Most IT infrastructure management vendors start their managed services by providing services focused around Servers. Desktops and laptops were ignored or were not covered under a flat fee based Managed Service. Make sure you do not fall into the same trap.
Selling blocks of time or working on a Time & Materials basis are still among the most popular methods to address desktop/laptop issues and this model may work for you. However, you can also use a Managed Services model to compliment your existing offerings or use the Managed Services model during your end client conversions.
There are many reasons why this could have happened – desktop hardware is low cost compared to Servers, and most businesses don’t budget for any preventive maintenance activities. Servers demand more attention and are allowed to eat up more of the maintenance budget as they host business critical applications. We believe scheduled maintenance for laptops was ignored due to lack of sophisticated technical solutions to effectively address challenges posed by their roaming behavior. Desktops/laptops outnumber Servers by 10 to 1 in a typical SMB environment. One can start with a new client with the most basic desktop support service, which in turn can lead to projects to standardize the entire desktop environment by supplying OS upgrades, hardware or other applications and services around such projects.
Desktop Preventative Maintenance Activities
- Preventative maintenance activities run daily or OnDemand
- Agent reports error codes to the Sentinel Platform
- Resolutions based on product selection
Features
- Antivirus definitions checked every four hours for select vendors.
- Temporary file and internet debris removal
- Weekly Microsoft Patch Assessments followed by Patch Doctor’s intelligent patch deployment and patch failure remediation.
- Volumes scanned bi-weekly to ensure at least 200 MB free space.
- Spyware scans configured for quick scans during the week and full scans on the weekend.
- Microsoft Security Patch deployment available for all security patches or white listed only patches.
- S.M.A.R.T. monitoring checked bi-weekly
