When you go out to find an IT support team, they’re supposed to be the expert, right? Well, yes and no. You have to be careful because not every third party puts your best interests first. Regardless of the type of small (or large) business you run, here are some IT mistakes you must avoid:
1. If You Want to Outsource, Not Knowing What You Need to Outsource:
Some things are good to outsource, while others you’re probably better off handling on your own. Data protection, for example, would be a good one to outsource because it’s so hard to keep up with cyber criminals.But, you shouldn’t outsource anything you’re legally liable for. For example, healthcare businesses have to stay in compliance with HIPAA. And many third parties do not have awareness this is something they need to do. Make this determination for your own business before outsourcing.
2. Not Accounting for Internal Security Threats:
Yes, you hear the cliché users cause 90% of all errors. Who knows what the real stats are, but your own users do often (intentionally and accidentally) cause security problems at your company. Make sure you have thorough training and processes in place to protect your company from your own employees.
3. Underestimating the Upside of IT Innovation:
Change only happens once your employees have new tools, programs, and processes to work with. For example, this post talks about Hertz and how it created ExpressRent kiosks. Surprisingly, demand exploded in an unexpected market. Whether you develop your own internal IT process or outsource, make sure your company has the ability to scale along with them.
4. Promoting the Wrong Person:
When you have a superstar IT employee, you can be tempted to reward them with a promotion to manager. However, the problem is that managing people works much differently than fixing machines. It takes years of experience to master both, and not every employee has the talent to lead people. If you find yourself in this position, think of how you can use an outsourced IT support team and managed IT services to help you with managing your business’s IT needs.
5. Assuming High Bandwidth Usage Is the Reason your Network Runs Slow:
…This may or may not be the case. Sometimes, your apps may have bugs causing them to consume massive amounts of bandwidth. You could have a virus designed to cause that problem intentionally. And then again, it could just be the usage. You must have someone skilled enough, or with enough time, to analyze your network and find the best solutions to your network’s problems.
Sometimes the need to outsource your IT Services becomes glaringly obvious. It’s difficult to keep your IT needs under complete control and operating perfectly at all times But when you do, you keep your employees happy, which in turn makes your customers happy, and your profitability stays high.
