What Are the Types of IT Support and What Are They For?
We list 9 types of IT support available on the market and how they help
keep business technology operations running
Moreover, people often treat IT support as if it were a single, identical service in every company. Whenever an employee mentions needing assistance, everyone pictures the person responsible for solving small day-to-day problems. In practice, however, IT support goes far beyond that, especially at a time when technology keeps gaining importance.
In practice, of course, some support issues recur in every kind of business. Nevertheless, this service differs according to the interests and needs of each organization, including small businesses.
For this reason, in most cases, IT support is hired as an outsourced service. A survey by the British institute YouGov showed that it is the most commonly outsourced service of all.
Outsourcing happens frequently in the technology area, especially for anything that does not qualify as the organization’s core business. That is precisely the case of IT support. It is a necessary and fundamental service for business operations. Even so, companies prefer to hand it over to an industry specialist.
Likewise, in this context, we will present some of the existing types of IT support:
The 9 types of IT support, one by one
Help Desk Support
As a result, this is the service described at the start of this article. A person assists and provides help to users who need technical support for various reasons. These range from software malfunctions to hardware failures, such as monitors, keyboards, and mice. In addition, it usually includes installing programs (when necessary), among other activities.
Meanwhile, these contracts are commonly split into on-site or remote support. When it comes to system failures, remote work can solve many problems. However, hardware issues require a technician to replace equipment. Above all, this service must be understood as customer service, giving full backing to employee tickets.
In short, the technical jargon L1, L2, and L3 is widely used. L1 refers to the first contact with support, covering low-complexity problems that can be resolved quickly. L2 involves more technical, in-depth matters – generally software, network, or hardware failures. In most cases, it requires on-site service, precisely because of its potential to cause further problems.
L3 involves security or network issues that were not resolved at levels 1 and 2.
IT service management
After all, this happens when a company is hired to take responsibility for managing and maintaining internal IT structures. In this case, contracts usually include a range of services. Examples are device installation, network structure assembly, and email and data management. They also cover the other activities needed to keep the company running. Moreover, all of these can be agreed upon by contract.
Cloud services
Furthermore, cloud adoption has become a constant in most businesses and gained even more traction during the pandemic. During social isolation, the ability to access services quickly and easily through a browser was a differentiator. Many organizations gained it through so-called Software as a Service (SaaS). Therefore, they no longer needed to install and maintain solutions and programs on individual machines.
In practice, this made it easier to roll out home office or hybrid work, keeping the work structure running. In most cases, outsourcing cloud services removes all the equipment and server infrastructure. That hardware was dedicated to storing the necessary systems and services.
Therefore, because it is a scalable and flexible service, it can follow the company’s growth securely.
Find out how the cloud can help you map your IT assets!
Voice Over Internet Protocol
Likewise, this method is better known as VoIP. It is secure and efficient, and it lets people communicate through phone calls and messages. It usually replaces the telephone and other communication systems, such as WhatsApp. After all, it offers greater security for protecting sensitive information. In addition, it helps organize virtual conferences and meetings.
Software development
As a result, many organizations do not feel comfortable with the software available on the market. Therefore, they decide to develop their own. In some cases, the IT team already has its own requirements and looks for a specialized company for this purpose.
Monitoring services
Meanwhile, this is an advanced form of IT support. In many cases, an outsourced company manages another provider. In this scenario, its role is to guarantee that every agreed contract is fulfilled to the letter. The idea is to run constant evaluations of how the requested services are performing, detecting potential problems in advance.
Backup & Recovery
In short, data matters more and more in today’s world. Therefore, having IT support dedicated to this function becomes increasingly important. Basically, these service providers focus on protecting sensitive data and preventing its loss.
In many cases, they have access to the information and encrypt it, ensuring confidentiality is maintained. As for backups, they run periodically to guard not only against malware and ransomware but also against occasional file problems.
After all, the use of big data and the tools to analyze it keeps spreading across many fields. In fact, it now appears even in agribusiness and among pharmaceutical companies.
– Cybersecurity
Moreover, last year, Brazilian companies increased their cybersecurity spending. Yet many of them still do not feel fully protected against hacker attacks, as we showed in this blog article.
In practice, IT support in this area works mainly in a preventive way, including the protection of corporate networks. Its goal is to prevent intrusions by investing in systems and tools. These shield the organization from unauthorized access, viruses, and malware. In addition, they block other attempts to reach confidential data.
For this reason, cybersecurity and backup & recovery services often come from the same provider. As a result, companies gain even greater peace of mind.
Outsourcing providers
With the spread of home office and hybrid work, many companies authorized or allowed their employees to work remotely. Consequently, outsourcing providers began offering management and control of the devices each employee needs to stay productive.
Likewise, these companies generally extended their work to printer and scanner management. They also offer maintenance for these devices, even in distributed environments. In addition, they include full support for the proper operation of the equipment.
As a result, these are 9 existing types of IT support. However, you can find other divisions and demands, depending on the organization’s profile and its specific needs. And as technology and its solutions advance, IT support also specializes to keep pace with the market.