In the modern era, business and technology are attached at the hip, and intertwined on multiple levels. This truism rings with clarity when you consider how deeply-seated this dependency is. To put this into perspective, imagine if the internet went down for a couple hours at work or the hardware you use to complete mission-critical tasks crashes.
These types of situations endanger the ability to keep business moving forward, and technological breakdowns have the capacity to put a business in peril. If there is no safety net to protect you from these detrimental flare-ups, it can spiral out of control and jeopardize your credibility in the business community and internally eat-away at employee morale.
Which response unit can act as a first line of defense against technology breakdown? The best way to deal with technology-based disasters is by IT outsourcing to qualified professionals, such as Fidelity IT Solutions. There are a myriad of reasons why you should look beyond your company walls to an external party – for managed IT services – that will help farm an IT solutions program for your company. But, seven signs & situations demand it:
“It’s a currently a diversion.”
Are you finding business attention/ focus regularly being redirected to IT-related side issues? And when there is a disruption, you rely on your sales employee, Mike, who swears he is an IT “jack of all trades” type of guy but can’t tell the difference between mapping a drive to mapping his drive on Google Maps. What you need is a team of specialists – in a whole array of IT fields – to rectify the matter for you in a permanent and swift manner. And for the sake of everyone involved, please let Mike go back to his desk job and sell.
“Do we need for more technology?”
Are questions like this gaining steam in your office?
Is the current IT environment underdeveloped or needs to be remedied through upgrades/ reconfiguration?
Can we improve our workflow through technology-driven efficiencies?
Is our output being slowed-down because we don’t have the right technology in place?
Have we maxed-out and reached our cap with the current resources we have in place?
If these are the questions that are making it around the office, then they will only intensify and get louder. Take action before things spiral out of control, and employees start questioning the modernness of the business they work for. Undermining the legitimacy and “forward-thinking” nature of your business will have very negative consequences from the bottom-up.
“It is not important for us?”
If, by chance, technology is not central in your daily operations, then is ought it to be. While many business owners have a working knowledge of technology’s capabilities, it is difficult to grasp its sheer potential. For cost-savings, efficiency purposes and better management controls, IT can assist you in a multitude of business-friendly ways. For example, an office is usually filled with sensitive or important documents, and if one is misplaced, lost or stolen, it would compromise business integrity. Wouldn’t the files, digitized and backed-up in a secure and encrypted cloud be a better option? IT’s answer to pressing business problems in the modern day are more creative, smarter and commonsensical in nature.
“Our industry is too specific for it?”
If you think that IT cannot help advance your business goals because of the specific, “non-technological” industry you’re in, then you may be in for a surprise. A multitude of software programs, that are industry-specific in nature, have propped up and flooded the marketplace. Software programs like PC Law, Simply Accounting, to generic project management software like Basecamp are just a few out of the thousands that have been rolled-out to deal with a diverse array of business industries (from agriculture to architecture) to make day-to-day tasks less tedious and more productive. The scope of your industry no longer dwarfs IT’s latitude because customized IT platforms are built around and cater to your field.
“We need to minimize costs?”
One of the greatest advantages of outsourcing IT is saving money. In a tough economic climate, it is crucial that overheads are minimized to keep your business afloat. Outsourced IT companies understand that. We also understand that any game-changing technology sounds extremely expensive and an owner may be quick to come to the conclusion that “this would be great for us, but the costs seem to outweigh the benefits.” The difference-making attribute of outsourced IT is that cost-advantages are gained through technology because of the increased speed, efficiency and capacity to absorb more. For example, through online marketing campaigns like SEO or Social Media, you can expand beyond your traditional borders that have boxed you in to this point, and expand beyond these limitations via the virtual world. While there is an SEO/ Social Media cost, the added clientele and brand management will offset such meager costs.
“We need to be more flexible?”
Flexibility is one of the major advantages of outsourcing IT. Looking to an external subcontractor will keep your business elastic in the sense that if the partnership with the outsourced IT firm no longer makes sense for you, you have no long-term commitment. Unlike employees – who require a severance package, benefits, and a fixed salary in the face of their fluctuating performance – subcontractors are not given these guarantees. This means that you control the ebb and flow of the relationship with the outsourced IT, and will only call them in when you need them.
“We need new perspectives?”
Intermixing with an outsourced IT company on a frequent basis and enhancing communication lines with them, can bring unintended benefits that can positively affect business direction and performance. Outsourced IT businesses, such as Fidelity IT Solutions, mix with a diverse array of businesses and thus observe and are involved with a rich mosaic of business approaches. The outsourced IT firm can help inject fresh new perspectives that will inject ideas into your business platform because of their exchanges elsewhere, and make you a beneficiary of their enlightening experiences and frame of reference.
“Conclusion?”
In order to avoid being marginalized to the periphery in a competitive marketplace, business can get a sustainable boost by outsourcing their IT. They will keep cost down while advancing their prospects to do more and go beyond pre-IT limitations, where barriers and roadblocks will be broken down. Outsourced IT, with firms like Fidelity IT Solutions, aim to galvanize innovative and forward-looking solutions that take you to the next level and shed the outmoded way of doing things.
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Summary
The advantages of outsourcing IT are numerous. In order to keep your business flexible, lean, innovative and competitive in a cutthroat business landscape, outsourcing your IT will bolster your prospects to accelerate business growth. Businesses aversion to forgo or delay introducing an external and professional IT staff, like Fidelity IT Solutions, into their business platform are usually based on unfounded anxieties and miscalculated rationale.
This article examines the seven signs many see before they outsource their IT environment and, reap the advantages of outsourcing, to professional staff. Looking in-depth at these signs and situations will shed light on how businesses can stay ahead of the intelligence curve and transition to incorporate outsourced IT team into their platform without compromising business continuity.
