Is it Time to Consider a Co-Managed Approach to IT?

Stop me when this sounds familiar: your business’ IT has expanded over time, with new technologies and tools being adopted over the years. Of course, these new technologies mean that your support needs have expanded as well, particularly in terms of maintenance which has added to the stress your IT team has on their plate.

Can I stop yet, or do I also need to mention how frustrating it can be each time something else is added to the stack, or the relief that even the smallest escape from the mountain of stress these technologies cause can bring?

Effectively any business, of any size, that is trying to operate today is going to be very reliant on technology. This is just how the world expects businesses to operate now.

This expectation has put pressure on businesses to adapt, along with many other factors. I mean, I don’t think I need to reiterate why remote work saw such an uptick over the past few years, do I?

The point is, businesses of all sizes are using more technology than ever, relying on it for more and more of their operations. This puts a lot of pressure on the IT team—or, in small businesses, maybe the IT person.

IT’s Responsibilities Continue to Increase

It is generally accepted that there are three roles or functions that a business’ IT team needs to fill:

• Infrastructure, which covers everything that one would first think about: managing the hardware and, well, the infrastructure that the company relies on.
• Functionality, which covers everything else most might have come to mind: keeping data secure yet accessible by those who need it, managing data and software, and helping the rest of their team utilize the technology that has been provided.
• Governance, which covers all of the background considerations: controlling who has access to what data from where and when, how the network is secured, and basically just setting the rules for the business’ IT to enforce.

Taking these roles into consideration, it’s little wonder that the pressure on IT resources has amped up. Plus, it isn’t as though the IT department has had it easy even before you factor in these responsibilities. We’ve all heard the horror stories about today’s cybersecurity threats, so that’s one thing that your IT team or resource should be taking care of.

On top of that, though, there’s also user error that can disrupt operations or undermine security that IT has to run interference against and educate your team to avoid. Software updates need to be vetted and installed in a timely manner, as well, and remote work adds an entirely new level of complication to how you utilize your business technology.

In short, the modern IT department has a lot on its plate…and if the average business user was to consider this, nobody would blame the IT department for becoming frustrated and/or stressed when more is added.

The Co-Managed Approach

Our team can take over any combination of your IT needs to ease your internal team’s workload, or use their expertise to tackle a problem that would require your team to invest in training and research to resolve.

When it comes to managing your business’ technology, there’s also the big concern that comes with trying to manage all of your different providers and solutions—namely, dealing with each of them individually, keeping up with all of the data they produce, and tracking it all manually.

How we define business technology is constantly evolving, and successful businesses are looking for ways to remain competitive. Today’s modern businesses need reliable data, but there’s hardly time in the day to do what your business does, never mind organizing all this data and checking up on each point. We can set you up with software that securely unifies your IT infrastructure and makes this data more accessible and usable for your team.

In other words, we can eliminate a lot of the legwork that once put so much pressure on your entire team, especially the IT department who’s responsible for keeping up with the technology your business needs to be competitive. We’ll take the pressure off so your employees can do the jobs you hired them to do, and—without that pressure on their shoulders—do these jobs better.

Learn more on our co-managed services webpage or give us a call at (250) 483-5623.