Tell me if you can relate to this statement: “My IT provider makes money when my business is struggling.” With the old way of managing technology, this is called the “break-fix” model, where the incentives of technology management are completely backwards. If your server crashes or your network grinds to a halt, the provider’s billable hours start to tick, and they start making money off your misfortune. This creates a conflict of interest and poses a question: “Why would a vendor work hard to prevent problems if those problems are their primary source of revenue?”
We’re here to tell you that we’re not like the others, and for good reason. Our guiding philosophy: a successful IT partnership is one built on a mission of prevention, and we’ll show you what that looks like.
Aligning Incentives Through a Prevention-First Model
It’s no secret that the “repair” model is fundamentally broken.
When you wait for technology to break before it gets fixed, not only are you expecting the provider to be quick with their fix to avoid downtime, but the provider is secretly hoping that their client will call again for more repairs. These are not conditions for a mutually beneficial partnership. With a managed services model, though, the provider is most profitable when the client’s network is 100% stable and optimized for success. The end result: both the business and the IT provider want the same thing, which is zero downtime, zero viruses, and zero “emergency” phone calls.
The priority shifts to 24/7 monitoring and automated maintenance that traps and kills problems while they’re still small enough to handle without a major incident.
Investing in the Invisible Work That Drives Stability
Most of the value of a managed services relationship happens when the client isn’t looking, so the work is often seen as “invisible,” and, therefore, of little value.
This couldn’t be further from the truth. While you might expect an on-site visit from a technician with break-fix IT, the absence of your technician with managed services is a good thing. Issues like patch management can be handled remotely without an on-site visit, and proactive maintenance can occur during off-hours to keep preventative reboots from killing productivity. Managed services also involve performance audits to scan aging hardware or slow hard drives for signs of failure long before they actually kick the bucket.
The name of the game here is efficiency; fires get put out before you ever smell the smoke, which is a good thing.
Turning IT Expenses Into a Predictable Utility
When a business moves away from the break-fix mindset, they’ll see a shift in their IT budgets (in the best way possible).
No more violent, unpredictable spikes from hardware failures. No more “emergency taxes.” Just a steady, manageable operational utility. Your business will achieve budgetary peace of mind, and you’ll know exactly how much your technology will cost month to month with no surprise labor invoices. You can then reinvest the money you’ve saved in this way into your business. That’s right, it’s time for strategic growth!
If your team can stay focused on their jobs instead of slogging through unexpected downtime, you’ll run miles around your competition.
At Lantek, we don’t just fix your computers; we strive to make sure your technology is so reliable that it becomes invisible. We chose Managed over Repair because we firmly believe the most successful IT partnerships are the ones where our clients never have to call for a fix in the first place. It’s this quiet confidence that we want all of our clients to feel, and you could be the next.
Learn more today about how to get started with our services by calling us at (610) 683-6883.