Will remote IT Support remove the need for an onsite engineer?

Thanks to the internet and the wonderful invention of remote technology, the need for ‘local’ it support is diminishing. Computers and computer networks can now be fixed from anywhere in the world thanks to remote applications such as Team viewer, go to my pc and good old VMC viewer.

But is this really the case? Are we do completely do away with our local IT company and outsource to a cheaper alternative or will the local company around the corner always be required in order to avoid business critical downtime? The need for both remote and local support is up for debate; let’s take a look at the pros and cons;

Remote IT support is fine and it is true to say that most problems can be solved remotely, but there is one thing remote support relies on and that is network connectivity. If you internet goes down or your switch blows up then your remote is completely useless and you are left stranded. If you are based in London and your IT Company is in Birmingham then you could be facing many hours of business critical downtime, downtime that will render most business environments completely useless.

Another alternative is to outsource your day to day support to an overseas company and use a local business on and Ad-hoc ‘pay as you go’ basis so you are covering all bases. With this approach there are two things to consider, 1) Will the level of support you receive overseas be to the standard you require? And 2) what or of SLA will your AD-hoc IT support contract entail?

Let’s be honest, computer support companies don’t have engineers sitting around all day waiting for ad-hoc clients to call in with problems, they are all dealing with other issues. What guarantee do you have that they are going to be out onsite immediately if your network goes down? If your network goes down then can you really afford to wait until your IT company has a slot available for an engineer to visit, because unless you are paying through the nose for a priority service then you will be treated like any other client.

The solution is to find a local reputable IT Support company that can offer both solutions at a price you can afford. Dog around and they are out there I promise you, especially in cities and major towns. All professional IT Support companies will offer a mixture of remote and onsite services and using a local company will solve the problem of onsite support. The only thing you will have to consider is the price, you may have to pay a bit more than outsourcing overseas but the cost will be more than justified if you need emergency onsite support. Alternatively depending on the size of your business, you may want to employ a full time IT Manager, but be prepared to pay through the nose for that luxury….

Conclusions. Onsite IT Support will always be a requirement, no matter how much of your infrastructure you move to the cloud. Remote IT Support will always be the quick fix we all need, but it will never fully replace the good old foot soldier J