You may have heard the term “IT systems house” before, maybe you’ve even worked with it. But maybe you don’t understand the term at all and are asking yourself: What is an IT systems house?
Business success depends on technology
You probably know this from your own company: there is hardly a process that can be done entirely without the use of computers . This is true in almost any industry. Almost every company has at least a few employees who work partially or completely on a computer . Many other companies even employ hundreds of office workers.
In conclusion, this means that the business processes in question depend on technology that works–reliable, fast and powerful. And that’s not easy at all. In the past, it was common practice for companies to buy and install equipment here and order and implement software there, often choosing the cheapest solution. Often there was no real concept behind it.
Now it is obvious that such patchwork quilts cause a lot of IT problems. Therefore, in many companies there is a growing need for an IT infrastructure from a single source, in which all components are perfectly integrated and functioning. And all of this should ideally come from a single source. This is where IT system houses come into play. But what is the IT system home?
The IT systems house has traditionally been the provider of hardware and software . It represents, so to speak, the bridge between manufacturers and the end user and takes care of the purchase and installation of hardware and software in the end user’s company. During operation, it is also often the point of contact with the functionality of the delivered and implemented IT infrastructure components.
However, most IT systems companies have long outgrown this original definition. With the rise of digitalization, they have evolved into IT service providers with an extensive and growing product portfolio. Meanwhile, IT systems companies are professional IT services companies that offer their corporate clients many other IT services in addition to IT purchasing, including IT consulting, IT support and IT maintenance.
IT professionals work for companies on IT systems, and each is usually assigned a specialized area . Depending on what a corporate client needs, an IT systems house can provide the right IT professional and thus provide optimal customer support. This provides the initial answer to the question of what an IT systems house is. However, you may have other questions about system houses.
What does an IT systems house do?
The general answer to this question is that IT Systems House offers IT services to corporate clients . However, it is impossible to specify in detail what those services are because the service portfolio and special areas are different for each IT service provider.
In essence, IT systems companies perform two main tasks: on the one hand, they offer their corporate clients quick support for IT emergencies , and on the other hand, they try to use various preventive measures to ensure that IT emergencies, IT outages and IT problems do not occur in the first place.
Immediate help or breakdown/repair
Suppose there is a network or server failure in the company . Once the IT service provider is informed, it analyzes the problem. This can be done either remotely or with an on-site visit. Once the source of the error is found, it is eliminated immediately to avoid long downtime, which costs the company dearly. Here, the IT system house is paid according to the time spent .
Preventive or Managed Services
When providing comprehensive IT services, IT systems companies do everything they can to prevent IT emergencies from occurring in the first place. This often begins with analyzing a company’s IT infrastructure and creating and implementing an IT strategy based on that. This includes measures such as optimizing the IT infrastructure, implementing extensive security mechanisms and implementing monitoring software. In this way, the IT systems department monitors the entire IT infrastructure of a company or even parts of it. It can respond to the slightest sign of anomalies and take action before a failure occurs. The technical term for this type of ongoing IT support is:Managed Services . They are usually calculated in a subscription model.
The “break/fix” model used to be commonplace, but now the managed services model is becoming increasingly popular among system companies. Practical for corporate clients: you relinquish responsibility for parts or even all of IT.