We are living in an era of information overload, when the major obstacle facing business leaders is not so much finding relevant business advice, but knowing which information to trust. This trend is definitely true for IT managed services. Thousands of new IT articles are published every day, each claiming to outline the best SMB IT policy. It’s not unusual for a manager or owner to receive dozens of IT-related emails daily.
In such an environment, more and more SMB leaders are turning to providers of IT managed services for their invaluable know-how. An outside IT expert can quickly cut through the static and prioritize top steps for overall IT improvement.
A recent Techaisle study supports this approach. According to a survey of SMBs published in July, business leaders crave IT simplification. Here are a few highlights from the study:
- 72 percent of SMBs said IT vendors should simplify technology.
- 44 percent reported that there are too many vendors for different types of technologies.
- 61 percent admitted ignoring certain technologies, even those that may be beneficial to the organization.
The bottom line is that SMB owners and managers are thirsty for impartial, reliable IT information that is easy to understand and adopt.
The fact that many firms have avoided IT spending over the last four years of economic doldrums is only compounding the information overload. If your company hasn’t had a technology refresh in four years or more, there is far more technological catch-up that must be done. Wading through one year of technological improvement is hard enough; it’s nearly impossible to set aside enough time to understand five or six years of improvements in IT managed services.
In such cases, outdated IT snowballs into a major business pain that prevents growth and threatens business failure down the road. (For instance, a company that hasn’t incorporated regular data backup to a remote location can easily lose all of its critical files in a single disaster.) If your firm is in this precarious position, bringing in an IT managed services provider can help get your company caught up on the latest technology in order to remain competitive.