Running a business can be tough at the best of times, but when something goes wrong in your organisation to do with technical problems it can be a huge problem.
The majority of companies that suffer cyber attacks for example are out of business within 6 months. So there are consequences of your business having tech problems.
In this post, we will take a look at how an IT support company can help keep your business running and help it grow by leaving you to concentrate on business development rather than taking the focus away by dealing with tech problems.
1) Safety and security problems
Tyler director of an IT support company Firewall Technical says that the majority of small business owners are concerned with the safety of their data and security problems and hiring an IT support and service provider can help with that.
Data handling and collection has many laws that small businesses simply don’t have the time to keep up with and adhere to but hiring a managed service provider that specialises in IT security will allow them to put in processes that make your business compliant with the latest legislation.
Managed providers can also make this data harder to breach through their security services which for most small business owners is another skill that isn’t something they are knowledgeable about. If data and security is your concern a managed service provider is a great option for most businesses.
2) Reduction in costs
According to Symple IT Solutions hiring an external managed service provider can save your business over 67% in costs compared to hiring internal staff alone.
Many businesses can’t afford to hire multiple staff members to deal with the different areas of tech support so hiring a service provider is a more affordable option. MSP’s often have hundreds of clients so having experts in every field is something they can afford but to a small business, it’s going to be out of their budgets.
MSP’s often provide their services based on the number of devices you want them to protect. Therefore it’s affordable to even the smallest of businesses.
3) Around the clock support
Tech problems happen at various times in the day, even after 5 pm when most businesses close for the day. An internal team often goes home at the same time so any problems that happen after this are not caught until the next day, this leads to business disruption.
IT support companies on the other hand actively monitor your networks for errors and can stop them from happening in the first place, but if they do happen after you have left the office they are at hand 24 hours of the day so your business disruption is kept to a minimum.
For some businesses, if their system is offline even for an hour it could cost thousands in lost revenue and unhappy customers.
4) You can grow your business.
If you’re a small business owner there is a good chance you wear a few hats to keep the business running. You could be handling your marketing, your customer service and sales. If you are juggling many roles within your organisation the last thing that you will want is having to deal with any technical problems too.
Any distraction that takes your eye off your business goals is going to make your company less profitable in the long term so if you can outsource solutions to remove these distractions it could be worth doing so from a business development point of view.
When should you outsource your IT support and services?
According to Forbes, you should outsource your IT support and services when it makes no sense to hire a full time member of staff to complete the job at hand or when your company is being overrun with jobs it can no longer complete.
We agree with that, if your business is struggling with managing it’s IT resources then it could be time to hire an IT support and services company to help with the day to day running of your computing infrastructure.
Conclusion
IT support and services can help your business grow when hiring the right company, however, you should make sure to do your research first as you will need to see what is covered in your service level agreement and you should also consider if you should hire a local or national company.
National companies may be a little cheaper compared to a local company but if something goes wrong and they need to visit your site it could take longer for them to send an engineer out. A local company may charge more but could get to your problem and fix it sooner. Hiring either will depend on the money that could be lost if there was ever a problem to occur with your IT infrastructure.