Limitations to Break-Fix

Break-Fix is reactive IT support….you call in for technical support when something goes wrong, This reactive model might pose limitations to your business or school running at its peak. Consider the following:

• Do you know if your backups fail to run? If they are not being monitored, you may not be aware of it until you really need your data. What damage is done when you do not have access to weeks or months worth of documents, work in progress, orders, etc? Can you recreate them?
• Any one of your workstations or your server’s antivirus expires – something that ordinarily might not be noticed…until a virus runs rampant through your network. Workstations cannot boot until the virus is cleaned out, and perhaps they require a complete rebuild.
• Your firewall or threat-management platform (you do have one…?) is not monitored, and a spam-bot lands on your network, and starts sending out tons of traffic unbeknownst to you. Your domain may become blacklisted, your ISP halts service, and Internet and email are shut down.
• Compromised performance and incompatibilities with new software or devices can be the result if your IT assets are not monitored on a regular basis and your systems become outdated. Budgeting for upgrades is less disruptive than being forced into them.

The impact of downtime on reputation and other intangible costs

The reactive, Break/Fix model of computer support can be costly in other ways:

• Downtime can be damaging to your business reputation, resulting in short-term and long-term lost business with customers, diverted employee time spent on attempting to resolve IT issues, employee overtime, higher emergency off-hours fees
• Downtime can have intangible costs – lost opportunities, a drop in customer loyalty, and a loss in employee morale.

Remote monitoring and management capabilities and other IT managed services from Fossie Consulting can help prevent these issues from arising to a point where the cost of being proactive rather than reactive is better for your environment.