From Proactive to Reactive, Intellicom has you Covered
A growing number of outsourced IT providers are settling on a business model that requires their customers to meet certain criteria – which the provider sets – in order to do business together.
publish date: May 15, 2019
From Proactive to Reactive, Intellicom has you Covered
A growing number of outsourced IT providers are settling on a business model that requires their customers to meet certain criteria – which the provider sets – in order to do business together. Minimum standards are set for hardware and software, and businesses that don’t comply are not serviced by the IT consulting firm. Customers who can’t or don’t want to fit are “fired.” Handling things this way causes the IT provider to reduce their customer base somewhat so they can focus only on clients who fit the way the provider wants them to do business.
This trend flows over to the billing model as well: many providers now only offer a single one-size-fits-all, all-you-can-eat pricing option based on the total number of users or devices. This leaves customers who want to be billed differently, or who want to select a la cart the services they need, out in the cold. Is this a more profitable model for the IT provider? Certainly, but in our opinion it loses sight of one critical consideration: the wants and needs of the customer! Intellicom, by choice, is different. We will remain flexible, and sensitive to our individual customers’ needs, and we will never force any customer to buy something they do not need. Here are some ways that we continue to set ourselves apart from the “new normal” IT provider model:
Recognition that businesses grow stages
Intellicom can provide your business with the services you need along both ends of a spectrum. Imagine on one end of the spectrum there is a label that reads… “call us when you need us.” We are happy to help in these instances and will do all we can to help create great outcomes. This model - the reactive approach – carries with it a degree of risk, and expenses can fluctuate pretty wildly from month to month, but it may be the right approach for certain companies.
On the other end of the spectrum is the proactive approach. Here, we can provide your business with total network management. This may include managed services, proactive maintenance like patching, virtual CIO services, weekly scheduled on-site visits by engineers or technicians, participation in planning and budgeting discussions, etc.. This model provides a more predictable monthly IT spend, heads off many issues before they become problems, and is geared toward driving risk out of the equation by keeping systems up to date and functioning at their peak.
Collaboration yields positive results
A lot of IT companies today try to dictate how their customers should handle their technology, with a blanket approach. At Intellicom, we opt to take a more collaborative approach with our clients. To be effective collaborators, we know it is paramount that we listen in order to gain a solid understanding about each customer and about every unique situation.
Small and medium-sized businesses need effective technology solutions, and in that way they are similar to much bigger corporations. Intellicom brings to our customers a large selection of solutions, and the expertise to help make a great decision about what will work best for them... including solutions for network design, server administration, cloud computing, structured cabling, security cameras, access control, backups, website development, staff augmentation, budgeting, etc.. When a business finds the right combination of technology, and uses it effectively, it maximizes both its operations and its prospects for continuing growth.
Intellicom is committed to putting the needs of your business first and not painting you into a corner with services that you don’t want or need, or a business model that is not a good fit for you. Same thing with billing. While our billing is simple and easy to understand, we can be flexible when needed and set up custom billing options that fit the needs of each customer.
As more and more IT providers adopt the approach of addressing different problems with the same solutions, we at Intellicom pride ourselves in having the right mix of options to fix any problem with a sound solution. I invite you to call us, any time, to talk about which technologies will work best for what is most important… your company.