Wouldn’t it be nice to have Mary Poppins around to keep your house in order? She would always make sure that things were “spit spot,” efficient, and you’d never run out of dish soap because she’d let you know when you were running low.
Well, she probably would…if she wasn’t just a fictional character.
Having Mary Poppins looking out for you would be amazing, but that level of service and attention is only fantasy. Of course, you can hire a cleaning service to come in for a couple hours. But unless your house is in pretty good shape already or you can hire them for a lot of hours, the time you paid for will probably go by very quickly.
The cleaning person might only have time to organize a pantry or deep clean your cupboards — whatever is most pressing. But they won’t have time to fix everything, set up a system to keep everything in order or keep everything running smoothly.
Block time vs. managed IT services (MSPs)
What do Mary Poppins vs. a cleaning service have to do with IT? They illustrate the difference between MSPs and block time IT Services.
When a business uses block time, they pay for a set number of hours of service in a month. They might end up not using all of the purchased time, or end up needing more…and having to pay overages.
During the block time hours, technicians must address the most pressing issues (like repairing broken equipment) — and don’t have time to address the underlying causes (like the equipment being outdated and liable to break again). This often results in more of a break/fix approach to IT. Block time is like the cleaning service that comes to help for a couple of hours but usually doesn’t have enough time to get everything completely clean and organized.
Like Mary Poppins…but an MSP’s service isn’t fictional
The difference between block time vs. managed IT services is a proactive vs. reactive approach to IT. Instead of just fixing something when it goes wrong, MSPs make sure equipment, software, and processes are up to date and in working order — to prevent issues before they occur. At Varay Managed IT, we offer 24/7 monitoring to catch and alert you to issues before they result in downtime. When something does go wrong, we have guaranteed response times.
An MSP is the IT equivalent of Mary Poppins — able to optimize your tech environment and address the roots of IT issues. And without a time limit! This keeps these problems from recurring AND increases efficiency to help your business achieve its goals.
When is block time the best choice?
We are (obviously) fans of managed IT. However, there are circumstances in which purchasing block time might be the right choice for your business:
- When you rarely have IT problems
- When your internal IT is very in-tune which your company and only needs occasional tech help
- When your company just wants “IT insurance” in case something goes awry
- When your business only needs “remote hands” to take care of issues on another site
In the block time vs. managed IT services debate, sometimes block time is the best fit for a business. If that is your company, Varay can still help!
However, if you’re tired of dealing with IT headaches and want us looking out for you 24/7, we’ll be your Mary…er…Varay Poppins. The streamlined, seamless service you’ve dreamed of can be a reality.
Contact us for a free consultation to find out the level of service your business needs.
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