Companies have always kept a watchful eye on their balance sheets. But as many industries reel from the impact of COVID-19 and the subsequent economic downturn, they’re looking at their numbers with a more focused lens — searching for long-term solutions to save costs, versus short-term fixes. One initiative that fits this bill is an investment in IT business services.
On paper, IT business services may seem like another expense to add a seemingly never-ending list. However, this type of service more than pays for itself over time. We’ve shared a list of examples below to showcase how.
5 Ways IT Business Services Save You Costs
1. Expertise That Reduces Downtime
IT downtime comes with a hefty price tag — an average of $5,600 per minute, to be exact. While such downtime can sometimes be attributed to power outages and other external factors, human error tends to be the biggest culprit, whether it’s a matter of improper deployment codes or misaligned dependencies.
Turning the reins over to a third-party IT business service provider gives you access to industry professionals who are well-versed in setting up, configuring and installing IT technologies. The expertise and experience that they bring to the table translate into an optimized infrastructure and less downtime (and costs) to worry about.
2. Improved Employee Productivity
Consider the scenario where a business wants to implement Microsoft Intune. While internal IT staff may be familiar with the cloud-based management tool, there’s often a lot of unanswered questions around its implementation, providing users access and integrating this tool with other systems. Filling in these gaps can require days, if not weeks, of training and research. (Even then, some uncertainties may remain.)
Being able to offload highly specialized and complex IT initiatives creates more room for IT staff to focus on a business’s core competencies. While a third-party vendor handles the deployment of Microsoft Intune, for instance, IT staff can focus on bigger initiatives like strategically planning for IT process improvements, analyzing key performance metrics and developing training tools.
3. Minimal Infrastructure Expenses
According to Glassdoor, the average salary for IT personnel is nearly $52,000. This accounts for a significant business expense, but only a fraction of what an employee truly costs. Layered on top of this salary are employee benefits, as well as the cost to recruit and train them. (To put this into perspective, the average cost-per-hire is $4,129.)
By investing in IT business services versus hiring an employee, you save these overhead costs — and the time it takes to find the right candidate. Instead, you can simply connect with the IT business service provider, tell them your needs and allow them to choose the right individual for the job based on their skill set.
4. Fewer Security & Compliance Risks
When a business implements a new technology, there are several data security and compliance checkpoints to account for — and if these standards aren’t met, costs can arise in the form of operational disruption, revenue loss and penalty fees (to name a few examples). Consider this in the context of a Microsoft Bitlocker Administration & Monitoring implementation. Hackers can access sensitive data if there are gaps in encryption, while improper compliance policies could cause clients and stakeholders to question the safety of data and their willingness to invest.
The same expertise that IT business services bring to reduce downtime benefits this side of the equation as well. Knowledgeable on best practices to streamline deployment for compliance and data protection, a third-party provider of IT service management will roll out a plan that standardizes the environment so safety and compliance are ensured across an entire enterprise.
5. Scalable Solutions for Growth
Dynamics are always changing within businesses. While this year may have been a challenge for many businesses from a financial standpoint, it could be the case that in a few months these same businesses are experiencing significant growth, or perhaps are in the talk of a merger with another organization. Whatever the case may be, it’s important that technologies are in place to support these new dynamics.
IT business services naturally support these efforts. While these industry professionals put their expertise to use to create an IT framework built for scalability, the flexibility to expand services to scale up makes these initiatives far more cost-effective for businesses in the long run.
Sold on the value of IT business services? Start experiencing the financial benefits of this investment now. Connect with the team at TecSetGo to see how we can streamline your IT enterprise management.
