Why Proactive Innovation is the Key Ingredient in Your IT Support

On October 4, 2021, smartphones all over the world were greeted by confused looks from their owners. Facebook, Messenger, Instagram, and WhatsApp were all down. While there was much speculation about a cyberattack, Facebook’s official stance was that the outage was caused by an internal IT issue: 

“Our engineering teams have learned that configuration changes on the backbone routers that coordinate network traffic between our data centres caused issues that interrupted this communication. This disruption to network traffic had a cascading effect on the way our data centres communicate, bringing our services to a halt.”

This single IT problem brought the multi-billion-dollar company to its knees for six hours. As the minutes ticked by, Facebook haemorrhaged millions in revenue, leading to a staggering valuation drop of 5% before the day was out. For a company with earnings of US$85.9 billion in 2020 alone, this was a significant loss. 

The events of October 4 lead us to an uncomfortable truth: If a company of Facebook’s magnitude can be hit with such a costly and time-consuming disruption, it can happen to anyone. This is why a proactive approach to IT management and support is central to Invotec’s methodology as a Managed Services Provider (MSP). 

How do I know if I’m getting proactive IT support?

Though every Australian MSP works differently, in general, Managed Service Providers deliver application, infrastructure, network, and security services. Active administration and ongoing support are part of the package, but one of the major points of difference between MSPs lies in how proactive their approach to this administration and support is. 

At the bare minimum, you want to be receiving timely resolutions when issues arise. As we learned from the 2021 Facebook debacle, IT glitches can and do happen to even the most prepared companies. However, in situations like this, every second counts. Indeed, research and advisory company Gartner found that the average cost of IT downtime is US$5,600 per minute. This means a minimally proactive MSP will offer round-the-clock support and will not keep you waiting when you need a resolution.  

Invotec takes this proactivity a step further by checking in regularly without being called about problems. This approach enables us to: 

• Fix small issues before they snowball;
• Conduct preventive maintenance;
• Ensure there are no chinks in your cybersecurity armour;
• Discuss opportunities for improvement; 
• Provide the latest information and industry insights to help you get an edge on the competition in terms of your tech.

Our technicians work in this field because they love technology and innovation, so part of their service is to be ahead of industry trends so they can pre-plan implementation of technology before you need it. This saves you the wasted time and frustration that arises from playing catch-up when upgrades are necessary. 

Invotec’s approach is to stop problems before they start, and a big part of this involves helping clients understand their systems and the technology we use to support them. This means you’ll hear no incomprehensible technical jargon. Instead, you’ll have friendly, round-the-clock support from technicians who know their stuff so well that they can explain it to even the most uninitiated members of your team. 

If a proactive approach is central to your work ethic, or you’re starting to realise it should be, we’d be happy to connect. Call, email, or use the form below to arrange a free consultation with one of our expert technicians.