What is the Difference Between IT Services and IT Solutions?

IT services and solutions share similarities, but vary some. IT services is a term used to describe broader, ongoing support for IT infrastructure. IT solutions is a term used to describe narrower, more tailored, project-based support needs to overcome challenges. IT services are more standardized to suit different businesses while IT solutions are highly customized to meet the unique needs. Both IT services and IT solutions can be outsourced, but IT solutions will require a deeper understanding of the company and needs to deploy support.

IT Solutions vs IT Services

What are IT Services?

IT services can be outsourced to receive ongoing support for a broad range of activities to support an organization’s technology infrastructure. In most cases the services are focused on functionality, security, performance, and general support.

Common Types of IT Services:

1. Help desk support: General help desk or troubleshooting support can be provided with IT services. This provides the opportunity to support multiple locations and or remote employees while freeing up internal IT staff to deal with more complex issues.
2. Cybersecurity: IT services can be utilized to proactively monitor and identify potential breaches and or opportunity for improvement. Cybersecurity is a specialized skill in the IT world. By outsourcing cybersecurity support you can access better talent that’s solely focused on cybersecurity.
3. Audio/visual: Audio and visual systems can require support such as setup, troubleshooting, or customization.
4. Hardware: Hardware issues or upgrades can be supported with IT services.

What Are IT Solutions? (include examples)

IT solutions are typically project-based with the focus of implementing new technologies or improving existing systems. IT solutions are highly customizable and require an assessment and comprehensive understanding of the organization’s needs before they can be planned and implemented.

Common Types Of IT Solutions

1. E-commerce platforms: While e-commerce platforms can share similarities, they are highly customized. From integrating with other systems to branding, IT solutions can implement or upgrade e-commerce platforms.

2. Business intelligence tools: Business intelligence tools can be used to provide insights to make data-driven decisions. These software applications need to be customized to the business and tailored to output specific data to meet the objective of the tool.

3. Enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems: ERP systems integrate business processes into one system to streamline operations and decision-making. This is yet another highly customized project.

Key Differences Between IT Solutions and Services

• Definition and Scope

As discussed, IT solutions are project-based and highly customized while IT services are more generalized. In most cases IT services are provided on an ongoing basis while IT solutions have a beginning and an end, hence to the fact they are typically project-based. Both IT services and IT solutions can be outsourced.

• Approach

While both require some level of understanding of the company, IT solutions require a much more in depth assessment and understanding. In addition, IT solutions typically require more extensive planning. On the other hand IT services are more generalized and can be applied to most businesses. They focus on general IT support such as providing help desk support or maintaining hardware.

• Outcome

The success of IT solutions and IT services can both be measured. However, with IT solutions the final outcome is more objective (i.e. there’s typically a finished product to show for). With IT services you can witness more efficiency, less security breaches, happier employees, and other benefits that can be the result of increased IT service support.

How To Choose The Right IT Solutions or Services Partner

Your IT solutions and or services partner will be close to the work you do. Despite the fact that IT solutions are much more customized, IT solutions and IT services both require an understanding of the company and needs. The more time you invest with a provider, the more rapport you can establish, thus strengthening the partnership.

When choosing an IT solutions or services partner you’ll want one you can rely on and trust. Some level of dependency will form and you’ll want to know that they will continue to advocate in your best interest, rather than take advantage of the dependency. Choose an IT partner that is responsive, experienced, and truly cares. Proven by our 97% IT resolution rate and 4.7/5 star customer satisfaction score, Techmate is a proven, pedigree IT partner.

Conclusion

IT services and IT solutions can be outsourced to provide access to technicians with broader skill sets while driving down costs. Other reasons to outsource can include supporting multiple locations, increasing bandwidth to proactively monitor systems, the ability to scale operations faster, and more.

For project-based support to upgrade or implement new technologies or platforms, IT solutions are appropriate. For ongoing, generalized IT support, IT services are the appropriate option. To define your needs and enlist the right level of support, our team at Techmate can consult to ensure your needs are met. Get started by setting up a free conversation today!