If you could choose between spending $300 today to upgrade the brakes in your car, or $3,000 next week to repair the damage caused by a serious crash, what would you choose? Seems like a simple choice doesn't it? The fact is, most people get stuck with a $3,000 bill because they react to problems, instead of anticipating them. I often hear people ask, "How was I supposed to know?" My response is, "How wouldn't you know?" Car brakes wear out, computers malfunction, software requires updates, and systems need to be managed.

Just like the automobile industry, I've found that most businesses are very reactive when it comes to Information Technology. Instead of being proactive with monitored systems and an established process, businesses often react after an incident which is sometimes too late and always very costly. Just a few weeks ago, a business contacted me because their server was running slowly. It turned out that their most critical server was not properly managed with less than 5% storage space available and multiple viruses. With this limitation and the need to react to keep the business operational, there was no time to plan or work this into the budget. Unfortunately, this reactionary mentality and lack of management cost the business more than money - it resulted in lost business, lost productivity and lost opportunity. Their servers, email, data, client orders and primary means of doing business were unavailable for nearly three days. They were unable to communicate with their clients or sell their product. It hurt them dearly.

With the ZingTech Model, we proactively manage in the headlights instead of reacting to problems in the tail lights. Our process of system checks and balances is designed to keep systems running at optimum levels while constantly monitoring our clients' IT environments to ensure their businesses remains operational. Our Managed Services allow us to receive multiple system alerts per day to notify us of virus detections, problem with email, shortage of storage space or if someone is trying to hack our client's server. When there is something critical we notify our clients and proactively manage and plan on how to circumvent the issue before it becomes a problem. The ZingTech process allows our clients to keep their total cost of ownership lower by being proactive while detecting problems before they affect the business.

If your IT environment and servers are not being monitored, it's time to re-evaluate your IT process before it's too late. It's an IT company's responsibility to ensure that your systems are running at optimum levels and your responsibility to ensure you have a qualified IT firm dedicated to proactively manage in the headlights instead of reacting in the tail lights.