In today’s business environment, technology can make or break your business operations. One of the problems many business owners face is technology evolution. Technology can be difficult to keep up with and manage, often requiring a large investment and a specialized team to operate and manage it. This can be extremely expensive for many small or medium businesses (SMBs), but it doesn’t have to be, especially if you work with a Managed Service Provider (MSP) or an IT Partner.
How do I know I need help?
Each business, like each MSP, is different, but here are three of the most common signs that your business needs some help.
- Continuous IT problems
On the surface, most of the systems we use daily seem simple enough—when they’re working. But, when systems breakdown, business owners quickly realize that technology is not only complex, it’s vital for daily operations to continue effectively. Complexity aside, all technology will have issues and break at some point, which is why you should factor the resources to make replacements and repairs into your budget. Constant issues will have a negative effect on profits and productivity.
By partnering with the right MSP to watch over and assist your IT department, you can be assured your systems and technology are running quietly and effectivity. You’re able to meet IT demands, scale to meet future requirements, and possibly improve your overall productivity while increasing profits.
- IT staffing issues
The fact is that most SMB’s don’t have the budget to hire a dedicated IT staff. The role is typically filled by the owner or the most tech savvy person in the office, and they aren’t planning for a future in IT. They typically can fix the daily issues or annoyances that come about but don’t have the time to strategically plan, ensure your systems are secure, carry out complicated upgrades, or provide after-hours support for the entire company.
Instead of asking your current staff to take over IT, you could work with an MSP that already has a full team of experts ready to meet your current and future demands.
- IT budget concerns
The cost of technology is ever changing. Sometimes you’re replacing all the laptops in the office or dealing with the latest malware trying to steal and lock your data. Other times you may be moving one of your internal systems to the cloud while trying to keep your business 100% online. These types of situations, and others, make budgeting for technology incredibly difficult. Partnering with the right MSP that offers a fixed or flat rate agreement, can help those budget concerns. The upside to this is while your budget flatlines, overall cost and overhead are often reduced because your systems are in working order and typically last longer between issues.
The changes in technology over the last several years have made it easier than ever before for SMBs to take advantage of cloud services and other offerings that previously had only been available to larger companies with dedicated IT staff. Partnering with an MSP not only lets you take advantage of those technologies, it makes sure that your time is spent focusing on your business and not the inevitable problems that will arise with those technologies and systems.