IT team, since you don’t work with them directly, you won’t know if they go home early or aren’t available because of a holiday or personal time or even sick time.

Thus, if you need help on a Wednesday night because your computer fried and you have a big presentation in the morning, whether you can rely on offsite IT support comes down to availability. That can especially be true if the time zone differences between you and the IT team are wide enough.

With an onsite IT support person or team, if it’s explicitly written into their contract that they may need to provide after-hours services, then they’re on-call all the time. You’d only have to contact them and they’d come out to the office and assess whatever the issue is. 

You Want Someone Who Can Periodically Inspect Office Computers for Vulnerabilities

Office computers aren’t cheap, and although yours aren’t the newest models on the block, you want to keep the computers in good shape for the next few years to come. That means regularly inspecting the computers for vulnerabilities such as an outdated antivirus or a disabled firewall. Keeping your computers secure will prevent cyberattacks like viruses or even attempted hackings.

This is another area that–since it’s related to hardware–offsite IT support can’t always help with. Having a trusty onsite IT pro to check all the computers so they’re less vulnerable will save your company time and money. More importantly than that, you can preserve your proprietary information and your reputation, as breaches tend to look bad for all involved. 

You Want to Build a Relationship with Your IT Support

The biggest reason to use onsite IT tech support is for the opportunity to build a relationship with your IT person. Yes, we do so much online today, but when it comes to developing and strengthening a bond, nothing beats good, old face-to-face communication. You’ll get to know your IT support person and they’ll get to know you. 

This makes it easier for the IT person to work with you, as they’ll get a feel for how you do things, which approaches you like, and which you don’t. The next time you have a computer issue and the IT person presents a solution, you’ll feel like that solution was tailor-made for you! 

Conclusion 

Hiring an IT person or team for your business is the easy part of the decision. You next have to choose whether you want onsite or offsite services. The in-person nature of an onsite IT support pro can benefit your business in a multitude of ways. 

You get both hardware and software guidance and support. Also, it’s easier to form a professional relationship when your IT support person is in the office all the time. With their knowledge and expertise, you can build a strong data security system for your company.