When you’re in the middle of a challenging endeavor, it’s good to know that others are facing the same obstacles as you. As far as SMBs are concerned, there are a few IT issues that consistently arise as the most difficult for business owners and leaders to overcome. Small business surveys most often reveal the following IT issues as the most pressing. Below, we reflect on why these issues are especially thorny, and how IT consulting firms such as Lead I.T. can take the pain out of finding a business solution.
1. IT Budget Constraints
Although IT consulting gurus point out that IT investments impacts all areas of a business, IT budgets are often extremely restrained. Gartner’s global survey of CIOs at the beginning of this year predicted an increase of 5.1% IT spending, even though “technology’s role in the enterprise is increasing,” as Gartner Fellow Mark McDonald put it. Companies have less funding available for IT, but company leaders appreciate that IT spending is necessary for strengthening the customer experience, gathering business intelligence, backing up company data and more.
Lead I.T.’s solution: Efficiency is the name of the game here. By partnering with an IT consulting MSP such as us, businesses are often able to greatly reduce their IT spending. A CompTIA study, for instance, discovered that 46 percent of those who contract with an MSP cut their IT costs by 25 percent or more. To appreciate how much switching to Lead I.T. could save your organization, plug your figures into our Cost Savings Calculator.
2. Cloud Computing
According to the innumerable surveys, SMBs agree that cloud computing is one of the most complex, difficult to understand technologies. (Indeed, more than half of Americans believe that cloud computing is literally in the clouds and that stormy weather may therefore interfere with it.) Yet despite this fuzzy collective understanding of how cloud computing works, SMB leaders appreciate its importance. Microsoft has predicted that paid cloud services will double in the next five years. From mobile computing to disaster preparedness to honing a competitive edge, cloud computing offers plenty of SMB benefits. Yet few small companies have the internal resources needed to set up cloud storage.
Lead I.T.’s solution: Our IT consulting experts can help you integrate cloud computing into your current setup. Rather than pulling your hair out trying to understand this important yet complicated new technology, let an MSP sort out the details and take your company to the forefront of current IT technology.
3. Business Continuity
There was a time when disaster preparedness was a one-off expenditure – an item that could be addressed annually and forgotten for the rest of the year. Nowadays, however, businesses must think about resiliency and continuity on an ongoing basis. The increasing incidence of natural disasters, paired with our undeniable reliance on technology, makes it imperative that businesses have workarounds for every in-house process, as well as backups for every important piece of data.
Lead I.T.’s solution: As with all areas of IT expertise, it’s not easy to keep up on disaster preparation technology. Just five years ago, it was common to back up important company files on tapes – tapes that could easily be damaged by extreme weather. When you don’t know what you don’t know, it’s especially difficult to find the best technological solution. Our IT consulting specialists are constantly educating themselves on the latest, best approaches to SMB business continuity. With an MSP provider like Lead I.T. on your side, you can rest assured that your firm will be open for business no matter what calamity strikes.