Humanity is now more connected than ever. The explosive growth of technology like the internet, mobile computing, and social media are evidence of our innate need to always be connected, and our vast appetite for timely and accurate information. This dependency on information is ever more critical for businesses.
Without reliable access to business-critical data, the competitiveness and success of any business organization can be jeopardized. Large enterprises minimize this risk by making large investments in their people, processes, and technology to ensure information access is never interrupted. But what about small and midsize businesses? How do they ensure continuous, reliable, and secure information access?
The reality is most small and many midsize businesses have on a reactive approach towards information technology and business-critical data. Typically, the business owner or executive addresses technology needs only when access to information is suddenly interrupted or when an urgent business demand emerges such as a product launch or hiring a new employee.
This ‘break/fix’ model comes at a huge cost to business and profitability. For example, if a critical business system or application suddenly fails. In addition to the price of a qualified systems engineer to fix the immediate issue, consider the cost to the business in terms of productivity impact, lost revenue, lost opportunity, or even damaged reputation – all of which could be huge and possibly irreversible.
There is a better way.
A new option for small and midsize businesses is to contract with a Managed Services Provider (MSP). Instead of the costly reactive break/fix model, a local MSP provides the value of a dedicated IT resource without the high-cost of hiring a full-time employee. An MSP’s employs a proactive approach to keeping business critical information available as opposed to reactive. By understanding a clients’ business issues and being familiar with their IT environment, a local MSP prevents problems from happening before they impact the business. The focus shifts from how rapidly a problem can be solved, to how well a problem can be prevented. By providing ongoing services such as monitoring, software updates, backing up critical data, protecting information from theft or intrusion, your local MSP combines remote tools and onsite support to keep a clients’ environment up and running 24/7 all year round.
This unique value proposition allows for a more collaborative approach to ensure technology investments become a strategic asset for growing the business. A local Managed Services Provider can truly become an extension of the client’s organization by learning their business processes, helping alleviate technology challenges, and getting to know their employees.
Information will continue to grow and with it the critical importance and dependency on the technology that facilitates access. Small and Medium Enterprises can no longer afford to experience downtime or technology failures. While there are different approaches to dependable access to information, partnering with a local MSP provides the most effective and most cost-efficient solution to have a reliable, available and secure IT environment.
