Complete Guide to Computer Maintenance

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Does your company own computers and hardware?

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If this is the case, like the overwhelming majority of French companies, you need to ensure that your IT equipment remains in good working order and efficient, so that your teams can carry out their missions.

This is the task of computer maintenance, which is the subject of this article.

After a presentation of the concept and its stakes, you will see how important computer maintenance is for the performance of your professional activity.

Finally, we will address the central issue of choosing between outsourcing and insourcing maintenance, as well as the best practices to implement.

General presentation of computer maintenance

First of all, let's discover computer maintenance and its main issues.

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Definition of computer maintenance...

In the context of an organization, IT maintenance refers to all preventive and corrective actions aimed at ensuring the proper functioning of computer systems, hardware and software, as well as their updating and security.

It is also responsible for optimizing the performance of your company's IT equipment, and therefore has a direct link with the productivity of your teams.

Finally, at a time when the ecological crisis is unfortunately in full swing, computer maintenance canextend the life of your equipment, which is fully in line with a Green IT approach.

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... and its main issues

When approaching IT maintenance in a strategic way, the first decision to make is whether to delegate this mission or to carry it out internally. We will talk about this in a future section.

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The computer maintenance is also declined in two levels of interventions, which it is important to distinguish:

• Preventive maintenance : This strategy aims to prevent breakdowns and malfunctions of IT equipment by performing regular scheduled interventions, such as verifications, cleaning, software updates, replacement of worn parts, etc. The goal is to minimize service interruptions and extend the life of the equipment.

• Corrective maintenance: This type of maintenance consists of repairing computer equipment after a breakdown or malfunction has occurred. Its objective: to restore the normal operation of the systems and minimize the disruption to the company. These actions are generally not planned and are often carried out in emergency.

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The Rzilient platform provides automated preventive maintenance for your IT assets, avoiding stressful situations and business downtime.

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The preventive computer maintenance is an integral part of the more global concept of preventive management, whose general objective is toanticipate in order to better manage your activity.

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Typical examples of computer maintenance interventions

We have defined the concept of IT maintenance, but what concrete actions are taken by this function?

The first example is the reset of machines. At Rzilient, this part of the maintenance can be carried out in person or remotely. This type of action is particularly important whenoffboarding employees.

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Other examples include:

• Operating system upgrad es;
• Repair of computer equipment (e.g. change of batteries or other components);
• Computer failure management;
• Repair and update of management software (cleaning, anti-virus, etc.).

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Discover all the richness of our outsourcing offer!

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IT maintenance: crucial for your employees and your performance

IT maintenance allows your teams to be more serene and efficient on a daily basis, and has a real impact on the financial performance of your company !

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For your employees

Computer maintenance is very useful to save time for your teams.

According to a recent British study, employees lose an average of 46 minutes per day, or 24 working days per year, due to slow computer performance and problems in the workplace.

The shocking figure! 28% of employees surveyed say they have to work overtime to make up for lost time due to IT.

This waste of time is problematic in itself, but it also causes unnecessary stress and, in the long run, can lead to the demotivation of your employees, if the IT problems are recurrent.

To conclude, the first good reason to give its rightful place to IT maintenance: the productivity and well-being of your employees at work.

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For the performance of your company

And pleasing your employees is generally positive for your company's performance.

To take an example, starting from the figure of 24 days of work lost per year, for a company with 70 employees, the financial loss is significant:

24 working days x 70 employees x 150 euros of remuneration (with employer's charges) per day = 252,000 euros lost per year!

Many entrepreneurs would be very happy to be able to add this amount to their company's bottom line at year-end 🙂

Computer maintenance provides other benefits for your business, including:

• Effective identification of materials to be renewed;
• Ensures the protection of your company's important data (customer project data, business information, personal data of your customers, etc.), thus strengthening your cyber security;
• Bringing new software useful for your employees.

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IT maintenance: internalize or delegate?

Is it better to do your IT maintenance in-house or to delegate this mission? That's the subject of this section!

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Advantages and disadvantages of the delegation of computer maintenance

Rzilient is a managed services platform, offering a complete set of predictive and proactive maintenance actions.

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Here are the key benefits of outsourcing your IT maintenance:

• Benefit from the more developed skills of a specialized service provider;
• Secure workstations (especially if your provider has a quality label, attesting to its professionalism and expertise)
• Achieve economies of scale and costs;
• Avoid having to recruit, train, pay and retain employees with the specialized IT skills needed for IT maintenance (which translates into significant savings in time and money);
• Focus on the core business of your company;
• Ensure reliability in the repair and maintenance of your computer equipment.

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Perhaps it is because we are convinced of the benefits of outsourcing, and in particular by using Rzilient, that we have had difficulty finding drawbacks to this choice. But there are some:

• Dependence on an external provider;
• High cost of some IT service providers (this is not the case with Rzilient, which offers a monthly subscription with unlimited support at a very affordable rate).

Best practices in computer maintenance

You have chosen to outsource your computer maintenance?

If so, what are the key characteristics to look for in your outsourcing provider?

First of all, reactivity is essential to guarantee the serenity of your teams.

Flexibility and adaptability to your business context (e.g., the size of your company, your technological environment, as well as practicalities such as working hours) are also important considerations.

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Cybersecurity has become a key issue for all companies, so managing data security is also at the top of the list of criteria to consider.

Finally, to save time on a daily basis, choose if possible a computer maintenance offer that can be 100% carried out remotely, offering the automation of a maximum number of outsourcing tasks.

Computer maintenance, a performance lever for your company

Whether it's saving your staff time, keeping hardware and software in good working order, or avoiding the need to invest in specialized IT skills, IT maintenance simply makes your business more efficient.

This indirectly translates into a better capacity to invest in the development of your business : hiring, enriching your offer, doing R&D, launching marketing campaigns...

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