Despite their size, small businesses are encountering many of the same modern roadblocks as larger corporations do in terms of technology. These issues include...
IT Managed Services Help Businesses Get Up to Speed and Stay in the Technology Race
Take a moment and think about what the past 18 months might’ve been like without technology. Sure, there were frustrations and uncertainty. Too many businesses experienced setbacks. Yet, technology was the hero of many success stories. Remote work and cloud computing saved us—as did streaming entertainment, but that’s a whole other story.
IT Managed Services
You may need to source and order computers or devices for new employees or replace technology that has reached the end of its useful life. Perhaps you have to implement new technology, find products that can meet your needs and vendors that have them in stock despite frustrating shortages. That’s no small feat.
You may be struggling with your IT network and lack the support you need while scaling your business. You may constantly worry about the threat you don’t know about with cyber attacks. We’ve lived through all of those challenges alongside our clients and had the privilege of providing IT managed services to help them get through these challenges during this unprecedented time.
Technology at Your Pace
Some organizations may hesitate to pursue managed services, fearing IT experts will push their organizations and budgets too far too fast. A managed services provider should meet you where you are in your technology journey and help you get to where you’re going—much like a physical fitness trainer. Every person is not an endurance athlete. Instead, trainers coach individuals according to their goals and fitness levels.
We recognize that not every business is ready to implement every bell and whistle technology has to offer. We can help even traditional businesses with incremental technology improvements, whether to shore up cybersecurity, facilitate some remote work, ensure regular back-ups occur, improve operational efficiencies, consult on innovation investments, or serve as help desk support.
Technology Expertise and Objective Advice
A sure sign of a great potential managed service provider relationship is when they take the time to learn about your business, its goals, and technology maturity level and make technology recommendations only after understanding the business. This Harvard Business Review article, “Digital Transformation Is Not About Technology,” states, “Often new technologies can fail to improve organizational productivity, not because of fundamental flaws in the technology but because intimate insider knowledge has been overlooked.”
Business familiarity can also be a double-edged sword. Even when businesses develop their own technology plans, they may make inaccurate assumptions about their networks and technology. Having a third-party review of systems and networks can help organizations avoid costly mistakes.
Selecting Vendors, Products, and Solutions
One unexpected result of the pandemic has been technology shortages. Under normal circumstances, businesses have many options to choose from when selecting technology. Most industries that rely on microchip technology are seeing shortages or at least shipping delays. Use cases and budget typically drive decisions, but product availability and vendor relationships are playing an even more pivotal role. Here’s where a managed service provider can save businesses time and effort.
According to Gartner, “Relationships with strategic vendors are increasingly key to business performance, but many IT vendor management leaders struggle to compel their most important vendors to be proactive, collaborative and innovative. When managed badly, large strategic vendors can become complacent, slow moving and intractable.”
We have established relationships with various vendors and understand hardware, software, cloud applications, and network infrastructure and how best to leverage each. We can help clients make strategic decisions about what to plan for, budget, order, and implement at the right times to meet business goals. We conduct contract reviews and vendor negotiations, including licensing.
Businesses use technology to collect information about customers and potential customers, communicate with customers and prospects, bill and accept payments, and perform behind-the-scenes business functions like accounting and running payroll. There comes a time in each business when it makes sense to hire out for certain services, whether accounting, law, payroll, or IT. When it comes to technology, one size doesn’t fit all—even in a small business. Hiring a managed services provider can help companies right-size their technology cost-effectively and strategically.
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