IT Consultancy – Why Do You Need It?
Posted By: Claire Monday 27th February 2017Take a look around any modern business premises and you will see how important Technology is to the running of day to day operations. Without the right levels of IT Support and Consultancy, things have the potential to go wrong, quickly. Sit for a moment and consider your daily work routine:
- You come to work and log in to your computer
- Check your emails and social media accounts
- You check your electronic calendar and diary system to see your day ahead
- You make a cup of coffee with your new internet enabled coffee maker and brace yourself for the tasks ahead
- A phone call comes in referencing an on-going task. All the information to which it refers to, is held in your CRM system.
- When you finally begin that day’s work you are likely to open that spreadsheet you were working on or continue working on that business proposal.
- You need to pop out of the office and bump in to a colleague. They ask if you are available for a meeting the following week, so you check your diary via your smartphone.
Information Technology is the backbone of any modern business.
Given the importance of IT in a 21st century organisation, it amazes me how often IT systems are taken for granted. I visit countless companies where their IT, the backbone of their business, is put at the bottom of the priority list. Even the choice of biscuits in the barrel or who’s turn it is to make a brew seems to take precedence. They take their IT for granted, something that is just ‘there’, like electricity or hot water. However, if that backbone takes a turn for the worse everyone soon notices, don’t they? Often little consideration is put in to what happens if that printer stops working, or what will happen if that box in the corner suddenly goes off. Consider to yourself, how would your day pan out if you could not log on to your computer that day? What would happen if none of your colleagues could either? What would happen if that folder of spreadsheets or all your emails disappeared?
I also often see company tasks being carried out in a very manually labour intensive and convoluted way, which could be made much more efficient and streamlined with better use of IT. Quite often the IT infrastructure to streamline these tasks is in already in place but not being used to its full potential. Staff printing emails to fill in boxes manually just to scan them back in and email them once again, trawling through files to find details on that job that was carried out 12 months ago, for example.
Let’s say you are technically minded. Do you ever wonder if your data is safe? Do you find you are fighting computer problems more than actually doing your job? Do you have no one to turn to in case of an IT crisis? Do you often ask questions such as what hardware to buy? Do you move into the cloud based services? Do you feel like you are carrying an IT shaped burden on your shoulders? Are you based in the North East?
Does any of the above ring a bell with you?
So why is this vital part of a business often overlooked? Well, simply because as a business owner you and your staff are well informed with regards to running your own business, whether that be accountancy, financial advice or engineering, but not necessarily in how a IT system should and could be put together. Why would you? It’s not what you do. You are focused on your core business, making profit and making a success of it. You don’t have to time to think and learn about all this IT lark too.
This is where an IT Consultant comes in. An IT Consultant is there to advise, implement and manage all the technology your company needs to run more efficiently and effectively. We currently work across Teesside including Middlesbrough, Stockton and the wider areas.
You as a business owner can work in the knowledge your company has a strong backbone on which it can depend. By using a 3rd party IT company on a monthly retainer this does not even need to cost the earth, and the extra productivity and uptime will pay for itself before you know it. Go on, give us a call, it costs nothing to have a chat.
