By Anica Oaks
Technology evolves at a rapid pace. Businesses must evolve with it to stay competitive, but this often requires a substantial investment of resources.
This is why many businesses fall behind with their IT infrastructure. This makes them vulnerable to service outages, security problems, data breaches and countless other IT nightmares.
One solution for overcoming the growing challenges of information technology is to utilize the services of a third party for your IT needs. Managed IT services promise a way to bolster your IT infrastructure with the skills and expertise you need without forcing you to hire new employees.
The only question concerns how appropriate managed IT services are for small businesses. Let’s explore this issue in detail to determine if managed IT services are ideal for your small business.
1. Making Data Backups Reliable and Easy
The most valuable part of any business is the data it possesses. Customer details, information about products, support articles, and countless other details work to facilitate the business process.
One study states that backup & disaster recovery is an issue small and midsized businesses are at great risk of. This makes it clear that third-party services can help with backing up data.
The main reason data backup is so desirable from a third-party provider revolves around the convenient and cost-efficient nature of third-party services. This advantages translate into even larger benefits when applied to the small business environment.
2. Providing Reactive IT Support
One small IT problem can create a large enough of an issue to bring an entire small business to a stop. This can mean that products and services fail to sell, customers leave for the competition, and vulnerable data gets exposed to the wrong eyes.
Managed IT services can provide round-the-clock monitoring of your business’s IT infrastructure. This can maximize the reliability of your business while ensuring that you can control the damage that occurs.
3. Skipping the Capital Investment
One problem that makes IT such a burden for small businesses is the fact that you must invest heavily to make it effective. You must obtain the right personnel, update your hardware on a regular basis, and employ enough people to support the rest of your company.
Third-party services make sense because they’re capable of reducing the amount of money that you have to spend to construct your IT infrastructure. You can even use more valuable assets, such as your personnel, to help with in-person problems while the third-party services manage the rest remotely.
4. Varied Technical Expertise
The biggest benefit that third-party IT service providers can bring is expertise. They work with countless different companies of varying sizes, which in turn allows them to have a high amount of experience with every type of IT setup.
Given that technical skill tends to be the most expensive part of developing an IT infrastructure, this can help provide you with world-class support that costs only a fraction of what it would otherwise.
Third-Party IT Providers: A Good Idea for Small Businesses
The bottom line about third-party IT providers is that they can bring numerous benefits to businesses, but small businesses will generally find the largest value in their services. Their expertise, cost-efficient nature and ability to provide support and security makes them invaluable.
The only catch is that you should utilize the services of a reliable third-party IT provider. Failure to do so can negate many of the benefits that they would bring, and could introduce new problems.
If your business could use a more robust IT infrastructure, then adopting a third-party IT provider may be ideal.
Anica is a professional content and copywriter who graduated from the University of San Francisco. She loves dogs, the ocean, and anything outdoor-related. She was raised in a big family, so she’s used to putting things to a vote. Also, cartwheels are her specialty. You can connect with Anica here. Anica writes for Bedrock IT, which provides managed IT services in Ottawa.
