Spend Smartly… Invest in an MSP

While it is true that many small and medium-sized businesses don’t have access to the resources enterprise-level businesses do, they don’t have to find themselves on the outside looking in. By partnering with an MSP, SMBs can have access to the same IT resources as larger organizations at a price that is within their reach.

You Have to Spend Money To Make Money

Who in business hasn’t used this adage to explain to the bean counters when they question why they’re spending money? Whether it’s in time or money, some investment is required to generate leads or to expand your business. Successful businesses are able to balance spending with growth, getting the most bang for the buck. They understand there is a cost of doing business.

However, for some businesses, the lack of resources is used as an excuse to keep from competing; because the “big boys” have all the resources. To their way of thinking, what’s an SMB to do when they have limited funds to spend? The answer is to spend smartly. Invest in good workers, invest in good tools, and invest in optimizing your bottom line.

An MSP (Managed Service Provider) Allows You to be Competitive

When you partner with an MSP you can have access to the same tools, experience, and capacity as larger organizations do. Here are a few examples of how.

Improve Productivity by Reducing Downtime

Downtime can be represented in a variety of ways, whether it’s an issue with hardware, software, or caused by user-error; anything which distracts your team from performing their tasks is problematic and costly. It’s inefficient for team members to wait for tech support, or worse, research for a solution to the problem themselves.

With 24/7 monitoring and maintenance, after hours emergency support, and proactive maintenance, an MSP is positioned to quickly solve your IT problem; and even prevent them from occurring. If your business occasionally suffers from slow computers or annoying issues that stop employees from doing their jobs, you will see a near-immediate increase in profits when these types of common issues go away.

Access to IT Experts

Technology is constantly evolving, and the reality is what was a best practice or feature last year may be obsolete this year. Depending on the size and scope of your business, it may be impossible for your current IT department to keep up with current trends. In today’s technological landscape, a lapse in best practices (such as in network security) can be disastrous for your business.

Managed IT puts enterprise-level expertise within your grasp, providing access to a wide range of IT services to keep your business compliant and safe. At Directive, we treat your business like our own, and your account manager essentially acts as your virtual CIO. This means regular reviews of your business’ IT expenses, coming up with upgrade/growth plans, helping you meet industry compliances, and more. Think of it like outsourcing your IT to an executive with a full IT department, as opposed to someone who is just going to fix problems when you call.

Manage IT Expenses

When it comes to technology, surprises can not only bring your business to a standstill, but they can be downright expensive to correct. One of the main features of working with an MSP is most of them use a subscription-based business model. This predictable monthly fee allows you to treat your technology as you would any other monthly expense, as opposed to treating your technology as something to dread. We want to make your IT something that you can budget, and ensure that it is reasonable for small businesses throughout Upstate New York.

Security Best Practices

The days of security breaches being treated as an acceptable risk and the cost of doing business are over. Most states have enacted breach notification laws. These laws often levy substantial fines if your business suffers a breach and you don’t follow proper procedures to have prevented the breach or to notify your affected customers.

In New York, you need to notify your customers, the NYS Attorney General, the NYS Division of State Police, and the Department of State’s Division of Consumer Protection. You can see the full act here: https://its.ny.gov/breach-notification.

Essentially, you are accountable. New York’s laws aren’t as strict as some other states, but suffering from a data breach is a very public event now, and it can cause massive damage to your reputation.

As cybercriminals increase their attacks on small-to-medium-sized businesses, it’s critical your business is following best practices and the most efficient way to do this is by working with an MSP who is well-versed in the latest security practices.

Focus on Your Business, Not Your IT

With an MSP as your partner, you can focus on growing your business and not worry about your IT. An MSP brings with it the confidence and peace of mind to delegate your technology needs to experts in the industry. This will free up your staff to actually do their jobs and not worry about their IT.

An MSP can provide your business with the combination of expertise, technology, and cost-saving which allows your business to compete against enterprise-level organizations. If you are a small-to-medium-sized business looking for technology, tech support, or just to talk about how technology fits into your business, call us today at 607.433.2200.