Twenty-first-century technology is a great double-edged sword. On one hand, it creates a smaller world in which you can react to your client needs and your business needs incredibly quickly. You can access customers and clients all around the world and stay connected in incredible ways. However, businesses have come to rely on these technological tools to keep their businesses operating smoothly. Since technological devices are so complex and networks so complicated, they tend to break down. That is an immutable fact of life. When your technological framework malfunctions, you have to find someone to fix it. That costs time and money.
Money is always going to be a chief consideration of a business owner or manager. Your job as a manager is to keep your expenses as low as possible and your revenue as high as possible. Technology is one of the main ways you keep your revenue high. Many managers choose to skip hiring an IT firm, thinking that will save them money. Depending on the nature of your business, this might be true. You should consider a few things to decide if you need an IT firm or not.
The Nature of Your Business
Depending on the nature of your business you might need managed IT services or ad hoc IT services. Managed services means that you hire an IT company to completely manage your technological infrastructure. They will develop, create, and manage your network based on newest technology and best practices. This is ideal for any business that has very complicated networks or a business relying on the Internet. One way to think about it is to compare the risk and reward.
If you do not have a business IT support system, you are always at risk of some kind of technological calamity. You need to ask yourself how much money you would lose if your technological infrastructure was down for two hours, four hours, eight hours, and so on. You can hire an IT firm to help fix some kind of problem after it arises; this is called the “break fix” approach. It works very well, but it still takes some time to get your system operational again. You should compare the monthly fees of an It service against your projected losses if your system was to go down.
The Money You Have on Hand
For some businesses, especially ones just starting out, you simply cannot afford to have a managed IT service. IT support is absolutely crucial to keeping your twenty-first-century business operating smoothly. Unfortunately, not every company can afford to have a support staff on hand.
For many businesses, even those that would lose significant amounts of money if something were to go wrong, they have to gamble.
In Conclusion
Choosing whether or not you need an IT support service essentially a cost-benefit analysis. How much will it cost you to hire someone to manage your IT system and how much will it cost you if your system were to become non-functional? Then you have to ask yourself the benefit of hiring someone to manage your system. You also should ask yourself the benefit of not hiring one as well.