Working over the holidays, we are?

It's the life we lead. We work when other people are off. If you are a managed service provider and you provide outsourced IT services, you need to work when your customers are closed.

The holidays are always a great time to do large-scale projects in IT. If you have in-house IT staff then you need to have your staff work overnight, on the weekends and often over long holidays when you have down time.

Advancements in technology have established a global marketplace and leveled the playing field for some organizations. Companies understand the connection between IT excellence and business performance, and require network solutions that deliver measureable results.

Small businesses face a number of challenges and often operate within very thin profit margins. It takes time to build a clientele, develop a dependable staff, and find your niche in a world of giant conglomerates. For this reason, many small business owners rely on family connections to bridge skills gaps.

Some business relationships are fairly straightforward. Both parties agree to specific contract details, and there’s really no need for an extended amount of trust between them.  Think of your relationship with your copier company.   This isn't the case when choosing a managed service provider.

In today’s IT-dependent business environment, making sure your enterprise network operates smoothly is vital for success. Every mission-critical task you perform relies on seamless communications and connections. Without it, your customers, vendors, and employees experience frustrations that can lead to costly turnover and debilitating profit loss.

Have you started to wonder if your hourly IT contractor is fixing your IT problems to the best of his abilities or just band-aiding things to limp you along? Does he seem to be showing up to your work more often, repairing the same issue over and over? We call this model the Break/Fix model.

MSPs, or Managed Service Providers, have long been a way to help businesses to shore up weak spots, especially in IT infrastructure. They also provide expertise such as vendor and proposal management or other specific services that companies need, but outsource in order to drop and stabilize their costs.

There is an old saying in business,  “If it isn't written down, it didn't happen.”

That really is a very good lesson in the importance of good documentation. The legal system is based on evidence, auditors pour over real numbers to assess the financial state of businesses, and detectives assess the innocence of transactions by finding gaps in the written record.

IT issues can create a lot of problems for your business.  Depending on the nature of these issues, they can feel like a never-ending distraction, depleting already-limited company time and money.  By employing a managed IT services provider (MSP), you can devote your company time to daily business and continue focusing on your growth and success.