Are You Managing Your IT or Is Your IT Managing You?

According to Gartner, an unmanaged PC costs $5,000 a year. That’s a lot of dough if you are a small business even with just a few workstations. While computer hardware itself has gotten less expensive, the real expense is the cost to fix your network when something goes wrong.

That’s why proactive maintenance is so critical for small business owners — PCs, and the networks they’re on, require constant monitoring. Many offices continue to rely on a break/fix model of IT support -- when something goes wrong, you get it fixed. This approach leads to un-budgeted expenses and more frequent downtime.

A proactively managed network, when done correctly, will not only improve uptime, but will also keep you protected from the endless security threats targeting businesses like you.

Why wouldn’t you want to be protected from the moment you make any IT investment? Here are some reasons why you should.

Ease the Burden on Your (Already Stretched Thin) IT Staff

In most cases, once a company’s user count hits double digits, most in-house IT professionals have little time for big picture strategy and planning and barely enough time for network monitoring and software updates when they are constantly putting out fires in the day-to-day.

IT spending is really a balancing act between hardware, software, and services. According to Gartner, strong PC management is the key to overall cost reduction, keeping small businesses up and running, and more productive.

Increased Productivity

Since the IT director usually has the tools to support departmental initiatives, they are routinely key players in cross departmental meetings. This is especially true when it comes to improving business processes. If your IT director is always in meetings, when are IT projects getting done, and are they getting done right?

Not that it’s bad to have IT in on a meeting, but meetings take time, and for IT, time is limited. With a proactive IT strategy, IT can remain involved in big picture projects with the peace of mind that security, maintenance, and even help desk support, are all covered. Even better, that peace of mind is provided by a team of professionals with the same (if not more) expertise and resources than even your IT leader might be able to provide.  

Enhanced Security

Doing things routinely and on time is a battle we all face in our personal and professional lives. From oil changes, to exercising, to software updates—all things that “take time” and, sadly, are easy to put off because we think there will be a more convenient time to do them.

While a car can go a few extra miles without that oil change, or you might be able to squeeze in your run at your kid’s football practice tonight because it’s more convenient for you. Software updates are another thing.

If your IT team is putting off software updates and security patches because they don’t have the time to do them, that’s a big problem. Your network is either protected or it’s not; there’s no wiggle room for inaction.

So ask yourself: how many hats does your IT team wear in an average week? Are you really managing your IT, or is your IT managing you?

The reality is that many businesses, especially small to mid-sized ones, simply don’t have the time to do it all. If you recognize yourself in this post, companies are increasingly turning to third-party experts to manage their networks. Maybe it’s time you should too.