BEI Blog

There is no question that a small business can benefit from technology, as has been proven time and time again. However, an issue can arise if a business bites off more than it can chew, so to speak, and ultimately creates a spike in costs. A responsible business owner will resist this temptation and prioritize the solutions they need over the ones they want - building profitability and generating capital needed to make other improvements.

In this blog, we’ll examine some of the implementations that can deliver a good return on investment to a small business.

In business today, productivity is one of the most focused-upon metrics out there. One of the most effective ways for businesses to optimize their productivity is by taking advantage of some of the value that managed services provide. To kick off our blog series on how managed services can be a valuable addition to any business, we’re looking at how being proactive can protect this productivity.

How does your business handle its IT management? It’s inevitable that your organization will suffer from technology troubles at some point or another, and it might seem like you have little control over it at times. However, the way that you manage your business’s IT can have a considerable effect on how your organization functions on a grand scale. What’s the best way to handle something as important as technology maintenance for your organization?

Businesses need a lot of services to stay ahead of the competition. The “as a service” model allows businesses to save a lot of money in the long run by making previously inaccessible services much more affordable for the average small organization. We’ll walk you through the value you can take advantage of thanks to the “as a service” model.

Considering Managed Services
In essence, managed services are outsourced services that your business can take advantage of to supplement technology management. Some examples of this could be outsourcing the management of your business’ servers to a third party who hosts them off-site on their own infrastructure. One of the major benefits of doing this is that you take the responsibility and costs of managing and maintaining servers off of your business’ shoulders. It might not seem like such a major change, but we ask you to consider just how much time and resources you might commit to this task.

Let’s say that your technicians spend half an hour on server maintenance every day, perhaps even more in the event that there is a serious issue. That is at least two and a half hours spent on maintaining servers every week (and we’re being optimists) that could be better spent on other tasks. Imagine what can be done in just that small amount of time. If your infrastructure is prone to problems, you ultimately waste even more time managing and maintaining servers.

Outsourcing eliminates these responsibilities and gives the time back to your staff for other mission-critical tasks that may have been previously overlooked. Perhaps your in-house IT department could then focus on providing adequate help desk support to your organization’s employees or dedicating more time toward discovering and implementing new innovative solutions to boost your organization’s bottom line. They simply don’t have the time to do this when they have so many other responsibilities related to operations.

If you don’t have an internal IT department, outsourcing is even more helpful. Being a small business has its advantages, but one major shortcoming is often the size of the budget. You might not be able to hire as many technicians as you would like, leading you to supplement IT support with untrained employees who have other responsibilities not relating to IT maintenance. This can be a dangerous practice, as solutions and maintenance implemented improperly can lead to multiple failed attempts and a considerable amount of downtime.

Managed services take out the unpredictability of solutions that your business can’t manage in-house by outsourcing them to professionals. BEI wants to show you the power of managed services. To learn more, reach out to us at (844) BIZ-EDGE.