How Managed IT Can Positively Affect Your Bottom Line
The COVID-19 pandemic has certainly shown businesses around the world just how reliant they are on their technology. Businesses of all sizes and across all industries quickly discovered just how important good technology is when pivoting to modified work requirements. It’s quite simple; if the technology isn’t working then the business isn’t operating and the cash flow has come to a grinding halt.
The numbers back up that previous statement. According to a survey, 98% of businesses with more than 1000 employees estimate that 1 hour of downtime costs the business more than $100,000. Every hour that ticks by when salespeople aren’t connecting with clients, accounts receivable isn’t processing invoices, and phones aren’t ringing is like lighting money on fire.
Managed IT services are a simple and cost-effective solution to the threat of expensive, prolonged, and repeated downtime.
A Dedicated Team with Laser Focus
In-house IT support is the traditional method for managing devices, software, and addressing issues in most businesses. The challenge is that the need for IT support in businesses of all sizes continues to increase and the cost of hiring this staff is not a small expense. The average salary for an IT member on staff is nearly $80,000. As the need for these skills increases, businesses find they are hiring more staff, paying overtime to current staff, or pushing some troubleshooting tasks onto non-IT staff which takes away their focus from their actual work.
With managed IT services, businesses get a dedicated team focused on managing IT needs within the business. This allows staff to do their work effectively without having to fill any IT service gaps themselves. Best of all, with a dedicated IT support team, businesses can trust they are getting experienced IT professionals who are leaders in their field.
Improved Cybersecurity
Small business security is becoming an increasingly large concern for owners and managers. Hackers have become more and more clever and have an ever-increasing arsenal of tools at their disposal including ransomware, crypto-mining malware, and advanced phishing schemes. Many of these tactics target businesses and individuals with outdated software and hardware. Businesses are losing upward of $45 billion per year just due to cybersecurity incidents.
A dedicated team for IT support can ensure that important security updates are completed promptly, compliant hardware is in place, and even help develop ongoing education for employees to identify and avoid potential cybersecurity incidents. Prevention is the most affordable form of cybersecurity and this is the ultimate goal of managed IT services.
Better Business Technology
Many businesses use the technology they have because deploying new technology is seen as time-consuming or a hassle. With managed IT services, the experts can help identify areas for improvement and recommend the technology that will make a difference. This could include hardware or software that improves productivity, automates workflows, or increases efficiency. Even something as simple as replacing multiple devices with a more efficient multifunction printer can provide massive benefits to a business.
Best of all, new business technology is set up and deployed by the managed IT services provider. They are experienced with deployments of varying scale and can create a plan to stay within budget, limit disruption, and improve the overall quality of life for employees. And, of course, once everything is set up then the maintenance and troubleshooting are managed by a professional team that helped deploy everything in the first place.
These changes can have a major effect on small costs that add up quickly. For example, shared network storage can improve the sharing of documents between team members while also cutting down on the need for printing or scanning. This reduces the usage of paper and ink which, over time, can be a significant saving for the business. Automation of tasks or workflows can free up staff to connect with more clients, become more efficient, and deliver a better return on their time than ever before.
Improve Efficiency, Reduce Expenses
Managed IT Support for your small business technology is about more than just getting the broken printer back up and running. It’s a holistic approach that tackles some of the costliest challenges businesses face today. Everything from device management to small business security can be brought under one umbrella with professional, certified, and experienced IT staff working as a team.
To learn more about the benefits of managed IT services, reach out to Virginia Business Systems today.