Through your ingenuity, hard work, and dedication, what began as an idea has grown into a business. As that business grows, you face many difficult technology decisions. At what point do you standardize equipment? Should you hire dedicated IT staff? Should you Outsource your IT with Managed Services?
Managed services provide rapidly growing small businesses with cost-effective technology services. This makes a difference in their prospects for survival. IT Support is crucial as the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that as many as 50% of small businesses fail by their fifth year. The number increases to 80% by the 10th year.
Managed Services help avert potential business failure and provide small businesses with a range of day-to-day expert services.
- Help desk and IT support
- Remote network implementation and monitoring
- Data backup and recovery
- Cybersecurity, compliance and risk mitigation
- Installation, upgrade, and patching of software
- Full IT service outsourcing
Consequently, 37% of small businesses find it necessary to outsource technical tasks such as IT services. Further, 18% do so to access experts they couldn’t otherwise get as in-house staff, and 24% do it to boost efficiency.
Let’s explore more why Managed Services are so necessary for growing small businesses.
Reduce the cost of operations
Businesses, on average, spend about 3.2% of their budget on IT. This is a lot of money to invest in only one part of your operation.
Outsourcing IT functions, such as help desk services, to a managed services provider goes a long way to ease this cost burden. Managed services are what you might call a “grand bargain” because they give you a wide range of expert services at a reduced rate.
And while we’re on the subject of striking bargains, consider this for a moment: The average salary for an IT generalist is about $69,000 per year (without benefits and bonuses). Check out our blog and e-book on 8 Benefits to Outsourcing Your IT that Save You Money and Provide Better Value for a more in-depth look at the cost of partnering with a managed services provider.
But it gets better. The nominal rate for outsourcing your help desk is just a fraction of the cost of paying a single IT employee. Clearly, the cost savings for outsourcing are huge in comparison.
And, those savings can be put right back into continuing to grow your business.
Access to a deep talent pool
Your business may be small, but your technology needs are not. Instead of hiring a single, full-time IT employee you have access to a wide variety of expertise for a lower cost with a managed services provider. Whether you need a networking expert to implement that new WiFi or an engineer to help with migrating an on-premises server to a cloud server, one call will resolve all of those issues. Even mid-sized businesses with full-time IT staff can take advantage of the cost savings by using an MSP for specific tasks that may fall outside of the skill set of their IT team.
Provide you with excellent support documentation
Partnering with a managed services provider for your help desk lets your organization build excellent support documentation. This documentation acts as a knowledge-based resource for understanding what issues your employees encounter, with the corresponding tickets showing how the problems were resolved.
Use this documentation to drive product improvement, enhance customer satisfaction and save time.
Managed services provide security and compliance
The average cost of the fallout from a single data breach to a small business is between $36,000 and $50,000. Small businesses are vulnerable due to a lack of awareness of the various security threats, which in turn produce a vicious cycle of exposure to the threats they don’t realize the need to mitigate.
Whether it’s financial fraud, distributed denial-of-service attacks, intellectual property theft or phishing attacks, all businesses – large or small – are at risk of cyberattacks. Unfortunately, the reality is that most small- to medium-sized businesses simply cannot afford to staff a full-time information security professional.
Partnering with an MSP goes a long way in preventing a small business from becoming part of these unfortunate statistics. Most small businesses that can ill afford to hire in-house cybersecurity professionals. Managed services can mitigate threats from malign actors with a diverse range of experts trained in managing security risks and compliance.
- Phishing: MSPs scan all incoming emails and protect against the most common email threats like phishing and ransomware. Equally as important, MSP experts can train your staff in best practices so they don’t fall prey to phishing attacks.
- Patching: Nearly every device on your network has software updates. PCs, servers, mobile devices, thermostats, Wi-Fi access points, routers, switches – the list goes on. An MSP keep all of your devices at the current patch level, so you don’t have to worry about vulnerabilities.
- Breach response: Should this occur, you need instant access to experts limiting the extent of the attack. MSP’s provide that and they will help you recover as quickly as possible.
Takeaway
As a rapidly growing small business, you should consider taking advantage of the benefits offered by managed services to maximize your IT investments.
Among all the services mentioned above, SecureTech offers managed services such as disaster recovery. This can be a critical lifeline for small businesses struck by unforeseeable business disruption. We provide business continuity services in the form of data backup/recovery plans and implementation that are customized to equip your company for any situation.
To learn more about how we can help your small business in the San Antonio, TX area, contact us today.