As a business owner, you would appreciate the importance of strategy. A good business strategy has many times been the sole reason why a business has succeeded.
However, formulating a strategy alone is not enough. You must follow through with what you have planned out. A strategy without implementation is an open invitation to failure.
The timing of the implementation of a strategy is also crucial to business success. You can have a good business plan and still fail if you execute it at the wrong time. So, to succeed in business, you need to develop a strategy, be ready for execution and know when to act.
Now that you know this, let’s talk about tech.
Signs That Your Business Needs IT Support
Working with an IT professional to help manage your business infrastructure is an intelligent business decision. In 2019, Clutch estimated that up to 37 percent of small businesses worldwide were outsourcing their IT services. Of course, that figure is bound to have increased. Outsourcing your company’s IT needs can help your business gain stability and promote growth.
However, getting IT support is just like every other strategy — the timing is important. Before engaging the services of an IT professional, you need to be sure that the timing is right for your business.
Some of the signs that your business needs IT help include:
Your Business is Growing Fast and Needs Better Infrastructure
Let’s say you just opened the third branch of your store downtown. Your customers have tripled, and your workforce has doubled — all in a period of six months. While developments like these are great, you need a strategy for managing rapid growth. This would save you a lot of management difficulties.
Outsourcing the services of IT professionals is a good strategy in this scenario. It is impossible to manage a fast-growing business without IT support. IT can help you manage your business while giving you the freedom to expand further.
Increase in Customer Complaints
Customer complaints are a very important indicator of the health of a company. When customer complaints about a particular issue increase, it is a clear indication that that area needs urgent attention.
Customer complaints that involve the IT department should not be treated with levity. IT challenges can easily make a customer withdraw his or her patronage.
So when your customers begin to complain about things like an increase in downtime, poor online service, and communication challenges, be proactive. Know that your business requires help with IT needs, and get it fast.
Your Technology Is Too Complicated for Your Current Staff
A lot of small business owners do not have an IT department. They just rely on the tech-savvy member of their staff to manage their IT operations. Some companies are more proactive; they organize training when a new piece of technology is introduced to the workspace.
There will be times, though, when practices like these will not be enough. It may be subtle, like when a staff member complains about the new computer or when a virtual meeting takes longer than it should because some workers couldn’t figure out how to join the meeting. It can also be very obvious, like when all the computer systems in the office shut down twice in three days, and no one has any idea why. When these sorts of things happen, your business needs IT help.
Your Data Management is Poor
A good indicator of whether your business needs IT support is your data management. How does your company store, share, or secure data? How effective is it? Has your business ever been hacked or are you constantly getting hit with some type of virus?
There are many ways to measure the effectiveness of your data management practice. The most effective of them is the safety and security of your company’s data.
Does your data ever go missing? Has the company experienced a data breach in recent times? Do your customers ask about how you are protecting your infrastructure and their sensitive data because you have access to their environment? If your answer to any of these questions is “yes,” secure the services of IT professionals as soon as possible – these scenarios could be a sign that you need help!
You Are Not Seeing Results From Your IT Investment
A major aspiration in business is to find ways to increase profit while reducing costs. Gaining control over your operating costs can be a major headache for the business owner or manager.
If you are not seeing results from your IT investment or not getting the productivity gains, improved customer support, or cost reductions you should be; there is a good chance that your company is just adding IT as an added responsibility for someone on the staff and outsourcing may be a solution to consider to minimize your increase in the IT spend.
An analysis of the various departments in operations can show you where you need to make some adjustments. Overspending in the IT department can come from spending a lot of funds troubleshooting or repairing equipment. It can also be seen in the amount of business time lost during system downtime. The drop in productivity can also be analyzed.
The most effective way to solve this is to get in contact with a firm that can help with your specific IT needs.
You Need To Focus on Your Core Competencies
To be successful in business, you need to have a laser focus on what you do best. Though you are in charge of the business, you do not have to be directly involved in every area. Doing so can make you ineffective in the long run. Instead, you need to be able to make intelligent decisions on what to focus on and what to outsource.
A successful business should be focused on its core competencies to keep customers happy while outsourcing everything else – like payroll, HR, IT, etc.
There’s no denying that technology is very vital to the growth and stability of your business. However, you do not have to handle this aspect of the business on your own. Leaving tech matters in the hands of IT professionals is a wise business move. You can discuss your vision with them and trust the experts to carry it out. This allows you to focus solely on growing your business.
It’s Time for the Next Level
A significant sign that your business needs help with IT needs is when it is about to undergo an upgrade. It can be opening a new branch or launching a new service. In whatever form it takes, your business is expected to move forward because of it.
The managerial and operational workload that comes with this is too heavy to bear without IT support. So when making moves like these, you must consult with IT professionals.
Have You Considered a Fixed Fee Service Model?
Maybe you’re considering making a change to your current IT infrastructure, or you’re business is having trouble staying on budget when it comes to ongoing IT expenses. If any of these scenarios are true, you could benefit greatly from an outside support team helping to manage your IT needs for a manageable monthly fixed fee…
In this eBook, you’ll learn more about how partnering with a good managed service provider (or MSP) to support your in-house IT team can improve the efficiency of your business – download your copy TODAY!
{{cta(‘115048706463’)}}
