Advantages of classical msp
Answers
Answer:
The most common situation for joint participation in IT support is when one or more applications require frequent attention. For example, many law firms use document management software to track and categorize all their documents and electronic communications. Characteristics of this type of software include:
It is critical to the operation of the company.
It is sufficiently complex to require specific knowledge to maintain.
It “integrates” with other software (for example, a document management application that pops up whenever a user saves a document, and therefore must “attach” itself to Word and Excel).
It is finicky – that is, it breaks a lot.
Product-specific support requires a direct relationship with a manufacturer or third-party specialty vendor.
In a small company, management and maintenance of such software may reasonably fall to an MSP, but it may involve an additional fee to compensate for the additional work. Either way, maintaining such software always requires an agreement between the MSP and the company about the lines of demarcation between the MSP and the company.
What we see often – and this is invariably a terrible solution – is the delegation of maintenance to an employee in the company who has other responsibilities. The solution is terrible because:
It distracts an employee from doing their principal job function, often leading to overworked and frustrated employees – both the responsible person and the others who depend on them.
It assigns responsibility to someone likely to be less skilled – and therefore less aware of latent risks – than an IT or application specialist.
It may elevate an employee’s self-image to the point where they believe they know more about IT than they do – leading to silly and inadvertent risk-taking.
The impact of an under-skilled or overzealous employee’s mistakes may be very harmful to the operation of the application or the entire network – leading to downtime.
The employee may get “drafted” into providing additional support more suitable to the MSP.
The employee may lean on the MSP for support in ways not specified by contract, including requiring the MSP to solve problems caused by the employee which, otherwise, would fall to the MSP.
Busy employees may fail to document thoroughly the work they do, leading to problems when they are away from work during which the MSP does have to provide coverage.
Employees may leave the company, leaving a gaping hole in support.