IT Network Support Why the Options Have Never Been Better for Small Medium Business (SMB)

it network support why the options have never been better for small medium business smb

cloudinfographic

It is very difficult in the modern age to understand how dominant the Microsoft Windows brand once was at every level of business. Though Microsoft is still going on strong, it is diversifying its offerings as it must compete with many other tech vendors. This is very different from the 90s and most of the 00s; Microsoft Office mainstays such as Exchange/Outlook as well as varieties of Windows Server (including Microsoft Small Business Server) were pretty much default for SMB IT. Though many enterprises, of all sizes, still depend upon Microsoft products, there is an even split of viable options.

All SMBs are relatively lean. As such, the cost of licensing, hardware, backups, floor space, and personnel can quickly eat into their profit margins. Furthermore, license renewals, forced obsolescence, and evolving IT skill sets require a business to constantly keep up. Most of these problems were endemic to the Microsoft-centric way of managing SMB IT, though in fairness this is true with all on-premises solutions.

Thankfully, a modern business has a multitude of options and flexibility in finding an effective IT solution while still keeping expenses at a minimum:

  • Hosted telecom through technologies such as VoIP.
  • Hosted email through Exchange alternatives.
  • Cloud-based services, either for full-suite IT, or for individual components of IT such as backup/recovery, license/upgrade-free productivity software, or nearly unlimited storage.
  • Fractional CIO services, in which IT consultants attend to computing strategies on a short-term basis, only when they are needed.
  • Fully-managed IT services and service desk – the complete remote outsourcing of all IT functions.

Organizations have different needs, and some may prefer to keep a higher level of control over their IT functions for reasons of trust or security. However, the modern SMB can take comfort in the fact that there are many options for making sure that IT is a driver for success, rather than an impediment.

Outsourced IT Network Support Has Many Advantages For Small and Medium Sized Businesses (SMB)

outsourced it network support has many advantages for small and medium sized businesses smb
information technology

For many small or medium sized businesses (SMB), IT network support is becoming prohibitively expensive, yet they have a significant capital investment in their current equipment and software that makes a move to the cloud inappropriate until those assets are further amortized. That’s a perfect example of a situation in which outsourcing a company’s IT support would be the most cost-effective approach. Managed support services are like having an on-call IT department which is just a phone call away, and which doesn’t carry with it the employee overhead of an on-site IT department.

Beyond the employee expenses, managed support frees a company’s executives from the burden of micro-managing their hardware, software, and networking problems, and lets them concentrate on making the business decisions that drive sales. Meanwhile, their managed support team has the combined skills of far more IT professionals than would be available with in-house staffing, and the network can be managed proactively instead of reactively. This results in less network downtime and improved productivity. Frequently, the change is immediately obvious, as the managers become less distracted by IT problems, the cash flow improves, and the business begins to run more smoothly and profitably.

Typically, during the transition period while a company is enjoying the benefits of these managed services, it will also have its applications gradually virtualized so that they may be quickly and efficiently migrated to the cloud when the in-house equipment approaches its end-of-life. This strategy ensures the smoothest possible transition with the least disturbance to the company’s work-flow during that critical migration.

While far from exhaustive, this brief overview illustrates a few of the benefits your company can realize from managed network services. So if you would like to streamline the IT operations of your small or medium sized business, contact us today and let us show you what a managed service provider can do for you.