Business-as-usual is out the window since recent global events triggered a tectonic shift for small businesses everywhere. We applaud those who adapted and innovated to the new reality, thrived and pulled through. Yet we’re not out of the woods yet, and small businesses find themselves needing to remain flexible, strong and gritty. All of the foregoing reasons demand an IT service provider as resilient and flexible as you’ve had to be.
Smaller companies that muscled through the recent crisis knew exactly what needed to be done, leveraging support systems that ensured their IT needs were ratcheted down tight to endure what was coming. And just what was that support system? None other than their IT service providers! After all, it was these IT providers who took charge of the situation through the turbulence and uncertainty and kept operations running.
In one sense, every business owner is a rugged individualist and would prefer to bootstrap themselves and stand tall without help. But in reality, most successful enterprises rely on well-picked experts to manage their business’s technology so they can focus on their own tasks at hand.
Cost reduction is one of the main drivers for companies outsourcing their IT. By outsourcing, you don’t need to fuss with employing a person in-house. Just think about the ongoing costs of maintaining a competitive salary, benefits and continuing education with all its certifications. Now double that with a second IT professional. Then tack on the costs of onboarding and offboarding and you’ve got yourself an astronomical expense for in-house IT. Even if in-house IT looks attractive on the budget, bear in mind that the real cost of hiring a full-time employee typically runs 1.25 to 1.4 times their base salary range.
In terms of plain availability, an outsourced IT service provider remains available to you 24 hours a day and seven days a week to handle your IT, which surpasses the natural limits of a single employee. They won’t quit on you, call in sick or take personal junkets off to Aruba while your cybersecurity coasts along just as they left it. Think about it.
As we all know, the safety of your data is nothing to shrug off. Incidentally, having a secure infrastructure is another reason many companies place their trust in an IT service provider. Overall, the data centers they use surpass the security of the garden-variety small business infrastructure. Leveraging a team of trained and certified experts to monitor your network around the clock provides additional protection to network data. To achieve this, IT service providers or IT outsourcing companies can centralize all of your servers and applications within a managed data center for constant operations monitoring so you can enjoy backup infrastructure, storage and virtual services — all in one place.
Last but not least, outsourced IT offers that precious resource you can never quite get enough of — time. With such robust IT infrastructure and support, your business and staff can focus on their core competencies and lean into growth and success. Employees once saddled with getting IT to work properly can shift their focus to productivity and making the most of their time on the clock.
It all depends, but there are some surefire signs that you do. But if we were to jump into that fray, we’d recommend you opt for an IT service provider if you’re a small business relying on someone on your team to handle your IT whose job title is not IT-related. One common hitch for smaller operations is that they often labor under large knowledge gaps regarding IT updates, trends and developments in technology. Yet with an IT service provider, no staffer will be stuck wearing the informal “IT witch doctor” hat ever again. That hapless volunteer can return to their normal productivity, all while your whole office enjoys the same peace of mind.
For smaller businesses, predictable budgets are a must. Fortunately, an IT service provider can help with that too! Since IT costs are so erratic, small businesses everywhere find itemizing their technology costs to be a truffle hunt for odd surprises. One month might not necessitate any expenses at all, but the next might see a broken computer, a cyberattack and server on the fritz. But when you partner with an IT service provider to handle your IT, you can typically arrange a flat fee each month and smooth out your budgeting.
Sure. It’s possible! And nothing’s wrong with such an arrangement if you have a good grasp on it and know what you’re doing. For instance, if your company works within the IT industry, in-house IT might make total sense to you. It comes down to every decision-maker to evaluate the pros and cons of managing their IT versus outsourcing it. But as most businesses discover to their pleasant surprise, taking on a partner often makes the most cost-worthy sense of any choice.
It’s time to find a managed IT solution that works for you. You can start by contacting us via the form below or calling us at 1.866.267.8286. You’ll be glad you did.
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*Minimum 10 employees