A question we are often asked is whether we offer any form of IT Support across the various platforms out there that our clients use. It is a common misconception that a digital agency and IT support offer the same services. As I am sure you will know, when you have stumbled upon an IT issue that is not easily fixable it can grind your working day to a halt! We have seen issues that clients have faced when one of their existing systems fails and this can be detrimental for any business no matter how big or small they may be.
So what’s the main difference between IT Support and a Digital Agency?
The main key difference between IT Support and a digital agency is the services each offer. IT Support businesses are there to help maintain and improve any online infrastructure that you have in place. They are there to fix any technical issues that are affecting your systems and offer general support and advice to businesses. These can be things such as technical support for emails, customer relationship management systems or point of sale networks.
As a digital agency, we do not offer services such as those. Our key focus at Visions is web design and development and also online marketing of businesses, products or services to boost sales and brand awareness. You might even need some SEO support and we are the best SEO Agency Bradford helping our customers grown online.
This is where things can get confusing!
Most digital agencies are able to help with basic IT-related questions or tasks. For example, we offer an email creation service for any of our clients in which we create email addresses that use their chosen domain name and create email signatures to match their branding.
As email settings and support can be highly complicated we now only use the Google G-Suite or Office 365 for our client’s emails. The reason for this? Office 365 and G-suite both have brilliant support networks and forums offered by Google and Microsoft as well as dedicated support lines for you to use should you need to fix an issue or just simply raise a query.
One service that we as a digital agency offer that many IT Support firms don’t is website hosting. Due to the complex nature of websites, the files that build up a website and the cogs that need to turn in the background we have our very own dedicated servers that are solely used for our clients and are managed and monitored by ourselves. The website hosting we offer comes with a 100% guarantee that the website will experience no downtime due to server errors. As part of this guarantee, it means your website has full technical hosting support! Yes, I know this is where it gets confusing as this sounds a lot like IT Support.
For any online service, it is always important to check what exactly you are covered for. For example, if you were to have your emails hosted on a digital agencies server (not via Google’s G-suite or Microsoft’s Office 365) and have no maintenance or support package in place then if any issues do arise then you may be looking at a hefty bill to get the issue fixed. Even worse you may have to wait until the issue can be resolved which can often take over a day to diagnose, fix and test.
The advice we offer our clients is always impartial and as in depth as can be. If you would like to learn more about the Google G-Suite or Microsoft’s Office 365 for your business emails get in touch!