Technology is playing an increasingly crucial role in the success of small and mid-sized businesses, not just large organizations. The importance of technology became evident more than ever during the COVID-19 pandemic as most SMBs moved to remote work and virtual business processes.
As a result, enterprises across industries have started adopting managed IT services. The global managed services market size stood at $200.29 billion in 2019 and is projected to reach $492.15 billion by 2027, exhibiting a CAGR of 12.2% during the forecast period.
Although hiring a competent IT support company will be a smart move for most SMBs, many still don’t have dedicated tech support. Here are five compelling reasons that will encourage you to hire a Managed Services Provider or MSP right away.
1. Keep Your Business Safe from Cyber Threats
As businesses continue to rely heavily on technology, they are increasingly falling prey to cyber threats. From ransomware attacks to data breaches, the number of cyberattacks has skyrocketed in 2020.
The FBI had seen a spike in cybercrimes reported to its Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3), receiving between 3,000 and 4,000 cybersecurity complaints each day, a major jump from before the COVID-19 pandemic era, when about 1,000 complaints were received daily.
SMBs can’t afford a data breach as they often don’t have the means to recover from it. In other words, you are going to need enterprise-level cybersecurity measures to keep your business safe from ransomware and data breaches. Unfortunately, an in-house team of a couple of IT guys isn’t enough to provide this kind of protection.
Whether you hire an IT Support company in Houston or anywhere else, they will help you select, optimize, and implement the necessary cybersecurity measures. Your MSP can analyze your entire computer network, identify security vulnerabilities, and provide you with appropriate firewall, network monitoring, and antivirus, among others.
2. Deep Assessment of Your Business Processes
Whether it is marketing, human resources, finance, or operations, extensive research based on historical data plays a critical role in decision-making. If you want your business to succeed, you will need to ensure stellar data collection, analysis, and breakdown, to derive actionable insights.
Your MSP can help you pick up suitable applications that can help you analyze your processes and track your developments. They can also help you choose better alternatives to existing applications or even hardware to improve your business decisions.
However, make sure the IT Support company you work with has relevant experience. You should ask your MSP if they can help you assess and improve your IT infrastructure and business processes.
3. Embrace New Technologies with Ease
As you may already know, global tech marketing is expanding at an unprecedented rate. You will see new and better applications entering the market almost every week. With too many options to choose from, making the right choice often becomes difficult. Furthermore, most business owners don’t have the technical knowledge to make an informed decision when buying hardware and software.
However, a reliable IT support company with relevant industry experience can help you select the right technologies. But most importantly, they can also train your employees to familiarize them with the new technology. These cutting-edge technologies can help you expand your business quickly and efficiently.
Your MSP can also help you transition from old to new technology in real-time. It can help reduce your downtime to almost zero, keeping your services functional during the transition. So, you don’t have to lose your customers, leads, and business opportunities when upgrading your computer network or business applications.
4. Enjoy Better Performance through 24/7 Network Monitoring
A competent IT support company will also provide you with 24/7 network performance monitoring. This process involves round-the-clock monitoring of all the computer network elements, including virtual machines, computers, personal devices, routers, switches, firewalls, and servers.
Most people believe that the primary goal of 24/7 network monitoring is to protect your business from cyber threats. While this is true, network monitoring also allows you to increase your work efficiency considerably. It can help your MSP to identify slow and broken components, ensuring swift repair or replacement.
It also reduces the risk of unplanned downtime. As you can identify failing components well in advance, you can replace or repair them before it leads to a complete outage. You can also find new ways to improve overall network efficiency.
Perhaps the biggest advantage of hiring a professional IT support company is the peace of mind. In most SMBs, employees have to wear multiple hats. In other words, whenever a computer fails or a printer stops working, your employees have to spend their valuable time fixing the issue.
With a team of IT experts on your side, you don’t have to worry about such issues. These professionals can identify and fix tech issues quickly and satisfactorily. Your staff can focus on their core business responsibilities, helping you to boost your overall productivity and increase your revenue.
Conclusion
As you may already know, you need reliable and professional tech support if you want your business to succeed in this digital era. For most SMBs, hiring a managed IT service company is the best and the most cost-effective way to get this critical support. Hopefully, learning about the reasons why your business needs IT support services will prompt you to start looking for a tech partner today!
Sandy Funches is a freelance writer who enjoys writing. Writing is of utmost importance to her as doing so helps her educate people by spreading her knowledge.
