This week we met with a business owner to discuss their current IT solution. They’ve been with the same company for years. It’s a small shop with just a few employees and was great for a long time. There was really 1 guy that knew and maintained their systems. He left the company about a year ago, and their support has been struggling ever since.
Poor response times were a serious problem. It would take days for someone to get back to them. Issues would go unresolved for months at a time. Security was being ignored, and was sub-par. Their servers and network equipment were all end of life, and the client hadn’t been notified. It didn’t appear as though there was any proactive work of any kind going on.
All these items piled up to make a heap of frustration for the business owner and his team. When we talked about pricing for the solutions he needed, the conversation shifted. Their current provider was cheap. In fact, they were about half the cost of our services. I could tell he was weighing his options. Was it worth doubling his IT spend to get the solution he really needs? Does the cheaper bill deliver any value if it doesn’t solve his problems?
Cost of Slow Response Times
Slow response times cost you money. If your systems are down the cost can be significant. Lost sales, lost productivity, lost trust. Even if they aren’t down the cost of employees not being able to do their job because of a technical problem is real.
If your provider takes 24 hours to get back to you instead of 2, that is costing your business money. It should factor into your calculations when you’re looking at total value.
Cost of Unresolved Issues
Issues that never get resolved cost money. You spend time reporting the issue initially. When you don’t hear back, and it’s not resolved you spend more time following up. When you get no response from that you spend more time following up. The pattern continues for months.
Your time is valuable. Your staff’s time is also valuable. Stop settling for a provider that doesn’t value it like you do.
Cost of Lousy Security
A security breach can shut your entire organization down and be a complete nightmare. Ransomware, Business Email Compromise, and other cyber attacks can cost thousands and millions of dollars. In almost every case, the cost of a breach is so high that it dwarfs the cost of the security solution to prevent the breach from happening in the first place.
A security breach can also be devastating to your brand and cause the lost trust of your clients.
Cost of End-of-Life Equipment
There are a couple of problems with aging equipment. One is that it inevitably slows down over time. If you have a 7-year-old computer that stutters for a second or two between every click, it’s costing you money. Worse than that aging servers have a much higher rate of hardware failure and present more risk to your organization.
Worst still is that end of life hardware typically no longer has security updates. That means the longer you keep running it past EOL the less secure it becomes. Higher security risks along with higher hardware failure risks.
When Does It Make Sense To Pay More?
We’re never in favor of paying more for something just because. As a business owner it’s important to weigh your options and really understand all the costs involved. Is that low monthly cost for inadequate service creating additional costs in 4 other areas? If you stop and calculate what those additional costs are to your business, does that solution still seem like a good value?
Conclusion
If the math isn’t adding up, then it may be time to take a hard look at something new. Many times, the cheapest option doesn’t end up providing the most value.
That’s where i.t.NOW comes in. We give you the fast, responsive, work it till it’s fixed, security conscious, proactively recommending, high value service you deserve. Call us today for a free consultation.
Photo by Towfiqu barbhuiya on Unsplash
