Information technology these days is closely intertwined with traditional business areas, so more and more companies order IT services for the organization and maintenance of computer infrastructure. Qualified technical support brings a lot of advantages to entrepreneurs: it increases labor productivity, maintains equipment availability, saves salary fund. With its help it is possible to ensure uninterrupted work of the enterprise and react in time to critical incidents in the working process. And today we’ll talk about the types of IT services that affect business!
What Are IT Services?
Without skilled support of IT-systems it is impossible to achieve safe and stable operation of the company. Partial or complete failure of computer equipment may lead to loss of important information and subsequent financial losses, so IT infrastructure of the enterprise requires maintenance, configuration and intervention in case of emergency situations.
IT services refers to a wide range of organizational and technical solutions aimed at qualified IT support. These include:
- design of IT systems with the selection of software and necessary equipment;
- Maintaining computer networks in working order;
- diagnosis and preventive maintenance of computers, office equipment;
- setup, maintenance of servers, workstations;
- organization of access to the Internet;
- providing anti-virus protection and regular data backup;
- restoration of equipment after failures or breakdowns.
At large enterprises all these activities are usually performed by internal IT departments, but if their maintenance is too expensive, external organizations are involved in the provision of IT services. The main requirements for such companies are effective planning of new solutions, guarantee of return on investment and the ability to quickly adapt the existing infrastructure to changing business processes.
Types of IT Services
Since the provision of IT services involves several participants, each firm independently selects for itself the varieties of services it needs. Most often, IT service providers distinguish the following main areas of their activities:
- IT outsourcing
- IT-consulting
- outstaffing
- IT support
- Implementation of information systems
- IT training
IT Outsourcing
IT outsourcing is the transfer by the client of the current IT system maintenance functions to an external company. The service is provided on the basis of a contract, and the contractor guarantees the customer the accurate fulfillment of all tasks. Thanks to IT-outsourcing it is possible to reduce the cost of maintaining a permanent specialist in the staff of the company, to get favorable conditions for the purchase of software and office equipment, to achieve rapid performance in the event of equipment problems. Outsourcer provides a clear plan for infrastructure development and provides a single point of entry to perform the necessary tasks.
The Scope of The Outsourced Organization Includes:
- computer infrastructure audit;
- computer maintenance and repair;
- installing and configuring the software;
- ensuring data safety and security;
- administration of corporate services;
- consulting support.
The service helps to achieve stable operation of the information system with prompt solution of force majeure problems. Specialists are responsible for proper functioning of local network, servers, e-mail, perform data protection or recovery, quickly fix any possible defects and critical errors.
IT Consulting
IT consulting is based on a complex of works aimed at creation or reorganization of IT infrastructure of the company. Specialists evaluate IT systems for their compliance with business requirements and organize effective IT management structure. IT consulting services of the company may include:
- IT auditing;
- developing a strategy for the development of the existing computer system and business continuity;
- assessment of the effectiveness of the corporate systems in use;
- optimization of IT-infrastructure.
Outstaffing
In simple words, this IT service implies that a third-party organization becomes an official employer of employees of the client company, with the staff continuing to work in their enterprise and perform their former functions. Thanks to this approach, the company eliminates the need to keep personnel records and reduces its payroll costs by about 30%.
IT Support
IT support is the maintenance and modernization of the IT infrastructure in the enterprise. The service is provided by outsourcing companies that have the necessary staff of engineers. Support is expressed in the professional management of hardware and software, which are used for the correct course of business processes.
Implementation of Information Systems
Let’s say you need to run a new system in the enterprise. The task should be treated as a project, since the upcoming work meets three basic criteria:
- the activity is limited in time;
- a certain amount of financial and labor resources is allocated;
- peculiarities of business processes of a particular enterprise are taken into account, so a unique result will be obtained.
For the successful completion of any project requires a complex management, so in the implementation of information systems are applicable recommendations of the international standard PMBOK (Project Management Body Of Knowledge). It deals with areas of knowledge about integration, content, schedule, cost, quality, resources, communications, risks, procurement and stakeholders of the project.
IT Training
Information technologies of training is a set of electronic means and ways of their functioning, used to implement learning activities.
These can include:
– electronic computer textbooks;
– training databases;
– Test and control programs and other computer tools that allow storage, transfer of educational information and checking the correctness of its digestion by students;
– computer simulators;
– computer laboratory workshops;
– expert-learning systems that allow the student in the course of educational research to extract knowledge on the subject area under study.
Information learning technologies are a set of electronic means and ways of their functioning, used to implement learning activities.
Bottom Line
As a result, we can say that the provision of IT services can be carried out both on a one-time basis (in the form of attracting a qualified specialist for some work) and as a subscription service. The latter has the advantage that the client enterprise can do without an internal IT department or an in-house system administrator (depending on the scale of the business). As part of subscriber services, an employee of an outsourcing company providing IT services comes to the client’s office and performs maintenance of their information systems. In general, in this article we have covered the main issues.
