3 Things Great IT Consulting Can Do for Your Business

Published On: October 26th, 2017Categories: blogBy KJ Technology

For many businesses, managing their technology is a necessary evil because they view technology as a basic tool that provides simple day-to-day assistance. However, at more forward-thinking organizations, technology is a force used to enable greater productivity. It is more than the sum of computers, phones and Wi-Fi. IT transforms their business, giving additional propulsion to meet goals, uncover new opportunities and beat their competition.

As a forward-thinking company, you want to work with dynamic partners. But how can you tell if your managed IT provider is complementary to your business-forward approach? Here are some key areas to examine.

Have you Escaped “Break-Fix”?

Do the same things break, get fixed and break again? Do you feel that your IT provider is making money solving the same problem repeatedly? If so, then you probably are stuck dealing with a backward-looking vendor.

Your IT vendor should be an expert in the space and should be able to own the risk of failure or better yet be building a proactive process and approach so that you don’t experience these costly business disruptions.

Chances are, if you’re considering switching managed IT services, you may be in the midst of a technological crisis. In fact, many of our clients first came to us after they lost access to their data, had expanded beyond their technology, or found themselves out of compliance with some of the nation’s most stringent regulatory bodies.

The question then becomes, how can we become proactive instead of reactive? The answer is simple, but not easy. It requires developing a rigorous process to examine problems and establish a method to stop them before they occur. With managed IT services, much of the cost burden is shifted to the provider’s shoulders. Aligning their interests with yours and making it in their best interest to have your technology running smoothly.

Outsourced global IT services spending will rise to $922 billion in 2017. – Statista

This comes to the forefront particularly with cybersecurity. If your IT provider is forward-thinking, they should make sure you have proper processes in place, they should train your staff on best practices, and they should follow through with testing and auditing to ensure a strong defense.

Do You Want to Flatline Your IT Budget?

The downside of solving IT needs as they arise is the unpredictability of costs. Not only could this include surprise invoices whenever tech support is needed, often it is very easy to spend a lot of money and not fix the issue.

For example, if your network was to be infected with malware or a crypto-virus, your IT provider could spend many hours remediating the issues. Speaking purely from a financial perspective, that would be a financially productive day for them. How does that provide for aligned interest in a mutually beneficial partnership?

Modern managed IT services flatlines your IT budget, owns the risk of unexpected technical issues, and are now financially incented to ensure you don’t have problems in the first place. That is a much better position for you to be in.

A side benefit is that you effectively shift technology investments from CAPEX to OPEX. By doing so, you free up capital and don’t become as saddled with obsolete assets. This often makes a difference to burgeoning companies. Forward-thinking managed IT providers consult with you to plan out and budget in advance, eliminating surprise cash outlay requirements.

Ready to Move to the Cloud?

One of the biggest technology evolutions of late is cloud technology. By virtualizing desktops, implementing cloud-based apps, shifting workloads and services and more, you shift those costs to operating expenses. In fact, 70% of businesses have reported that because of their migration to the cloud, they’ve been able to reinvest funds back into their business. Likewise, cloud-based architecture gives you even greater flexibility should you need to work remotely. This is a great benefit during bad weather but also gives you the ability to keep your staff productive and collaborative.

The difficulty arises in the migration. You want to ensure that you capture that productivity and collaboration, but you remain safe, with all the cybersecurity procedures and best practices you have built into your office, so your client data remains secure. Your forward-thinking managed IT services provider can help you get there.