Strategic IT Planning for the New Year
The new year is quickly approaching. That's right, it’s already time to start strategically planning to hit next year’s IT goals. Our rule of advice...
You come to work with all systems operational: patients are being checked in. Nurses are filling out charts. Doctors are prescribing medicine. Everything in your hospital is working exactly how it should.
In an instant, that changes. Your system is down, and now patients can’t get checked in, nurses can’t access records and crucial information that might save a life, can’t be accessed.
Can you afford that?
Technology unites us all. From banks to hospitals, we’re living in a period where technology is not only evolving but so is the experience you need to maintain your daily technology operations and innovate. Where technology gains in efficiency and security, so to do the ways in which hackers and malicious cyberattackers decide to threaten it.
In the last 3 years alone, over 11.7 billion records were lost or stolen by hackers in the United States, according to an IBM Study. And when data breaches happen, targets feel the burden for years.
Why do companies look to outsource their information technology needs?
With threats increasing and technology advancing, companies are looking to their internal teams to help protect them from high-level attacks and to secure their confidential information, on top of staying operational for day-to-day business. But when you are a small to mid-sized company, those resources might not exist or have the capacity to truly protect your environment.
Below are some of the top 3 reasons we see companies turning to outsourced managed I.T.
1. Accountability
Imagine being able to walk into work knowing your systems will be operational. Imagine opening a new rotating line of credit knowing that the borrower’s information will be secure. Imagine having a plan in place for business continuity when the power goes out and you still must treat patients. Imagine that responsibility being on the shoulders of an outsourced partner.
When done correctly, adding an outsourced managed IT provider should alleviate your pain and concern. This partner should act as an extension of your team, and know not only your environment, but your goals as a company, your mission statement, and understand what must work to be operational and within regulatory compliance. Shifting accountability means when a computer goes down, we fix it. When a server needs upgrading, we upgrade it. When a malicious email enters your environment, we block it. When your end-users need the training to prevent ransomware or phishing, we provide it. When you shift accountability to a managed service provider, you are shifting the burden you are feeling to an expert who doesn’t see it as a burden. We see it as what we do best. And you get to sleep better at night.
2. Expertise
Whether you are a rural bank or an attorney’s office in the middle of a thriving city, finding and maintaining talent can be nearly impossible. Think about your team. How many total employees do you have, not including your IT team? Divide your team by the number of IT employees on staff. If you have 100 employees and 2 internal IT, that means each IT employee is constantly responsible for the tier one issues of 50 employees. While those two employees are battling the tier one requests (my computer isn’t working, I need to reset a password, this program won’t open, my phone isn’t receiving calls), who is monitoring your servers? Who is creating and developing training to educate your employees on which emails are safe and which ones are disguised and are threats? Who is procuring your new servers or computers? Who is installing them? When you have a small internal team, your resources are limited. Adding an MSP not only shifts accountability but deepens the bench strength of your resources. When an MSP enters the picture, you now have separate teams working on projects for you simultaneously.
3. Efficiency
What happens when you start checking in patients quicker and they get access to the healthcare needed faster? What happens when your bank successfully sends more wires than you ever have before? What happens when your environment is protected and your team is down for less time, experiences fewer technological obstacles, and customers receive a better experience? Your business thrives. When you partner with an MSP, you are no longer worrying about accountability, staffing internal IT, or checking all the boxes. Instead, you are focusing on the day-to-day tasks that allow you to achieve your mission. Efficiency is the product of the technology marrying process. When your environment is healthy, operational, and experiencing less down time, you are operating in a more efficient way which empowers you and your business to operate at new levels.
If you have been contemplating adding an MSP, you should start by evaluating the statements below.
- Our environment is completely secure, backed up, and we are not at a threat of being hacked or breached.
- Our regulators would look at our technology and processes and approve them without a second thought.
- Our internal team can maintain all tier-one requests while also addressing our network security, our employee training, our warranty on equipment, our procurement, and our reporting.
- Our bank/hospital/office is running at 99.999% uptime and never experiences outages or issues.
- We have a firewall and email encryption in place that would proactively prevent a phishing email getting to a vulnerable recipient.
- We receive quarterly reports (or more frequent) on budget, the health of our environment, strategic goals, project updates, and support ticket evaluations.
- Our employees are trained on secure behaviors.
- Our technology is a competitive advantage over our competition
If you have concerns over any of them, send us a message and let us help you see why an MSP could help I.T. stop being a four-letter word.
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