There’s a common misconception that business IT support services are privileges that only large enterprises can take advantage of, but that couldn’t be further from the truth.
Businesses of all shapes and sizes need effective IT support services because they help to increase a businesses productivity, improve its ROI and save it time and money.
Small business IT support can especially play a fundamental part in allowing a smaller business to grow without the need to worry about incurring expenses should they need to scale their technology in order to grow.
But what are some other reasons companies need IT support from a reliable and trusted IT support company? We’ve rounded up the top eight.
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- Enhanced data management
Every day a business holds important information such as HR details of its employees, their salary and their overall income. If this information was to be compromised the potential ramifications are far-reaching, and no business wants to face that type of situation.
So to prevent such compromises happening, data storage and the management of that data becomes crucial in a businesses day-to-day activities. Competent IT support services provide a deeper assessment of business needs regarding the types and amount of storage necessary, and also carefully scrutinise the businesses data landscape to make sure it is protected.
Efficient back-up systems can also then be implemented by a knowledgeable IT support team, which will help to keep important files and software safe against potential data breaches, sudden system downtime or phishing attacks, whether those are stored in house or remotely.
- Digital Transformation Readiness
Technology moves fast in the twenty-first century and significant technological changes can happen in an instant: Just take the shift from office work to working from home in 2020.
However if a business is not equipped with the IT system needed to operate successfully, it risks falling behind competitors, losing clients, and potentially not reaching its business objectives.
An IT support provider can assist with a business pivot by providing free advice, infrastructure and implementation of new digital technologies such as cloud services. What’s more, support providers can make changes with decreased downtime, which means a business can continue working whilst changes are afoot, without needing to prepare for huge periods of disruption.
You can find out more about how to prepare your business for a digital transformation in our blog.
- Increase your ROI
One of the key benefits of IT support business that we regularly stress to anybody who will listen to us is that they save businesses time and money.
No business, and especially small businesses who are just beginning to grow, wants to invest money into something that will provide little to no return on investment. However when your business hires an IT team as an extension of its services, it is investing time and again because IT support services all but pay for themselves when the business encounters software or hardware problems.
Without IT business support services businesses would have to foot the (costly) bill each time for contractor work in order to fix system downtime, install patches, or solve network or connectivity issues. But when you hire an IT support services team, there’s no need to foot separate bills because the costs are built into your monthly rate. What’s more, they’re right there when you need them – not when the contractor can next get round to your business.
- Offer effective customer support
For small businesses the reliance on seamless customer service is more paramount than when compared to a bigger, more established organisation.
Unexpected or prolonged periods of downtime can significantly hurt the income of a small business because it is unable to support its customers in the way that they require. Once again IT support services can negate this damage by automatically fixing downtime in the most efficient manner – as soon as it occurs – and by limiting any downtime the business may experience whilst patches, updates or fixes are installed.
A pre warning to a period of downtime can go a long way in building trust between small businesses and new clients, and is likely to minimise the issue because the business will have already communicated ahead of time.
- Optimised business growth
All businesses want to grow, it’s one of the reasons they started out. But a business cannot grow without scaling.
IT support service teams can support your business growth objectives by implementing networks and technologies that ensure your business is able to scale, such as by performing a vital cloud migration.
What is a cloud migration? Find out here.
In addition, IT support services can also provide your business with advice regarding the latest in technologies, vital technical expertise, and even trends they may have noticed which could put the business ahead of its competitors through the installation of new upgrades sufficient to customer needs.
Edging ahead of competitors is a key factor in business growth, and in today’s digital world, a large part of that is down to the services it is able to provide which are often fuelled by technology.
- Faster disaster recovery
Disasters can strike at any time. A global pandemic for example, or even other natural disasters like storms, floods or fire.
A disaster recovery plan is implemented by an IT management team of support specialists and it means that even in the face of disaster, the business is able to continue functioning.
How? Often disaster recovery strategies will have an element of cloud computing installed within them, which means that employees can continue to access vital files from home. Businesses can also be assured that their data is safely stored and protected off site. That means that should flood damage or fire damage have affected on-site equipment, data will still be safe due to copies being made and stored off-site in cloud storage systems.
Related Reading: The 8 reasons why businesses must move to the cloud.
By working alongside IT support specialists to design a disaster management plan, you can rest assured that should the worst happen, your business and its IT systems will be safe.
- Provide solutions to complex problems
Deploying both advanced and precise solutions to complex problems regarding an organisation’s internal systems, which will ultimately keep it running, is another example of why IT support is so important.
“IT support services can provide businesses with tools needed to obtain hardware needed to resolve solutions and improve business efficiency. Hardware could include higher memory storage, cloud migrations, faster processors, and higher quality equipment like displays and ethernet cabling. IT support services can also install applications to streamline work processes, such as project management applications or tools that help the business to collate and analyse information more efficiently and oversee an overall IT strategy that will benefit the businesses processes, as well as its budget.” – says Michal Kierul, CEO at InTechHouse
The end result is that the business will not be hindered by a problem which may have been impacting how it functions, or the businesses productivity (for example due to equipment unable to process applications quick enough).
- Safety and security
Finally, as we touched upon before, safety and cyber security are of paramount importance to businesses and they are to IT support services too.
As part of their daily role IT support services can assess the security of your computer systems against online threats such as viruses or cyberattacks. IT support teams can manage antivirus software and install the software where necessary across a number of different business devices so that data is protected at all times.
Ensuring that computer systems are as well protected and as well monitored as the companies data management ensures that they can maintain a strong defence against malware and ransomware attacks that could severely damage a business and its customers.
When you hire an IT support service provider, your business saves time and money in the face of a potential ransomware issue by falling back on its disaster recovery plan, and not needing to pay costly expenses in order to have the problem rectified.
In summary:
IT support systems are more than just fixing errors that a business could encounter in its day to day operations. IT support services can put in place data management strategies, monitor the overall security and health of the organisations’ networks and computers, plus offer knowledge and advice in helping businesses to reach growth and scalability objectives.
Sounding like something you need? At Binary Blue we’ve been providing efficient IT support packages to our customers for years. We can make you more money, save you more time, research the right technology for you, fix any technical problems, assist with cloud migrations, implement data management solutions and more. Find out more about how our services can help you, or get in touch with us today to hire your very own IT support department with a dedicated account manager.
