Enfold I.T. was founded on the adage that “Fixing it after it breaks is a losing game.”
My name is Dan Afonso and in 2006 I was working for a local computer support company. The formula for generating revenue and sales at this, and most other, IT companies was simple: something breaks, they call, we fix it, repeat. This works great if the problem happened to be “The fire is out now, can you please rebuild the server after they rebuild the building?”
Thankfully, that scenario is rare but unfortunately the many daily “real problems” that can plague IT infrastructure are not. Taking an overly simplistic approach to fixing these problems is both expensive and unnecessary. Real problems require real solutions.
The bottom line is that most IT problems that businesses experience are avoidable. These are things like printers not printing, drives not showing up on boot, random reboots required to fix things, and backups that may not be working. Many customers virtually insist on being “nickeled and dimed” to treat each symptom when finally unavoidable. Business owners cringe at hiring consultants to “do it right” because they’re never sure what they’re paying for. It’s a struggle not unlike the one between you and your mechanic on whether you really need to have that bearing replaced. (I mean, the whining sound isn’t that loud, right?).
After working in the field for many years and experiencing first hand this struggle play out daily, I started wondering if there were a better way to provide top notch IT services and keep it affordable; enter the Managed Service Solution.
The premise is really simple. Statistically, I spend about x amount of hours over a two year period per piece of equipment at a site and charge $y for those hours. If I were to setup the equipment right the first time, I can reduce those hours by a large factor. Everything will work better with less administration, fewer hours required. I can charge a flat fee for an average of all my time spent fixing the “real problems” and pass the savings on to the customer. They pay less because fewer “real problems” occur since we monitor to spot problems in their infancy. As a matter of fact, one unintended benefit for business owners is they sleep more soundly at night knowing that my team is working to virtually eliminate the chances of a small problem slowly going critical.
I’ve built my business on the principle that high quality life-cycle management of all computer systems and peripherals on a network can be offered for a flat rate. My company delivers a win-win solution to our customers. They experience fewer issues and avoid unpredictable in IT costs. And I get more job satisfaction keeping my customers happy without having to spend my time “putting out fires”.
If you’re ready to sleep more soundly at night, call us. Put your business support technologies in the capable hands of IT professionals with more than 10 years experience. I promise you’ll be glad you did.
Dan Afonso
President, EnfoldIT