This is Part 3 of our 3-part series on Managed IT Services.

What are “Managed IT Services”? Part (3) Remote Monitoring and Asset Management

If you’re still asking yourself “what exactly are Managed IT services?” we suggest you start with Part 1 of our series. (here)

Managed IT Services are available for a wide variety of IT systems and needs relevant to small businesses. This series will cover the 3 most important types of services when it comes to your business’s bottom line: IT Security, Data Protection, and today’s topic: Remote Monitoring/Asset Management. 

Remote Monitoring and Asset Management – The “Bread and Butter” of Managed IT Services

Remote Monitoring and Asset Management (RMM) is the bread and butter of Managed IT Services – this is where it all starts.

Remote Monitoring

At its most basic form, Remote Monitoring means installing software on a client’s computer that reports on items such as operating system version, online state, hardware health (e.g. hard drive, CPU, RAM), and security risks. If any of these variables are not in the correct state, it sends an alert to the Managed IT Services provider (that’s us) to tell us that something is wrong and needs to be addressed.

This service is PRICELESS to companies because it is like having a computer doctor on-site around the clock (without paying a doctor’s salary). For a minimal fee, your entire computer fleet, including servers and network equipment, is monitored 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year. This is incredibly powerful for small businesses, because they are getting “Enterprise” level care at a fraction of the cost that the Fortune 2000 pay.

There are a lot of different Managed IT Services software options on the market. Here at Denver Computer Techs, we use Teamviewer RMM, which we have found to be the best on the market for performance and price.

To dig into the services a bit more, this technology enables us to remotely send updates to your computers to make sure they are staying up to date on security vulnerabilities and to patch software that your company uses. This significantly reduces costs, improves IT security and computer performance, and promotes the longevity of your computers and servers.

Key Takeaway: RMM is an AMAZING tool that Managed IT Services providers use to provide big business IT on small business budgets. The costs for these are fractional compared to what big companies pay for similar services. With RMM, we can prevent security vulnerabilities and update your software programs with the click of a button. RMM also provides live health diagnostics for each computer in your business, helping to mitigate the risks associated with health degradation of systems.

Asset Management

Traditionally, Asset Management means adding the serial number, make, model and user to a spreadsheet… and forgetting about it until the user leaves or the computer breaks. Our asset management tool is a little different than that.

Asset Management at Denver Computer Techs means creating a complete picture of each device you own, including what type of hardware components it has, what operating system it uses, and other identifiers like MAC address and serial number. This can help to identify which computers within the fleet are oldest and need updating first. This service is also what enables us to deploy patches to each machine when the Remote Monitoring tool identifies a need for updates.

Key Takeaway: Our Asset Management tool compliments the Remote Monitoring tool as the “boots on the ground.” After the RMM tool identifies errors, the Asset Management tool allows us to act on those errors and eliminate risk, as well as send necessary updates to your devices, saving money and time for your small business.

Summary

RMMs are great tools that bring your small business’s IT setup from a “pieced together semi-working when it wants to” system to a standardized small business IT network that can grow with your company. This reduces capital expenses because it maximizes the efficiency of your current equipment, which in turn reduces your IT budget, allowing you to allocate that money towards making more money.

Quick Note

If you have read all of the blog posts at this point you should have a pretty good understanding of what Managed IT Services are and how they can help your small business. If for any reason you are stuck on one part or another, please comment below and we will get back to you as soon as we can. Thanks for reading!