Companies that rely on a single in-house IT person or an outsourced consultant limit the benefits well-managed technology can bring to their business. While the people they rely on may have excellent skills in some areas of IT, it is highly unlikely they will have the highly specialized skill sets needed to manage this rapidly evolving arena.
If your company has “always done it like this” it may be time to rethink how to harness technology to not just keep the office open but also improve productivity, staff and customer satisfaction and enhance security during these extremely unsecure times.
What would these improvements look like?
Reduce disruption during projects
Having all IT services in-house leads to higher research and development costs as well as longer and bumpier implementations. Staff and customers both suffer when this happens. In many cases a Technology Management company will have done all the planning and implementation multiple times which leads to a smoother, more cost efficient process.
Lower risk
Outsourced providers know how to avoid risks to the security of your technology environment. They have years of experience handling security, compliance disputes, competition, government regulations, finances and technological updates. With the rapidly-rising threat of a breach they have the newest tools at their disposal to monitor and protect your business.
What if the worst happened?
The number of companies that rely on their technology to manage most aspects of their business is growing exponentially. Think of what a day with zero workflow would look like: no access to documents, the internet, billing and payroll records, the list goes on. Bills don’t get paid, people don’t receive paychecks, customers can’t get information or place orders…what would just a day’s outage cost your business?
A team of professionals managing your technology can work together to remedy problems, often working in tandem with vendors, to find the fastest solution to get your business working at peak efficiency again.
Boost efficiency on a daily basis
When the network is out of whack slowdowns impact productivity. How many times have you talked to someone who says “my computers are slow today”? Now multiply that statement by all the people they help in a day and don’t forget to include how many other employees are telling their clients the same thing. Through the use of sophisticated monitoring tools an outsourced vendor watches for all the things that can slow you down. From making behind-the-scene tweaks to high-level calls to application vendors they will solve these problems as they arise. With well-managed technology your staff should never need to say “be patient, my computer is slow.”
Stay on budget
Managed services are typically changed as a monthly recurring cost with extra costs for non-covered services (afterhours calls and labor for example). True Technology Management is all-inclusive meaning that the monthly cost includes everything. Working with a flat-level budget helps a company stay within their allotment for technology expenses.
In a survey by CIO Insight nearly 75% of the respondents said they are not confident that their IT budget aligns to business priorities. Your in-house staff or consultant may do a fine job on the day-to-day tasks but do they also have the ability to forecast and budget for your technology needs over the next three years? Equipment becomes obsolete on a regular basis and most businesses are unprepared for unexpected replacements of expensive servers and other devices.
True Technology Management aligns technology with business goals. Does your company plan to expand in place, add branches or grow in some other way? Choosing and budgeting for the right technology to accomplish these objectives takes vision, research and on-target numbers.
If your company could enhance security, improve productivity and reduce risks by having a whole team of technical professionals on call day and night—would you do it?
