What Should you Look For in IT Support for Manufacturing?

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How to decide on the best provider when it comes to IT support for manufacturing businesses? If you are unhappy with your current provider or looking to hire one for the first time, you’ve come to the right place. This article will provide you with practical and straightforward advice to pick the best IT partner based on the main priorities and needs shared by the manufacturing industry.

Manufacturing pros don’t tend to be super knowledgeable about the technical details of how an IT support firm operates. To make matters worse, most IT support companies mention much technical jargon and are not very good at differentiating themselves.

Read: Understanding Cybercrime Against Manufacturing Companies

Best-in-class IT support for manufacturing will ensure you can operate at peak performance, secure your staff and avoid downtime. Plus, a specialist partner will discuss your long term technology strategy and help you plan for and implement new pieces of equipment and software. 

Now that you’ll learn these tips, you can pick a partner who takes your business seriously. Book a call with us, and our team of specialists will be happy to provide you with a tailored solution.

#1 Make sure they offer Proactive Managed Services for Manufacturing

First, you should always consider a provider who offers proactive IT services. This differs from a break-fix contract and will ensure you pick among the most committed firms delivering IT support for manufacturing.

Proactive services mean that your managed services provider will continually monitor your network, installing security updates and fixing issues before they can cause trouble. This is the new standard for most IT support companies, so you shouldn’t have a problem finding this practice in a reliable partner.

#2 Learn About their Downtime statistics and incidents in the past few years

When looking for IT support for manufacturing firms, this is probably the main item you’re looking for: uptime. You want your business to be operational at all times, and several processes in your routine are probably reliant on technology. Issuing invoices, making payments, procuring, and communicating with suppliers and customers are only some of the crucial activities that might halt your productivity if not functional.

Read: Downtime Calculator: How much does downtime cost your business?

If you are handling the responsibility to ensure your technology is operational, you should confirm that this IT support firm has proper procedures and can keep downtime to a minimum. This will reflect on how prone your business is to IT outages and cyberattacks. 

Additionally, it shows how efficient their project management team is when a piece of technology needs to be upgraded or implemented. IT support for manufacturing should always strive to avoid downtime, so you can expect maximum performance even when moving to a new site or tackling significant change in your operations.

#3 Learn about their Business Continuity Plan and Disaster Recovery Strategy

Another aspect that will significantly contribute to avoiding downtime and ensuring your business remains operational is developing a Business Continuity plan, with a robust Backup and Disaster Recovery strategy.

Business Continuity planning is key to achieving organisational resilience, a business’s capacity to survive amidst unexpected events. That includes natural disasters such as fire and floods and cyber attacks, theft, or other human damage. The business continuity plan consists of a thorough analysis of your primary vulnerabilities and risks, along with their appropriate contingencies and ownership.

Read: How Backup and Disaster Recovery Protect SMEs

Disaster Recovery handles the most common solution to these events, including backups. These strategies and plans are vital when discussing IT support for manufacturing. They’ll ensure your business can recover quickly in case of any disasters or events, allowing you to maintain maximum uptime and efficiency.

When questioning a firm to handle your IT support for manufacturing, ask how they conduct this process and about their past incidents. If a potential IT partner tells you they are not concerned about this because they trust their security or didn’t have incidents in the past, beware!

Read: Monitor, Test, Restore – Making sure that your backups are ready

Security incidents are bound to occur since the human factor is always present, and criminals are continually trying to devise new tactics to breach your defences. Therefore, recovery is essential for security and vital for avoiding downtime.

#4 Find IT support partners with existing manufacturing customers 

Last but not least, it’s always a good idea to look for IT partners working with Manufacturing companies. These firms already know the main challenges faced by this industry and will be ready to offer tried-and-tested solutions to assist you.

An IT support provider with no previous experience with manufacturing would undoubtedly lack a few things, as this industry requires practical knowledge and maximum efficiency. You don’t want a partner who’ll still be figuring out the best technologies and methods to implement them – you want them to hit the ground running. Ask about their customers and give them a ring to learn about their experience.

Read our Case Study with Fairco, one of our manufacturing customers

Long-standing customers are one of the best signs you could look to find. If they’ve been happy for many years, their standards of uptime and productivity must have been met. Customers with multiple sites or in different locations also show signs of versatility. We currently work with manufacturing firms in Ireland and the UK, which have been counting on us every day for many years now.

Now that you have these practical tips on finding the best IT support for manufacturing, you’re in a better place to make a decision. We still have this Complete Checklist to ask if you’re looking to dive deeper into the technical aspects. Otherwise, you can Book a Call and talk to our team about your specific needs.

Our specialists can give you a tailored solution and will not push you into a sale. It’s a no-commitment call, which will provide you with all the information you need to make a decision. If you’re still not sure, read our Case Study from one of our manufacturing customers.

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