3 Reasons to Work With a Outsourced Local IT Company

3 Reasons to Work With a Outsourced Local IT Company

Many small business owners are very careful about how and where they spend money, and rightfully so.  The financial health of a small business depends greatly upon the management of expenses and smart business owners keep a close eye on where their company resources are spent.

With that said, there are very few businesses that can run successfully without reliance on computers to run their businesses.  Between email, software programs, calendars, scheduling applications, accounting, internal communications, file storage and backups there are so many aspects of a small business that rely on computers to function.  Surprisingly, many businesses do not want to invest in this most fundamental aspect of their business operations.  If a program or network goes down, data is lost, a computer crashes, a company gets ransomware—these are events that can cripple a business for an hour, a day or perhaps indefinitely.  Just like insurance, IT is an area of the business that is essential and requires resources and planning.

Here are 3 reasons your small business may need to consider a outsourced local IT Company sooner than later:

1. You recognize that IT is a critical piece of your business and need to have someone who is a professional manage it.

While a lot of business owners and leaders understand IT is important, many don’t feel it is necessary to pay someone to maintain their company’s IT infrastructure.  They believe that because they’ve been able to manage for some time, are doing data backups, etc. and are running some cloud applications, that paying for an IT service is unnecessary.  But this reasoning does not take into consideration how critical IT is to their operations.

If you understand that IT is critical to your business you need to take a proactive approach to IT management.  This means having a professional company evaluate and manage your network.  Getting a forensic review of your IT infrastructure may reveal key failures or latent problems that, if addressed before they cause chaos, can save your company enormous amounts of time and money.  Giving the IT responsibilities to the boss or a more computer savvy employee who can run backups or knows how to reboot a server is not an IT strategy—it is a recipe for disaster. 

If you feel you’re too small a business and cannot afford to build a solid network or hire a professional, you are thinking counterproductively.  The solution that makes more sense is not to avoid hiring a local outsourced IT company but rather to find one that is a fit for your budget and needs.  A provider like User Friendly Technology Services can provide your South Florida small business with the professional, proactive support it needs at low hourly rates on an as needed basis.

The sooner you understand that IT is something that has to be professionally and competently managed and is a critical element of your business just like operations, accounting or HR, the more efficient and secure your business will be.

2. You recognize that IT is both necessary and that outsourcing is going to be the most efficient and cost-effective means of addressing it.

For too long small businesses have been treating IT like they do the office coffee service or a cleaning crew– a commodity that is done inhouse or given to the lowest priced bidder.

Responsible and proactive small business leaders who run mature organizations understand that IT is now a functional department within the company that should be used to achieve greater success. These leaders understand IT must be an area of focus and accountability within the business that should be delegated to a professional. For most small businesses, hiring a full-time in-house IT Director is cost prohibitive and may even hold you back.  Investing in IT properly has a return in the form of greater efficiencies, less frequent disruptions and potentially the introduction of new technologies that can take your business to the next level.

This does not mean your company needs to hire a Managed Services Provider (MSP) and sign long term contracts or pay large monthly fees.  It simply means that you find a company that can handle both the basic IT functions every companies needs such as helpdesk, systems administration, nightly local and cloud backups, cloud management, AV, security, remote monitoring and spam filtering but that also has the capability to help you look to the future, build networks that allow for growth and help you find solutions that can help your company to grow and thrive.

3. You recognize your IT as an area of opportunity for growth and the benefit of being proactive in aligning IT with the business’s goals and objectives.   

The small business that has not invested in their IT department has done so because they have failed to see value, most likely seeing IT as a commodity and not a tool for development and growth.

Any department or business unit in an organization, whether internal or outsourced, should produce measurable value to the organization. Mature business owners and leaders recognize that IT has become so critical it can produce exponential value creation for the company and seek to unlock that potential by properly aligning IT objectives to the company’s goals.

In this approach, a distinction must be made.  There is a difference when hiring a local outsourced IT company between delegation and abdication.  The responsible company will provide a point person to work directly with the IT provider to act as a liaison and primary point of contact, communicating company issues and goals to the IT provider in an effort to give their IT company a unified voice.  The company delegates the IT responsibilities to the outsourced local IT company but maintains an active role in making sure their goals are in alignment with the activities of the IT provider and being executed accordingly.  Abdication is giving the entire responsibility to the outsourced local IT company and hoping things turn out the way you want.

The best IT companies act as your organization’s technology success partner, working directly with you to understand your vision, goals and objectives and creating plans and strategies to align your IT to those objectives by:

• Gaining an understanding of how your business operates to grasp the challenges and opportunities that exist.
• Developing a strategy and aligning that strategy to specific business objectives and outcomes.
• Understanding your budget and making sure the strategy being undertaken is a fit.
• Developing a periodic schedule to review the strategy, assess progress and costs.
• Performing ongoing security and risk analyses.
• Maintaining accountability to the plan, but also being flexible to the business needs as they change.

So hopefully you can see that IT is not an area of your business to avoid investing in but a critical component of your company’s operational health and financial growth.  Taking the time to properly evaluate the role technology can and should play in your company is a step in the direction of your future success.

User Friendly Technology Services would be privileged to be your outsourced local IT company of record.  Let us help your South Florida small business accomplish its IT goals with our truly unique blend of outstanding professional services along with the most flexible terms and fair pricing that can be found in the market.  To find out more about how User Friendly is helping companies like yours today or to speak to one of our friendly and knowledgeable staff members, contact us now or call us directly at (954) 780-8677.

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