The Importance of a Hybrid Technical Support Team

The global health crisis has forced many businesses to adopt new working from anywhere practices at a moment's notice. Before, employees would have access to security, tech support, and management from their central offices. Now, many work remotely, and in-house IT teams often lack the reach to effectively service them from home, and ensure that no employee is left unable to work due to tech issues.  

So, as demands change and employees transition to remote working long-term, how can businesses adapt to this shift and service their teams, as they move away from the central office and on-site technical support? 

The answer lies with a hybrid technical support team. 

What is a Hybrid Technical Support Team?

Hybrid technical support is best defined as a combination of an internal IT department and a managed service provider (MSP). A complimentary service. And allows businesses to leverage the benefits of both. 

As organisations continue to ramp up working from anywhere policies, having access to the technical skills, infrastructure, and management opportunities that a MSP can offer is essential for continued success. MSP's will seamlessly integrate with your existing IT function to be an extension of your team. Enhancing your internal resources and technical capabilities by adding stability and value to your IT operations.

For SMEs with limited in-house capabilities, this kind of support can help facilitate long-term growth without the need for costly investment. 24/7 uninterrupted operational support also lowers overhead costs, and provides better security. Ultimately, it provides existing in-house IT teams with additional expertise, resources, and reach, allowing them to help on-premise employees and those that are working remotely. 

Is a Hybrid Approach Right for Your Business? 

If your business requires additional IT support to cope with growing remote working demands, a hybrid IT approach from a managed services provider can give you the flexibility to service your employees while they work from anywhere. 

Here are the main reasons to adopt a hybrid approach to IT support. 

Reduced Downtime

Many managed service providers offer 24/7 remote IT support, from external expert teams. This allows in-house staff to continue providing support during core hours, whilst external teams are on-hand to prevent faults, detect and diagnose issues, and perform fixes outside of these times.

Thanks to a centralised point of contact, it's easier for employees to get the support they need when they're flexible working. Instead of waiting till the next working day to get a problem sorted, it can be solved straight away, so no productivity is lost. This is also a huge factor for employee morale in the hybrid/work from anywhere era. Technical support is the enabler for productivity, leading ultimately to success.

Better Network Security

Businesses are increasingly under pressure to monitor and protect their employees while they're working from anywhere.

As part of a hybrid support approach, a MSP comes equipped to manage multiple facets of IT infrastructure, to support and increase security across all devices. This encompasses everything from installing the latest updates, protecting endpoints, and increasing firewall capabilities. 

MSPs will also be able to extend your on-premise security outward to remote workers through the cloud, ensuring they have access to the same protection at home as they do in the office. And can continue working without any tech-related issues. 

Lower Operation Costs

Partnering with an MSP can save money.

It proves cost-effective for businesses as it provides a high level of IT support, monitoring, and management at a cost that is significantly lower than recreating the same service in-house. 

Plus, it frees up time and resources within your organisation. As IT departments become increasingly encumbered with more and more work, with less time and resources, taking a hybrid approach allows organisations to lighten the load on valuable team members, so they can focus on what matters most. 

Introducing Direct Calling for Teams

Direct Calling for Teams is a new solution developed by Intercity that helps you overcome the limitations of the Microsoft Teams platform. An extension of MS Teams, it supports flexible working and lets your end-users make internal calls, as well as external calls securely to and from the PSTN. Intercity's David Owen tells us more:

"Our Direct Calling for Teams solution is embedded into MS Teams, enabling people outside of Teams to be dialled into calls. Already we are seeing significant demand for solutions like this as businesses are having to integrate traditional and new ways of working, something which will become a necessity in the next stage of the new normal."

By allocating UK and international DDIs, Direct Calling for Teams lets you fulfil the new business requirements of remote working from a single, integrated platform. Better yet, it acts as an extension of Microsoft Teams, a solution your teams are already familiar with. Direct Calling for Teams uses Intercity's own redundant network architecture – hosted within our geographically diverse, secure, and high-availability tier 3 Data Centres, ensuring that your remote working solutions are always connected, supported, and secure.

To learn more, download our Direct Calling for Teams brochure today.