Information Technology is something your business must have to operate. Issues can be unpredictable. Managing IT expenses will make a big difference to your company bottom line and your sanity. Here is the second part of seven of things every business owner needs to know about managing IT expenses.
#2 You Shouldn’t Pay
Hourly For IT Assistance
For a long time, IT companies worked much in the same way as
plumbers do: by answering the phone when a client had a problem and charging on
an hourly basis to fix it. And of course, there are still a number of firms who
work this way, along with business owners relying them.
But as technology has become more complex, and more integral
to business, this model has become outdated. In fact, it tends to work against
your best interests in a couple of important ways. First, it makes your IT team
reactive, because they are only working with you when something has gone wrong.
And, it can make your technology budget unpredictable, since you never know
when those IT hours are going to be needed, or how many of them it’s going to
take to correct things in the middle of a crisis.
Imagine for a moment that you’re facing a situation where
you can’t open any customer files, your payroll systems are working, or your
website has gone down. By putting in an emergency support request with an
hourly IT firm, you’re essentially getting hit twice. In that moment your business has stopped making money and you’re likely
to be paying the highest possible rate for IT care at the same time.
A better way to manage your IT care, and costs, is through a
managed services model. Under this type of program, you pay a monthly fee to
have your technology team keep all your systems up-and-running. Because they
aren’t waiting for you to call, they can work proactively to solve problems
before they become noticeable. And if there is
an unforeseen issue, you can rest easy knowing that they’re already familiar
with your technology and will solve the problem without incurring any extra
costs to your company.
Paying for hourly IT service might be less expensive in any
given week or month, but over the long run it’s bound to take a bigger bite out
of your bottom line at the worst possible moment.