IT Support – An Underrated Business Growth Tool

The Covid-19 crisis of 2020 was the main reason for many businesses to transition towards digital technologies and employ ‘smart’ business solutions. However, this crisis only acted as a catalyst to fast forward an inevitable change.

Tech companies such as Computers In The City forecasted this change and were one step ahead of the game to make the transition more fluent and fruitful for businesses.

The modern-day market is nothing like what it used to be. The Wall Street Journal states that the implementation of digital business applications by SMEs has increased 68% in the past 5 years. This highlights the fact that it’s not only Covid-19 and its repercussions which have driven business to employ digital solutions, but it’s the need of the hour – both markets and clients require businesses to be digital.

Since 2010, this digital trend has been growing as smart devices reach more hands and the internet becomes more widespread. In fact, this trend doesn’t seem to be slowing down at all, but increasing.

For most businesses, if not all, profitability goes hand in hand with growth. In the past, growth was only possible through multiple outlets: mainly via a bigger team and beefing up the overall size and structure of the company. Today, higher profitability and growth can be very quickly and easily achieved through digital solutions – and with the help of an experienced managed IT service provider.

However, while there are significant benefits of these technologies, they also come with their own problems and limitations, the most prominent being digital security. According to research, over 40% of total cyber-attacks were targeted towards SMEs.

Small to medium scale businesses often underestimate the importance of digital security, and most of these businesses don’t have any security in place. Businesses that do take some measures often limit themselves to free services and basic protocols, which can easily be broken into by hackers and criminals. Digital threats evolve and change, and many small business owners don’t have the tools or expertise to handle advanced attacks.

How Can IT Support Help Grow Your Business?

Solid growth can only be achieved through a good strategy, proper implementation of protocols, and the ability to tackle problems as they arrive. No system is bulletproof, and it’s inevitable that some modifications will need to be made at some point. However, below are key areas where SMEs can maximize the utility of an IT support provider.

Initial Setup

This is the first area where businesses go wrong and waste significant money buying products and services which sound good but don’t provide what the business truly needs. Consulting with an experienced IT support provider makes it possible for business owners to invest more wisely.

IT experts who have worked with similar businesses are more knowledgeable about what kinds of services are best suited for businesses in a particular industry. Through their experience with other clients, they know what works and what could be a problem down the line. By laying out where you aim to go with your business in the future – and how you want to operate – you can receive a more informed opinion from an IT expert about how you should set up your digital infrastructure, which will save you a lot of time, money and headache.

Network, Hardware, and Software

These are three areas that are best left to the experts.

Sure, you could try to set up your network, but will it be streamlined and reliable enough to use for business purposes? You could purchase hardware and software, but will you be able to set it up properly and ensure it’s connected to all your other related services and systems?

Rather than making your business a DIY project, hiring the help of an expert may be a bit more expensive in the short term, but it will be well worth it in the long run.

When you have a properly configured system by your support provider, you don’t need to know everything about it – your IT support team will take care of it. Moreover, set up will be much quicker, and you’ll have someone to provide initial training on how to use your system rather than figuring it out yourself.

Lastly, it makes your support provider’s job significantly easier. When they set up a system themselves, they know what’s going on. In case something does go wrong, they don’t need to first figure out what you have running; they’ll already have a good idea about what could have happened, and might even be able to help you over the phone.

Advanced Services

As your business scales up, even simple things like social media management can become quite complex. Having a support provider on-board since day one will mean that you don’t need to worry about growth and expansion later. Delegating tasks like social media, billing, and payrolls will allow your in-house team to focus on their tasks and let the experts do what they do best.

Recovery and Security

Both are critical components of a business’s digital infrastructure. You never know when something can go wrong, and ensuring you have the right protocols in place can be the difference between your business surviving an unfortunate incident or succumbing to disaster and possible bankruptcy.

Never underestimate the power of a good security system and a solid recovery protocol. Both should be handled by an expert rather than taking the risk of managing yourself.

Choosing IT Support for Your Business

Two businesses of the same size, working in the same industry, could have two very different IT requirements. It all boils down to what kind of infrastructure suits your particular needs, how you would like to manage your processes, and what kind of technologies are most suitable for your businesses’ goals. It’s very important to keep your long-term goals and objectives in view when choosing what kind of technology you want to invest in.

As a technology user, you want to have a system that can be up-scaled according to your requirements and can handle your workload in the near future. Needing to change systems just a few months or years later is not only expensive – and renders your old system useless – but it can also be a time-consuming task which adds to the overall financial cost. Not to mention there are several associated processes and systems which would also need to be changed if you are making a significant change to your infrastructure.

Therefore, you want to choose an IT support specialist who can handle your requirements and needs. If you choose to have custom software made for your application, then it’s likely that the software manufacturer will be your best, and possibly only, support provider. If you’re going for an off-the-shelf solution, you’ll have more options when it comes to choosing an IT support team.
Your best bet is to choose a team which has worked with similar business and is experienced in your kind of software or system.