Technology continually challenges us to change the way we work and how we mitigate IT issues. Many businesses choose to employ a single, in-house person to manage the entire company’s IT solutions. This decision sometimes comes from a perception of saving money and in others a way to maintain some form of control. Unfortunately, an in-house ‘computer guy’ may not have the current training, certifications, or experience needed to successfully support all aspects of your business. A broad-skilled IT person can offer good day to day support but then not be well suited to make recommendations for growth or long-term IT strategy. A highly skilled IT person who is trained in one type of technology will not be well suited to provide advice on the new verging technology that might benefit your business. Outsourcing your IT support to a full-service IT company can actually save your business time, money, and heartache through the diverse nature of their available skills and resources. We have drafted a list of some of the biggest reasons you should consider outsourcing your IT support to Longhurst Consulting.
Reduce Your Overhead
One of the biggest benefits of utilizing an IT company, for all your IT needs, is that it will save you money on labor costs. An internal staff member may be more than you need. If you are a small to medium sized business, it may not be required that you have someone on staff full time. Very often it is possible to not only manage the technology of a small business with, what is effectively, a part-time team but also still respond promptly to the IT service requests of your staff. By redirecting a portion of the salary to an outsourced IT Company you receive not only the benefits of a diverse and skilled technical team but you also receive the additional benefits of an Account Manager that can assist with long-term IT strategy that are not often within the scope of the skills of an IT technician. Technology can be expensive; between computers, servers, and other essential IT equipment, technology can eat into your profit margins, especially if you want to keep your systems up-to-date. When you consider the costs with hiring an in-house IT person, including salary, benefits, office space, etc., the impact on your profits becomes quite apparent.
It makes more fiscal sense to hire an IT company that can provide onsite and remote support. An IT company can customize a plan to specifically meet your company’s needs and provide a range of support and pricing options, depending on your company’s budget. When you leverage the IT support only an external agency can provide, you can manage your margins more effectively.
Current Technology
Having access to the latest technology is definitely the second biggest reason to utilize an external IT company. We ensure our systems and software are top-of-the-line and that our experts have the training they need to utilize these systems efficiently and effectively. We also remain on-top of emerging technologies so that we can provide the best options and solutions to our customers. We work with several groups in various industries which provides for a greater exposure of technology that may benefit your organization. When you choose to outsource your IT to Longhurst Consulting, you can be assured that you will always have access to and be informed of the latest technology.
Improved Security
Network and information security are a top concern for most businesses, and for good reason. Business owners should be concerned about their, and their customer’s, private information falling into the wrong hands. With the prevalence of internet hacking, network security has become a key threat that businesses need to protect against.
Outsourcing your IT needs to Longhurst Consulting will help protect you and your customers. We have security specialists who have the training required to protect you from hacking, malware, viruses, etc. In addition, should malware or a virus become installed on one of your machines or your network, due to an infected USB or inadvertent web download, our experts have the skills and training that are necessary to effectively and quickly deal with the problem. We ensure our staff is aware of current malware and virus threats and that they have the training required to solve these issues with a minimal impact to your data security.
Reduced Downtime
System failures are inevitable. Does your in-house IT person, or the rest of your staff, know what to do if this happens? Do they have the training required to successfully bring your systems back online without doing additional damage? If you are not fully equipped to deal with a system outage, you could be facing a long period of downtime. This, of course, is costly, bad for business, and could, depending on your line of work, cost you customers.
When you outsource your IT needs to a local, reputable company, you can drastically reduce your downtime in case of a system outage. Our staff provides 24/7 support and we can send the number of technicians needed to bring you back online as soon as possible. In addition, we regularly monitor the performance of your infrastructure, so we can react to and eliminate threats often before they occur and make sure you have minimal downtime in case of an outage.
Experts As-Needed
Small and mid-size businesses do not always have enough work to keep their in-house IT person busy full time. With the nature of IT infrastructure, oftentimes there is either not enough work or way too much for one person to manage. This can be a drain on you financially. You either have an employee sitting around waiting for something to do, or you have to pull someone off another task when your IT person needs extra help. By choosing to outsource your IT needs to an IT company near you, you can leverage our experts when needed to ensure your staff receive the help they need and return to work as quickly as possible. We are on-hand 24/7 to help you with your needs.
What Happens When Several Critical Issues Occur At Once?
When businesses choose to employ one person to handle all their IT and network needs, they are often setting themselves up for failure. One person cannot handle multiple issues at once, or multiple outages for that matter.
Businesses can experience long periods of downtime when there is not enough of their IT person to go around. Oftentimes, these companies will pull in additional employees to help out, but they most likely do not have the skills and training needed to provide the adequate network and IT support. In addition, when you pull employees away from their regular duties, you are effectively paying them for work that is outside their job description, and you can lose the time they would otherwise spend on sales, customer service, etc.
When you outsource your IT services, you can avoid all of these issues. We have the experts and staff required to meet all your needs and can help you manage multiple issues and outages at once.
No Recruitment/Turnover
The entire process of hiring an IT person can eat up a lot of resources, especially if you go through the recruitment process more than once over the course of a few years. Businesses spend time and money advertising the position, bringing in candidates for multiple interviews, and subsequently paying for employee on-boarding. It often takes a new IT person several months to learn a new environment and begin managing it efficiently.
This process can be expensive, time-consuming, and it can be a challenge to find the right person to suit your business’ needs. By hiring an IT firm to handle your IT needs, you can effectively eliminate this drain on your resources for good. We take the burden of recruiting and hiring the right people, so you do not have to.
Increased Productivity
Some businesses try to reduce costs by delegating IT duties to one or more staff members who have a bit of IT knowledge. Burdening your staff, who have different job descriptions, with the additional task of managing IT services for your business will decrease their overall productivity in their primary job function.
Some IT issues, of course, take mere minutes to resolve, but these minutes add up and can drastically impact productivity in the long run. In the case of severe outages, you could lose hours or even days of your employee’s production time they would normally spend on other tasks. Choosing to outsource your IT needs to a qualified provider will enable your staff to remain on-task at all times.
Additional Services
Your trusted IT service provider can offer additional services that can enhance your business capabilities. Longhurst Consulting not only provides IT support and consulting, but we also offer Backup and Disaster Recovery, Physical Security Services, Network and Cabling Services, and several other solutions that that can protect and increase your business capacity. When you book an initial consultation with us, we can discuss your business needs and come up with a plan to meet those needs and stay within your budget.
Maintenance vs Scrambling
Pro-active maintenance is always preferable to disaster management. The old saying that “an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure” fits with IT as well. The time spent maintaining and monitoring often significantly reduces the costs to responding to a failure. When a predictive failure is located it becomes possible to respond to that issue without interrupting the normal workflow of the person(s) affected. By working around existing staffs work requirements the value is returned to the companies bottom line. We provide the skills, equipment, and expert staff needed to anticipate problems before they arise. We have the skill set necessary to anticipate and fix issues before they take down your system. In addition, we can automate updates to your network and software and take the necessary measures to ensure issues do not happen to begin with.
Save Time
Business owners have a lot on their plate and their time is precious. Business owners must attend to the company’s staffing needs, attend meetings, generate sales, etc. The last thing they need to add to their busy schedule is dealing with IT issues, especially when there is a system outage. When you outsource your IT services to Longhurst Consulting, you can focus on what is important, and leave your technology needs in our capable hands.
Business owners may think that outsourcing their IT services may cost more than they are willing to spend. Rest assured, leveraging the services that Longhurst Consulting offers will save you time, money, and resources. We have over 30 years of experience in the industry, employ certified engineers, offer a wide range of services, and have a 100% satisfaction guarantee. Contact us today to book an initial consultation and learn more about how we help.
Customer reviews of our services can be found at WhoDoYou