5 Ways to Reduce Technology-Related Stress in the New Year

Your business either has a sound plan to manage its IT maintenance, or it does not. There is no middle ground here. Either you have an internal team dedicated to maintaining your IT infrastructure, or it’s not being taken care of as well as it should be. Even if you do have an internal team, you might notice that they simply don’t have time on their hands to handle all of their responsibilities. We’re here to introduce you to one of the most notable ways of keeping your technology in proper working order: managed IT services.

Compared to the more traditional break-fix IT model, you’ll find that there are substantial differences (and benefits) to using managed IT as your preferred method of technology maintenance. Here are five of them.

Minimized Cost
With break-fix IT, your business is reacting to technology problems rather than preventing them. This costs you a considerable amount of cash in the long run, as it’s easier to keep issues from happening in the first place than dealing with them. We like to use the example of a hardware failure to illustrate this point. If your server fails, you’re already in a pretty bad situation since no work can be done. It makes sense to ensure that this server failure doesn’t happen in the first place, as the cost of recovering data and all of that downtime can be crippling at best. Basically, it costs less overall to keep issues from happening. It’s finding the help that is the real challenge for small businesses--and outsourcing work is easier and more cost-efficient than hiring an entire in-house team to handle the responsibilities.

More Efficiency
Software solutions need regular updates and patches in order to stay secure. However, you don’t necessarily have the time to make sure this happens. If you have an internal IT department, they might be able to handle it, but they’re probably busy enough on their own. Outsourcing at least some aspects of your IT can lighten the load a little bit for your other staff members so that they can focus on completing their work on time and on budget. In fact, most issues can be resolved remotely anyway, so you save even more time by not waiting for an on-site worker.

Quicker Implementation
How does your business handle the implementation of new technology solutions? Is it a painful experience that takes far too long? Chances are that you will encounter at least a couple of roadblocks for your implementation process, be it in the form of providing support for the rest of your team members, or just not having enough time in the day to get everything done properly. Working with a managed IT provider ensures that a new project can be implemented while maintaining proper in-house maintenance scheduling.

Experienced Technicians
If you’re planning to hire an entire team of technicians on your in-house budget, you might want to reconsider, as it’s a huge burden on your budget. We don’t want you to skimp on the service that you deserve, so make sure that you only hire the best. You don’t have to worry about individual qualifications when working with an IT provider as you’ll be hiring established professionals.

One Phone Number
When you have troubles with your technology, do you have to reach out to multiple vendors? Do you have to sit on the phone for hours on end just to resolve basic problems? This is frustrating, and you don’t have time to work with your vendors when you should be running your business. Directive can be the single point of contact your organization needs to ensure that your business never has to struggle with vendors again. If you have a problem with your technology, just give us a call and we’ll sort it out from there.

To learn more, reach out to Directive at 607.433.2200.