Are you old enough to remember full service gas stations? You roll up to the pump, the attendant runs to the window and you tell them to “fill ‘er up.” They pump your gas and wash the windshield. You pop the hood and they check the oil, then show you the dipstick. “Looks like you’re a quart low.”

You drive away secure in the knowledge that your car has the proper amount of oil and there is little chance that your engine will seize on the ride home. In this self-serve world we live in, what are the odds that you would think to check the oil the next time you fill the tank?

You can wait for the “check engine” light to come on, but by then, it may be too late. There may be engine damage that will require a lot more work, time and money to fix. The gas station attendant was being proactive – checking the oil before it became an issue. The “check engine” light was a reactive response – alerting the driver that there is an issue.

The reactive approach when it comes to IT services is called “break/fix.” Where something goes wrong with your IT equipment, so you call in an IT consultant to fix it. He spends hours or days or weeks diagnosing, then eliminating the problem. In the meantime, your computer/network dependent business comes to a grinding halt.

Many Managed Service Providers (MSPs) have moved away from the break/fix model and have migrated toward providing ongoing services for a fixed monthly fee. This approach gives the MSP the opportunity to stay on top of tech and network issues so they can prevent long-term problems. In other words, a proactive approach.

For many small to medium size companies (SMBs) this is a much more economical approach to staffing an in-house IT department. MSPs typically wear many hats and cover a lot of ground when it comes to keeping all your technology needs up to date and running smoothly.

But MSPs are smart enough to know that there are times when they may need to outsource certain aspects of the technologies that your company requires in order to be successful. 

While MSPs wear many hats and provide a valuable and necessary service to SMBs, there are companies that specialize in specific technologies that can be of great benefit to MSPs and ultimately, their clients.

JitterWorks is one of these companies. When network performance is a priority, we have the tools and the experience to assist both MSPs and SMB IT staff in proactively assessing and diagnosing Internet and Network issues or potential problems before they become real problems.

If you’re interested, you may want to check out a couple of our past blogs on the subject: “I Have A Guy”  and “The Problem With Intermittent Problems.”