What is Remote Maintenance?

The coronavirus pandemic forced many industries to undergo huge change, especially in the shift to working from home. Businesses were forced to adopt new strategies and policies with the goal of reducing face-to-face contact. On-site maintenance is a cornerstone practice of a Managed Services Provider. However, due to the pandemic, businesses last year were forced to adopt remote maintenance and monitoring services. Although, remote IT maintenance and monitoring isn’t new and wasn’t born out of the pandemic. Remote maintenance has long been a more attractive alternative to on-site maintenance for its effectiveness and responsiveness. Remote maintenance can be confusing as it reduces the visibility you would get with general on-site maintenance. However, the benefits of the remote option generally outweigh on-site maintenance. Going into 2022 it seems that Below, we will discuss what is remote maintenance, what it includes, how it works and how it can benefit your business. 

What is remote maintenance?

Maintenance is a key aspect of Managed Services. Remote maintenance simply allows a Managed Service Provider like Milnsbridge IT to constantly monitor your business’ devices and other equipment such as servers. So if an issue occurs on your device, remote software can detect it, alert the team and have it fixed within seconds/minutes. This is opposed to your devices only being looked at by a technician on your scheduled maintenance day. The issue is that this may only occur weekly, fortnightly or monthly. Therefore, an issue could go unnoticed until your next maintenance visit.

How does remote maintenance work?

Maintenance is ultimately one of the most valuable tools a Managed Service Provider can equip your business with. Remote maintenance is constantly monitoring devices and endpoints. Because of this it has the ability to pro-actively detect, alert and fix any exposed issues within mere seconds. Whereas with onsite maintenance, threats or problems can sit idly between visits which whilst undetected could cause disastrous downtime.  

Similarly, remote maintenance works to automatically update software, operating system and antivirus software patches without causing disruption to the workplace. Onsite maintenance visits where patch updates occur can be timely and disruptive to an office’s generally work-flow. 

Due to the nature of this type of maintenance, in-detail reports of usage, updates and detected issues can also be made available for your business to gain transparency with remote maintenance services. 

How can opting for remote maintenance benefit your business?

• Detect system and device issues within seconds rather than waiting for your scheduled visit with real-time monitoring.
• Pro-actively fixing issues within seconds from when they arise can mediate the risk of an undetected IT fault sending your business into costly downtime.

• Automated actions such as patch updates, software and antivirus updates – typically while the user is offline in order to not be disruptive to work flow.
  – Automating processes that can generally be timely and disruptive not only promotes productivity, but you will also have peace of mind knowing that your software and operating systems will always be patched and up to date – free from human error.
• Implement the automation of other actions and services such as creating system restore points for backup.
• Remote maintenance can provide you with in-detail reports and analytics that provide invaluable insight.
  – Remote maintenance will monitor your devices and automate system requirements to keep your device running smoothly. However, just because you don’t see your site engineer do your maintenance doesn’t mean you lose transparency.
  – The data collected during monitoring and automation can be formatted into reports that can in turn help you identify gaps in your IT and theorise future IT projects that may be needed.

The rise of remote maintenance in the wake of the global pandemic

The global coronavirus pandemic last year saw most of the world shut. With it, many traditional ways of business and operating changed too. Onsite maintenance has been an important part of business and Managed Service Provider relations. However, it was unable to continue in a global push to minimise unnecessary contact. With the majority of the workforce working from home, many businesses reluctantly adopted the alternative remote monitoring and maintenance solution. However reluctant at first, most businesses came to find the value of remote maintainance. Mostly for its cost effectiveness, peace of mind, efficiency and transparency. 

With the general return of the workforce back to their offices, businesses have continued seen the value of remote servicing. Despite having always existing, but maturing over time, people have been reluctant to adopt remote maintenance solutions. However, in a world where possible threats that require immediate detection in order to avoid disaster the benefits of remote maintenance and its ability to be constantly monitoring forms a key part of Managed IT Services pricing options.

The adoption of remote maintenance by businesses is on the rise. That isn’t to say that there’s no place for onsite maintenance anymore. The face-to-face interaction between a business and the Managed Service Provider is invaluable. However, onsite maintenance can be flawed in its inability to consistently monitor, react and fix issues instantaneously. Onsite maintenance also struggles to centralise solutions under a reliable system, free from human error.  

If you are interested in learning more about IT maintenance and management or would like to discuss managed solutions, give Milnsbridge a call on 1300 300 293 to find an it msp near me.