Why do I need professional IT services? My cousin is pretty good with computers and will help me for cheap, or maybe even free. I don’t need IT support!
You’ve probably heard something similar from other business owners you know. Maybe you’ve said this before. Maybe you feel this way now.
This thought process is a recipe for disaster. Entrusting your company to a novice is only setting yourself up for bigger problems. Your cousin [or insert appropriate relationship] who is handy with computers is not qualified to handle business technology. Let’s break down the basics why.
7 reasons why you need professional IT services for your business.
- Expert, Personalized Service
- Increased ROI
- Enhanced Security
- Maximize Productivity and Efficiency
- Improve Your Customer Experience
- Advance Company Goals with New Technology
- Spend More Time Working ON Your Business
These are the 7 reasons why you need professional IT support. The emphasis is on “professional” and is a qualification in which your “cousin” can’t handle your business.
1. Expert, Personalized Service
This first item can’t be emphasized enough. Expert service is required if you take your business seriously.
It’s an idea that doesn’t get a second thought in other regards of your life.
Need surgery? That doctor seems a bit expensive. What about the nurse who took your blood? She seems pretty good with medical stuff. I bet she can do it for a fraction of the cost.
Ludicrous, right? You don’t trade quality for cost with important matters.
So, why would you for your business? Maybe you haven’t thought about your IT as being one of the critical components of your business before. Can your business function without any technology? No, I didn’t think so. I think it’s time to consider your IT vitally important.
So what’s wrong with your cousin?
Using somebody that isn’t qualified will not provide you with the service you need (along with reasons 2-7 on this list). Not using a professional not only deprives your company from getting the proper support it needs, but it’s worse than that. They will most likely misconfigure your IT to leave gaps or introduce obstructions where there shouldn’t be any. It’ll be disruptive to your business, operations, and efficiency. Your IT infrastructure will be worse off than if they didn’t help – and you’ll think everything is fine and dandy.
In addition, your cousin may know how to troubleshoot your computer issues, but there’s a lot more to your IT infrastructure. What most company owners forget is that computers are only a means for your staff to get their work done. In order for this to happen, the most important elements are working hard behind the scenes; switches, firewalls, servers, software, cybersecurity. Your cousin may be “IT savvy” but is likely not trained in any of these aspects, nor does he have the tools and vendor relationships to properly manage and troubleshoot your IT infrastructure or acquire the proper business-grade equipment, which makes for a deadly combination. For instance, your WiFi stops working so you call your cousin to take a look at it. In his diagnosis, he finds that your router has burned out. Instead of replacing it with a business-grade firewall and an access point, he drives down to Costco and picks up a consumer-grade home router with 6 antennas that looks like an alien spaceship. At this point, you’re probably ecstatic since he got the job done, but what you don’t realize that he’s done more harm than good.
Furthermore, your cousin probably has more important things going on in his life because IT is not his main gig. Since he’s not getting paid (or getting paid very little), there’s no incentive for him to go out of his way to help and you feel uncomfortable bugging him for every little issue.
That’s an all-around bad situation to be in, considering the importance of your business.
Now let’s look at the positive. With professional IT services, you get consistent, high-quality services. You and your staff all have support at their fingertips, available virtually at all times, that is personalized to meet you and your business’s unique needs.
2. Increased ROI
How can spending money on IT, when you aren’t now, be better? Because outsourcing your IT to a Managed Service Provider (MSP) has a large return on investment (ROI).
There’s a multitude of ways IT services gives back to your business and pays for itself hand over fist. Every item on this list, such as increased productivity and scalability, are ways that IT services improve your bottom line. We’ll touch on those in turn, so here are a few additional ways an MSP increases your ROI that are not already listed.
You have options with OpEx (Operational Expenditure) and CapEx (Captial Expenditure). It may be beneficial to handle infrastructure costs as a capital expense. They are, after all, equipment that will be used for multiple years. However, you have the option to shift those costs into an operational expense, utilizing a lease or HaaS (Hardware-as-a-Service) model. This will be lighter on the immediate cash expenditure, and possibly allow better deductions for your books (consult with your CPA or tax professional).
Service redundancy is another way your ROI is accelerated. Not having an IT person on staff is costly. Having one is limiting though. We covered this in our article on outsourcing vs in-house IT. When you utilize an MSP to handle your IT support, you have a team of people looking after your business. It’s redundancy of staff. You don’t have to worry about somebody being out sick or on vacation. There are multiple sets of eyes on your business, with an expansive set of knowledge and skillsets to apply to your business.
3. Enhanced Security
In today’s world, cybersecurity is not an option. The landscape is different than just 5 or 10 years ago.
Threats are persistent, evolving, and virtually guaranteed. Many small businesses don’t think this applies to them, but they are wrong. They are the biggest target.
Security isn’t just about slapping antivirus on your systems and calling it a day. You need to have a multi-layered approach. That means hardware firewalls, advanced malware detection, resilient backups, server monitoring, and email scanning, all layered on top of each other to keep threats at bay.
All of this, and nothing is ever perfect. You know your home can always be broken into, so you install locks, cameras, and alarm systems to help protect yourself. In the same manner, you should implement cybersecurity on your business network.
The tools used are advanced. Sometimes referred to as “next-gen.” They don’t rely on “definitions” as an antivirus does. They use AI to analyze the behavior of files and are able to tell if things are awry. These are complicated technologies and should be installed, monitored, and remedied by professionals.
4. Maximize Productivity and Efficiency
Market intelligence providers have done research and studies that show just how beneficial using a Managed Service Provider is. On top of reducing costs and increasing ROI, utilizing an MSP will dramatically optimize your business.
Managed networks end up being more stable, agile, and faster which reduces downtime. Employee productivity increases 88% as a result. That productivity boost results in large increases in revenue. That’s no minor impact on your bottom line.
5. Improve Your Customer Experience
Not only will your employees have a better experience, but that translates to a happier experience for your customers as well. Your customer service and account managers can’t help your customers very well if their computers or phones are down.
If they have an issue, reaching out to the IT helpdesk is easy and gets them direct access to immediate help. The result is a less frustrated employee and improves your overall customer service making everybody happy.
6. Advance Company Goals with New Technology
Technology advances quickly and has drastic changes about every 7 years.
It’s critical that your company can advance just as quickly, scaling up when it needs to.
Managed IT services are the most flexible and efficient way to add resources. Your business can increase its existing assets such as user count or hardware needs seamlessly. It can also introduce new tech, such as cloud technology, easily just when your company needs it.
The continual addition of digital technologies will usher in your company’s digital transformation. Digital transformation changes how a company operates, optimizing it into an agile, collaborative, and goal-oriented focus.
You can expect to reduce operational costs, improve products, expand into new markets, and enable faster (and smarter) business decisions, just to name a few. These types of goals will need to factor technology in mind and plan it out to execute it when appropriate. A professional IT can consult you with this. It’s called vCIO (virtual Chief Information Officer) services.
7. Spend More Time Working ON Your Business
All the previously discussed topics point out details such as how your employees will have access to professional IT support whenever needed, that things will run smoothly and reduce downtime, and productivity will skyrocket. What is alluded to, but not specifically spelled out, is that you will have fewer headaches, distractions, and have more free time to work on your business.
One of the hardest parts of running your business is moving it forward. You can get caught up so easily in the day-to-day issues that all you accomplish is putting out fires, and not setting your business up to grow. With Managed IT Services, you will have more time to do just that.
That is a fundamental shift in the way you approach your IT. As you focus on IT being an investment into your company (rather than an expense for your company), you start to see the benefits. The ROI is there, in terms of monetary return and in foundational business ops shifts. Those shifts set you up for implementing greater change. You can count those added hours as a benefit to your company, but how much greater is the value when you look at what your business achieves from those added hours?
These are the 7 reasons why you need professional IT services for your business. They all impact your business greatly, which can mean the difference between success and failure, or mediocrity and excellence. With massive power and importance in your business, you need to work with professionals to achieve your goals. That is why you can’t entrust it to your cousin who “is pretty good with computers.”
Make sure to check out our resources page and also grab our IT Buyers Guide to get more information on what your should be looking for in your IT service. If you need help finding somebody that is not your cousin, and how to implement professional IT services in your company then get in touch. We can give you a free review and lay out a plan to get your IT running smoothly.