Most small and medium-sized business owners and executives are fueled by passion. They have an idea they love so much they went all-in. Sometimes, it’s delivering the highest quality of care as a doctor, sometimes they’re inventors or engineers. In my experience they have one thing in common. They didn’t go into business to manage a business computing network, servers, or cybersecurity.
Within small businesses we learn to wear a lot of hats. The reality is that we have become so good at problem solving we can brute force solve IT issues with google, duct tape, and a little luck. When your business starts to scale and you get to ten and then twenty employees, it starts to take a LOT of time. Even if you could figure it out, is that the best use of your time? Is that your passion? You also don’t know what you don’t know, so by brute forcing IT you may be accidentally putting your company at risk.
Challenges with Hourly IT
Most businesses start by hiring a provider that can help on an hourly basis. They just pay for the time they need when they need it. This typically meets the needs for a time. As your business continues to grow, you’ll quickly start to see cracks in this solution.
One of the challenges with hourly IT support is budgeting for it. Some months you may have a huge bill, and others you may not pay anything at all. It’s not predictable and that can be frustrating.
It can also be annoying if one tech takes 30 min to resolve an issue, and another takes 2 hours to solve the same problem. If you’re being billed by the hour, you’ll always want the first tech, but you rarely get to choose.
There are a lot of parts of IT that require ongoing maintenance. Most hourly IT providers don’t really do much. They fix the problem you’ve asked them to fix and leave. This can be an issue, because Microsoft releases weekly patches and updates for security that need to be applied to keep you safe. There’s also ongoing maintenance and response to the cybersecurity solutions you should have in place, and you need someone to manage backups. If those things aren’t attended to regularly it can put your business at risk.
It all boils down to your interests not being aligned. You want your network to be maintained, always up and working, and with the minimal disruption possible. Hourly IT guys get paid every time something breaks. They aren’t motivated to do preventative maintenance or security because they make more money when things are broken. They are also more likely to put a Band-Aid solution in place, because if it breaks again…they get paid again.
Aligned Interests
So how do you fix it? Change the entire model. Flat-fee managed IT support flips everything upside down. You pay us one flat contracted rate for IT services, and we proactively maintain your network. We do regular maintenance and proactive security updates. We ensure your network stays up, because it costs us money every time your network is down. You also get a predictable budget-friendly price for IT.
Maybe most important, you get a partner whose interests are ALIGNED with yours. You don’t want to have downtime? We don’t want you to either. With flat rate IT we lose money every time something breaks. That means we’re motivated to do the proactive maintenance and cyber security work needed to keep problems from happening.
Other Key Benefits of Flat-Fee Managed IT Support
There are a lot of great benefits to a flat rate solution for IT. Here are a few key ones.
- Predictable Costs – Flat-fee Managed IT support monthly billing gives you an amount that’s easily to budget and helps you control costs on months when the need is greatest.
- Cost Savings – Most businesses with less than 100 employees will save significantly by outsourcing IT with a provider like i.t.NOW.
- Proactive Maintenance – We’re motivated to proactively maintain your network and ensure that your business keeps running smoothly. That means that your backups get handled, patches and updates applied, and security responded to.
- 80/20 Rule – In IT we find that support typically follows the 80/20 rule. About 80% of issues are simple tasks that the helpdesk can manage. The other 20% of the work needs a high-level engineer. Flat rate IT gives you access to our entire team of experts that includes all areas of IT.
- Scalability – You need an IT solution that can easily grow as your business does. Managed services make that simple. We have the capacity to accommodate growth on whatever scale you need. We have helped customers grow from 10 to over 500 employees and beyond. Cost also scales predictably as you grow, which makes planning and budgeting simple.
- Cyber Security – This is an area where a lot of businesses carry a considerable amount of risk, and they may or may not be aware. Quality flat rate IT providers can put a layered solution for cyber security in place that will help to lower your risk. They have the right solutions, people, and know-how to make it happen.
- Get Your Time Back – We take IT off your plate and allow you to get back to what you do best.
Takeaways
There are a lot of options for businesses when it comes to managing IT. Flat Rate IT offers a lot of advantages for businesses with 20 users or more. It allows you to align your interest with your provider so they can be a true partner. You can save money, and most importantly get your time back.
If you’re ready to take IT off your to-do list, and tap in our team of experts, get in touch today. We’d love to learn more about your business and see how we can help you get back to what you do best.
Photo by Andrea Piacquadio: https://www.pexels.com/photo/man-with-headphones-facing-computer-monitor-845451/
