Why is IT support critical even for a small or growing business? A small or medium-sized business’s needs are different from the needs of big multinational corporations, especially when it comes to IT support. Some small-business owners, thinking that dependable IT systems shouldn’t be at the top of their priority list, often find out the hard way how important it is to have fully functioning systems that are free of potential disasters.

As an owner of a small or medium-sized business, growing your company and increasing productivity and revenue should be your ultimate goal. But how can you achieve this if, because you scrimped on your business’s IT support, you are suffering from a decreased workflow, low productivity, and even disruption of front-office functions that can result in delayed company output?

Here are some of the reasons why IT support is critical even for a small or growing business.

You Get Increased Productivity

One of the most popular IT programs that small or medium-sized businesses should look into are fully managed programs. To put it simply, a fully managed program is total IT support and management for a fixed monthly price. What SMBs can get from a fully managed program is total network peace of mind; but how can you get peace of mind and focus on your core business if you also have to deal with your computer network? Everyone who’s running a business knows that time is gold; time is precious. A fully managed IT program helps take your hands (and mind) off your business’s IT and helps you focus more on your business and making more revenue. All that this amounts to, in a nutshell, is increased productivity. For you and for your employees.

You and Your Employees Can Spend More Time Working

This is in direct connection with the first point we’ve discussed above. An IT support provider, through its fully managed programs, can be your networking watchdog, enabling you to focus 100 percent on your core business activities instead of managing a network or its problems.

You Get Reduced Business Impact from IT Failure

In addition, less IT failure also results in a reduced negative business impact—in other words, you don’t need to worry about lost revenue. A reputable IT solutions provider will combine preventative maintenance and remote monitoring that results in minimized failures that could impact your business. With a fully managed IT program, your network will behave in a stable and reliable manner.

You Get Reduced Network Downtime Through Proactive Maintenance

A fully managed IT program, through regular preventative maintenance activities designed to keep your network operating efficiently, can reduce the number of emergency incidents you encounter. Scheduled maintenance ensures that your servers, PCs, and other vital network devices function optimally. This improves the reliability and security of your business.

You Get a Secure Network

A reputable IT support company will ensure that patches and antivirus updates for your PCs have been installed and prevent spam from reaching your network, reducing the likelihood of your business’s IT network being compromised.

Your Important Business Information Is Protected

Needless to say, your business’s data—and the data of your customers, of course—is of utmost importance, and you should do everything to safeguard and back up this data. Data backup services are also one of the services that IT support companies can provide. It can give you peace of mind, knowing that all critical business and customer data can be quickly restored.

And, last but not the least, another reason why IT support is critical even for a small or growing business:

Your Company Can Be Compliance Ready

Another way an IT support provider can provide your business value is by ensuring that all of your Regulatory Compliance Reports are in place so you can avoid huge audit fees and fines.

* * *

We’ve already discussed above why IT support is critical even for a small or growing business. Below are some of the advantages you as a small or medium-sized business owner can enjoy if you make that decision to tap a reputable IT support provider.

You Get Flexible and Customized Solutions

IT solutions providers today, in an effort to make the decision-making process easier for clients—especially small and medium-sized businesses—will allow you to select and combine only the services that meet the specific needs of your business. In other words, cost-effective à la carte IT services, if you will.

You Can Easily Control Your IT Costs

As mentioned in the early part of this article, some small business owners might be tempted to scrimp on their IT spending, and this can prove to be a bad idea—and even disastrous—in the long run. But IT support providers nowadays have made it easy and flexible for small businesses especially cost-wise, that you can now pick and combine only the services that meet the specific needs of your business.

You Get Access to a Network Operations Center

Some IT solutions providers will give you access to a Network Operations Center, which will be available to assist with all your support needs, delivering support remotely and actively monitoring your systems for critical failure.

You Get CIO-Level Information Delivered to You Monthly

And lastly, but perhaps more importantly, with select IT support services provider, CIO (chief information officer) level information will be delivered to you on a monthly basis on any of the services you have decided to purchase. After all, it’s not enough to just have the service that you purchased from any of these providers if you don’t know how well it is working for you. Everything about IT support providers nowadays is all about flexibility, so small or medium-sized business owners like you have 100% control.

So are you still wondering why IT support is critical even for a small or growing business?