The full scope of IT support can be summed into installation, configuration, troubleshooting, maintenance, and repair of computer systems and information networks in a company.
Every year, businesses spend at least 8.2% of their budgets on IT systems. Yet despite stringent measures put in place to safeguard the company’s wealth of information, IT systems suffer critical security threats, unexpected server downtimes, and network problems – all translating to lost revenue opportunities.
DC IT support companies provide technical solutions to both user and company problems, both remotely and on-premises. IT specialists offer essential services that help protect and administer the company’s information networks efficiently. In this article, we’ll unearth the most crucial roles of the IT support department.
Installation and Configuration of Network Equipment
IT systems are the backbone of vertical and horizontal communication in a company.
The IT support department is responsible for setting up the network infrastructure of the company (including the IP address of the machines and DNS domain names), host and router configuration, user permissions, and other user controls. What’s more, IT support is responsible for the maintenance of the systems that sustain the communication between:
- The business and its customers
- Management and employees
- Employees and other employees
- Departmental and top management
Whether it’s a patient accessing their medical history from a remote database through their smartphone, or an employee submitting a report to their supervisor’s computer in the same location, IT support is of paramount importance in similar interactions.
Disaster Recovery and Backup
Backup and disaster recovery are two distinct concepts that come together in times of natural calamity. Today, natural disaster strikes 6800 times annually. However, disaster doesn’t revolve around natural calamity only – businesses need to watch out for dangerous cyber attacks and system bugs.
In highly competitive markets, data backups are the only guaranteed way to safeguard the company’s data. A complete lack of backups leads to irretrievable data losses, which in our experience, can stagnate the business in a non-operational state for way too long. Once again, IT support swoops in to save the day by establishing remote backups on third-party cloud storage.
Prior to the disaster, the IT support specialists create duplicate copies of the organization’s data on remote databases. They also initiate the disaster response protocol, which sets the rapid restoration of a company’s operations soon after a disaster.
Customer Technical Support
Digital product customers often run into issues ranging from slow servers, corrupted drivers, malware attacks, and blue screens. The IT support team is tasked with troubleshooting the issue.
Generally, technical support splits into two tiers;
- Tier 1 (or Level 1) support interacts with the customer and gathers as much information about the issue as possible. Level 1 support also recommends basic fixes that – in most cases – should get the problem fixed.
- Tier 2 (or Level 2) support handles more complicated technical issues. For instance, customers logged out of the system and cannot get back in, instant computer shut down when the user launches an application and lost data that the user cannot recover.
Technical support rarely goes beyond Level 2 support. On the rare occasion that it does, the IT support department gets in touch with the application’s manufacturer on your behalf. They retrieve the recommended fixes and patches that restore the system back to normal operation.
Computer Systems Repair and Maintenance
Computer systems refer to the hardware and software applications that power a computer’s functionality. Any hardware components (monitors, processing units, storage devices, databases, and other peripherals) and software (operating systems and user applications) are all part of an organization’s computer system.
System failures are often a product of poor maintenance, low system security standards, and normal wear of hardware components. Regardless, the IT support team oversees the replacement of worn-out parts while conducting periodic system upgrades that keep everything running.
Internet Security Awareness Training
Internet security and data protection laws have it tough for companies, especially in highly regulated fields such as medicine, banking, and law. Unfortunately, weak links exist throughout the company, and it is virtually impossible to resolve all of them.
Weak links in the company refer to potential vulnerabilities that a hacker can manipulate to get access to the system. These result from employee ignorance about data protection and internet security and bugs that went undetected in the system’s development. Weak links in the organization should be treated as a serious threat to the system’s security. When not detected and resolved early, they can lead to major losses of credit card information, private medical files, company trade secrets, and other sensitive data to malicious attackers.
IT support offers training programs to teach employees and end users about the best data protection and internet security standards. Internet security awareness training enables employees and users understand their responsibility in keeping the system – and their information – safe. Some of the basic ideas taught to employees include logging out of the system before leaving, setting up strong passwords, and reporting suspicious email activity.
Outsource Your IT Support Roles to Experts in Washington DC
Ticking your IT support bucket list doesn’t always have to be done in-house – especially when the in-house IT support team is swamped in resolving tough issues at the company. At Shipshape IT, we bring extensive skills in troubleshooting a wide range of issues, employee training, and IT infrastructure maintenance so that you focus more on what matters – your business.
We understand what’s at stake in times of unexpected system downtimes and cyberattacks, which is why we treat every issue with the utmost level of seriousness. As long as it’s interfering with your core operations, we’ll strive to troubleshoot the issue and get your system back up and running in no time!
Reach out to us today at 703-312-9040 and book your consultation with us!
