It’s a tough economic climate, and for small and medium sized businesses (SMBs) it’s important to make the right decisions to help put you navigate the storm. With an industry report finding around half of businesses prioritising customer experience and loyalty, along with upgrading IT systems and infrastructure, your managed service provider (MSP) will be your key IT partner in growing your company.
Here’s how to get the most value out of working with your MSP.
IT modernisation
If you’re considering upgrading your IT systems and infrastructure, your IT partner can help you through this. This could be digitising business processes, updating software to the latest version to support new collaboration features, or moving to the Cloud for business continuity, increasing productivity, and security.
Storing your business information in the Cloud gives resilience and supports your business continuity plans. It also makes your IT less prone to the issues associated with on-premises infrastructure. Of course, it also supports hybrid working, enabling staff to access their work files from anywhere.
Cyber security
Smaller businesses often think they won’t be a target for cybercrime. However, they are considered an easier target by hackers, with the potential to breach larger businesses in their supply chain. The most common hacking technique that small and medium businesses fall foul of is phishing. This can lead to various issues, from theft of customer and supplier data to malware or ransomware attacks. The impact on a company can be vast. Not only can you see downtime, you can also receive fines for breaching regulations, such as GDPR.
People are usually the weakest link. Working with your managed service provider on a combination of staff training and simulations of cyber attacks will help to identify and plug weaknesses in your security.
Supporting hybrid working
In the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic, hybrid working is here to stay. However, to ensure colleagues can work productively at home, in the office, and with each other, many businesses are rolling out technology, such as videoconferencing tools. Bolstering cyber security and rolling out cloud technology also supports a hybrid working model. Your IT partner can help you choose the right solutions.
Make your MSP work for you
With so many challenges facing SMBs, it’s no wonder many are outsourcing their IT challenges to managed service providers like Wessex IT. Some of the benefits of working in partnership with an MSP include:
- Help to navigate you through IT complexity
IT modernisation includes complex integrations of legacy systems, business processes and the Cloud. This, combined with incorporating cyber security, requires the support of IT experts. More than 40% of SMBs say they struggle to understand the cyber security options open to them and don’t know how to implement them. Your MSP can provide you with the information you need.
If you don’t have in-house IT expertise, managed IT can take away the burden of managing your technology, so you can get back to what you’re best at.
- Upscale your IT team with specialist skills
Often SMBs have no or limited internal IT staff. An MSP can increase the size of your team, adding vital expertise, without employing full time staff that cover a range of skills.
If you have an in-house IT team, a managed service partner isn’t there to replace them. What we do at Wessex IT is support on ‘big picture’ projects or when there’s too much to do.
- Support to meet your compliance responsibilities
Around a quarter of SMBs outsource compliance work to an IT service partner. With regulations always changing, it helps to have an expert keeping on top of legislation to ease the burden on you and reduce the chance of fines from breaching rules.
If you have an IT challenge, remember, we can help. Give us a call to talk through your issue, options and how to implement change. We’re here to be a vital partner in your business growth.
