IT spending
There’s no way around it: there are tough decisions to make as a business owner. Although small businesses have seen decent growth this June, not everyone is feeling the benefits equally. And even for those businesses in the “seven fat years,” saving up for the future is always a concern.
IT support is one domain where it can be tempting to cut costs. We all have that one young guy on staff who moonlights as a technician – or the sharp office lady who shows up to rescue you when your computer’s not working. Why invest in IT support when you’ve got it covered?
It’s true that for very small businesses, that one brave soul may be all you need. But what happens when you grow? What about when it comes time to upgrade your technology? What if you find yourself in multiple office locations? What if you need a small fleet of tablets for on-site workers? What happens when you’ve got multiple email domains to manage? Your single champion can’t do it all. Even a full-time IT person may end up overwhelmed as your business continues to develop.
Outsourcing wisely
It’s for these reasons that businesses seek out a Managed Service Provider, or MSP. If the phrase makes you cringe, you’ve probably heard (or maybe experienced) the horror stories that come along with the low-quality MSPs. But a good MSP is worth its weight in gold.
Your needs may vary, but a good MSP should be able to offer you the following:
- No long-term contracts (ideally month-to-month)
- No cancellation fees
- Fast response times
- Scalable services that grow with your business
- Direct access to technicians (no call centers or robot phone trees)
- Technical expertise that suits your needs
- Proactive, not reactive philosophy (more on that below)
Is IT support like car maintenance?
This last point – proactive, not reactive philosophy – deserves some expansion. Many businesses think of IT support as being like car maintenance. Most people don’t have a subscription plan with their car mechanic. You go to the mechanic for regular tune-ups, or if something breaks.
For that matter, most people only bring their computer into a repair shop when it’s not working. They pay a one-time fee and come home satisfied. Why should a business’s IT support be any different?
Many MSPs do offer this type of support, known as a break-fix plan. It sounds good in theory – get IT support when you need it and save money when you don’t. Unfortunately, the analogy falls apart when you take a closer look.
Your IT infrastructure is more than just a device – more than even a collection of devices and software. It is no less than the “nervous system” of your business through which almost all information is stored and communicated.
Unless you have an office space with pen-and-paper record-keeping, cash and business checks only, physical mail, and maybe a phone operator (who doesn’t long for those days sometimes?), your IT setup is where it happens, both within and without.
Saving money on IT
So, in short, IT infrastructure is not like a car. It requires proactive monitoring, maintenance, and optimization – the essence of Managed IT Services. And as your business grows and develops, your IT infrastructure grows in scope and complexity (whereas, to our knowledge, cars don’t grow at all). The “break-fix” model of IT services is not designed to address this.
That is to say nothing of a real catastrophe. An email outage, a network failure, a hacked database, or a malware infestation – all of these are far more disruptive to business operations than a single device breaking down. A reactive approach to these issues may solve the problem, but the damage is done by then – hours or days of downtime; potentially thousands of dollars lost. The proactive approach of Managed IT is intended to greatly reduce the risk of these issues happening in the first place.
Many businesses handle everything in-house, or have only reactive outsourced IT, thinking they are choosing the cheaper option. Yet the time they spend doing their own troubleshooting, manually setting up devices, onboarding new employees, and muddling through documentation can end up being much more expensive than Managed IT would have been – not to mention more stressful. And that’s without any preventable catastrophes, cybersecurity incidents, or outages – where the costs pile up even more.
Choosing a trusted partner
Apart from what we’ve listed, what is the number one thing to look for in an MSP? The answer, of course, is trust. You want someone you can trust with your IT infrastructure – someone who treats your business as their own. Someone who is committed to keeping your operations running smoothly and securely, and to address issues before they become a crisis.
For more information, feel free to reach out. We wish you success with all your endeavors!