Over the last few weeks, we’ve been talking to a lot of businesses that are looking for help. One thing that struck us is that they all seemed to have different reasons for reaching out. We can solve a lot of different business problems. These have been interesting and fruitful discussions, and we’ve boiled them down to a handful of i.t.NOW use cases.
Our IT guy left
One company we talked with had a full time IT guy that left for another job. It was a small business, and he did some other work for them besides IT. Their business needs had changed, and the other tasks he was doing were no longer needed. There wasn’t enough work for IT to be a full-time job by itself.
This happened a few months ago, and they were starting to feel the effects of neglect on their network. Backups hadn’t happened in a long time. Things were breaking because nobody was around to maintain them. The office manager was having to pick up a lot of the slack, and spending too much time doing IT.
i.t.NOW is a good fit. The cost for a business of their size is a fraction of what they would pay for a full-time employee. We’ll maintain the network, manage backups, and free up their time to focus on what they do best.
Strong Growth
Another business we’ve been working with has been growing a ton. They’re in the middle of a significant expansion that will almost double their current staff. They’re expanding the office space within the building they’re in and adding headcount rapidly.
They didn’t have an IT solution yet, and this growth has made the need for one obvious. The network has grown over the years but has been added onto in a very haphazard manner. There is little to no IT security in place, and they don’t have an effective way to manage user accounts or get new hardware set up when they have new hires.
We will help them make a cohesive plan for IT that includes the office expansion and other plans. We will make a process for adding new users so they can get up and running quickly as they are hired on. Security will be a priority as well. Implementing solutions now that can scale with them will save the company money over time.
Outdated Equipment and Signs of Neglect
Our discussions with a local manufacturing company had us taking a more detailed look at their servers and network because of some performance issues they have been experiencing. We found very old, neglected hardware and outdated operating systems. This was an issue because the hardware was so old it wouldn’t support the latest update to their ERP software.
Their delipidated state of their network and servers was an issue because problems with those items would stop them from being able to send plans to the production floor. That essentially would stop all work until corrected. With a lot of expensive equipment and highly paid machine operators the cost of downtime was significant. Slow response times from their current provider and general neglect have also cause them issues.
i.t.NOW will work to replace the aging servers and network equipment. This will get them on a much more reliable solution and lower the risk of downtime. We will also proactively monitor the network for performance and provide the quick response times they need when something does go wrong.
Unresponsive Provider
Its common for us to talk with businesses that are unable to get response in a reasonable amount of time. In many cases they are waiting 2 days or an entire week for someone to respond to their support requests. This causes frustration, downtime, and lost work.
This is the easiest problem for us to solve. We have our entire system set up around being able to respond quickly to client requests. Those metrics are tracked carefully because that response and resolution time is the most important thing to most of our clients.
Project Management Problems
Certain fields have more projects than others. Property management is a field that can have an almost endless stream of property acquisitions and dispositions. That equates to many IT projects getting the business network set up at each property so it can be more easily managed and shutting down that network if a property is sold.
A recent conversation with a property management company highlighted there need for improved process around this. Adding new properties was always painful from an IT standpoint. Their property managers wouldn’t have the systems they needed on time and struggled to get support.
This is a particular niche of ours at i.t.NOW. We’ve been working in the space for quite some time and have found that the best way to manage projects like these is to build a standard network and have a systematized way to put it in place. Standardizing these projects and working off a common game plan helps us ensure that details aren’t missed, and that deadlines are met.
Burdened IT guy
At another business we had a conversation with an IT guy that is heavily burdened. He is managing a network of about 150 computers and some servers all by himself. They were geographically spread out across over 25 locations, and some were out of state. He took over from a previous IT guy that left things in a poor state and was trying to make things better.
Simple tasks like having a complete inventory of the machines he is asked to support and managing security patches and updates on all those machines can take a lot of time. Time that a 1-man department doesn’t have.
i.t.NOW talked to him about a solution for remote management of his machines that will give him a complete inventory at the click of a button. Remote support becomes easier with the right tools, and that allowed him to cut down on travel time and have more time to fix problems. Security patches and updates were completely automated by i.t.NOW, allowing him to reclaim hours and hours every month that he can spend on more strategic tasks that need his expertise.
In addition to those items i.t.NOW can offer additional manpower for those larger projects when he has a need and even cover for him while on vacation. We love helping IT guys reclaim their time and get their personal lives back as well.
Conclusion
This is by no means an exhaustive list of i.t.NOW Use Cases. These are just several that have come up in discussions with business owners over the last month or so. We love creating tailored solutions that allow businesses to better manage their IT, be more productive, and save time and money.
We would love to talk with your business if you have these or other needs to see if we can build a solution that would help. Give us a call today!
