What is IT support?

If you’re having issues with IT support, it’s common to see messages like these:

“Can’t connect to network”

“Restart device now”

“Unable to reset your password”

These are common messages that you may see if you’re running into IT problems in your office or at home. Without professional IT support, you may spend hours or days trying to fix these problems yourself. This can often cost businesses hundreds if not thousands of dollars in addition to wasted time. IT support is the first line of defense to protect you from wasting time and money fixing technical issues related to your devices and network.

IT support refers to technical services and support that IT professionals provide to individuals or companies. IT support may be provided by IT departments within larger organizations or through outsourced IT providers. The general purpose of IT support is to ensure that technology runs smoothly, so business operations can continue.

IT support statistics:

Every $1 invested in IT help desk support generates $3 in revenue for businesses
The average IT support specialist salary is $51,099. This number is expected to increase significantly as demand for IT support continues to increase
The average cost of IT support services is between $100-$225 per employee per month for businesses

What does IT support do?

Solidifies IT infrastructure: IT support helps ensure your business has the technology infrastructure to handle all of your needs. Whether you’re onboarding a new client or upgrading your internal system, IT support will make sure your infrastructure can withstand anything that comes its way.

Protects your IT assets: Your IT assets like your servers, network and infrastructure are extremely valuable and expensive. Issues with any of these IT assets can cost your business thousands of dollars. Your IT support team takes a proactive approach in protecting and managing your IT assets. This will ensure you can maximize the lifetime of each IT asset and prevent spending money on fixing systems and devices.

Ensures IT security: IT support will make sure your business is secure. They protect you against advanced cyber attacks, prevent data breaches and minimize downtime. By ensuring your IT assets are secured, you can focus on the core operations in your business that generate revenue.

Provides IT guidance: With IT support, you will have the best guidance on how to leverage technology in your business. Whether you’re picking a new software to automate your operations or you’re going through a digital transformation, IT support will help guide you to making the best possible IT decision for your business. That’s why it’s always a good idea to research popular IT support companies that can help you with these services as much as possible.

Prevent downtime: One of the key responsibilities of IT support is to prevent downtime in a business. Downtime in a critical business application or system can cause businesses to lose hundreds if not thousands of dollars per hour. From missed sales to dissatisfied customers, experiencing IT downtime in a business is extremely costly.

Different types of IT support:

IT support is a blanket term for all of the support services provided by IT personnel. For example, Mustard IT is an IT support services company. They offer cloud storage, help desk services, cybersecurity, etc. There are many other sub-niches within IT support, some of them include:

Help desk: Help desk, also known as IT help desk, refers to general technical support for businesses. This includes addressing problems with computers, printers, servers, company devices and more. This is typically what most people think of when they talk about IT support. Generally, people within companies submit a ticket to get a problem resolved by the help desk and the IT team handles the issue.

Cybersecurity: IT support also includes cybersecurity services. Many businesses have little to no cybersecurity to protect their data and their customer’s data. With IT support, you can get cybersecurity coverage in the form of antiviruses, VPNs, firewalls, securing endpoints and more.

Data backup and management: IT support also includes backing up and managing the data of an organization. Data backup is often a very overlooked aspect of IT and it can be the most vital. Without data backup, any event or outage can result in the permanent loss of your data. IT support ensures that your business operations will continue to run smoothly with proper data backup and management.

Cost of IT support

The cost of IT support can be calculated in two primary methods: hiring in-house or outsourcing to an IT provider. They can also get really affordable when a unified communication system is the choice. In-house IT support is much more expensive to get started, but it can be the best option for larger businesses. Outsourced IT support offers businesses lower costs and more flexibility.

Cost of in-house IT support: It is also important to consider the average resolution rate for customer support. The salaries include all of the IT staff needed to support your business in addition to all the devices and systems needed. With the average IT support salary just over $50,000 per year, it will likely cost well into the six figures to have a small to mid-sized IT support team.

Cost of outsourced IT support: Outsourced IT support costs are fairly straightforward. IT providers will typically charge companies a flat monthly fee based on the number of employees a business has. This is typically between $100-$225 dollars depending on the services provided. For a small business, you can expect anywhere from $2,000-$8,000 per month to have all of your IT support managed.

The major advantage of using outsourced IT support is that your costs are fixed. When you have an in-house IT team, there are a lot of hidden costs that can arise. This includes