Companies grow at different speeds. Their capabilities can expand but, sometimes, what is required is beyond the scope of the team.
Other times, there are areas of specialization that will require too much investment to provide a strong response to potential IT problems.
It’s not always the right time to begin relying completely on a third party’s IT services. Sometimes, it can be done piecemeal if that’s preferred to test the waters first.
Here are some suggestions on where it might make sense to use third-party services for your IT needs.
Email Management to Reduce Lost Time
Email management is often a task that requires some sophistication. Using virus scanners on email including the attachments is still very necessary today.
Many business PCs have become infected from an attachment that’s less than kosher. It’s also useful to have spam scanners check through email to remove unwanted messages.
A significant percentage of email traffic today is time-wasting spam. When it’s removed before it even reaches the worker’s inbox, it saves them time. Considering that a good part of each business day is spent sifting through the email inbox, that’s no small matter.
VoIP Set Up and Oversight for Simplicity
VoIP calls allow for digital calling without the need for an installed PBX phone system or other solution at the business premises.
Companies can ask an IT services company to install a VoIP solution that will reduce the cost of calls while increasing convenience.
Mobile apps allow workers to answer calls at home if they work there several days a week. Also, should the office need to be vacated for a period, calls can easily be answered via mobile apps anywhere that an internet signal can be obtained.
Help Desk Solutions to Plug a Knowledge Gap
The smaller the IT team, the more stretched they’re going to be. For SMEs, the reality is that they cannot always afford a large IT department, and this puts them at somewhat of a disadvantage against well-funded competition.
An IT services company can offer a help desk that lets the in-house team call in when they have a specific issue. The two teams can then liaise, understand the problem more clearly, and decide how to resolve it.
Without having access to a help desk, IT staff that lack specialization in the areas required run into a knowledge deficit problem.
Information technology is sufficiently complicated that they simply cannot be an expert in all things. A help desk resolves that because they have larger teams and a greater depth of knowledge that can be tapped when needed.
Virtualization to Cover Negative IT Events
In a situation where the servers have malfunctioned, been damaged, or stolen overnight, many companies would come completely unstuck.
However, with virtualization technologies, it’s possible to set the IT operation online either as a primary operational environment or a backup failsafe option.
For companies that depend on their computer systems for their survival, it’s even better than a working backup.
It’s not necessary to leap completely into third-party IT services. Trying out different individual services is fine too. This way, confidence can be developed along with trust before outsourcing more to a third-party IT provider.