IT Support for Small Businesses in London – For Smoother Business Operations

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If there’s one thing that can truly be said to run the world, it is the combination of information and technology. IT, which is an acronym for Information Technology has become the heart of many business operations – large and small.

IT-Support

Looking at the wide spread use information technology is put to in business generally, it is not likely that any business will be able to function smoothly and competitively without this infrastructure. Let’s look at some of the functions small businesses have come to enjoy with IT.

Aspects of Small Business IT Functions

There are so many IT functions that businesses rely heavily on in today’s business reality. Some of these include:

Communication

The ability to communicate via emails, video conferencing, apps etc. has significantly increased efficiency among co-workers and also improved customer support. This is communication is now not just real time, but also anytime and anywhere. Regardless of where you are, you can be reached very easily.

Business Process Management

Simple day to day business processes are now handled more efficiently with automation. Important tasks like payment processing, order generation, invoicing, quotes, payroll system etc. are now handled via automated processes which reduce errors to the barest minimum while improving on delivery times.

Customer Relationship Management

Customers are the soul of any business. Without them no business will succeed, With CRM, businesses can now deliver custom, data backed services to individual customers. With the improvement in customer communication and precise data acquisition, customer satisfaction is at an all-time high and this leads to increased customer retention.

There are many more as can be seen in this article here. With practically every aspect of a business running on a framework provided by IT, the importance of IT support becomes even more critical. Clearly, a failure of one or more of these IT structures can bring the operations of a small business to a temporary halt. This means that support has to be on hand to quickly resolve such issues.

What to Expect from IT Support

Yes, we’ve looked at how important IT support is to a business but we will now try to look at the specific tasks that can be expected from this support.

Troubleshooting and Resolution of IT Issues

Every now and again some critical software, network or hardware may malfunction, causing a disruption in operational flow. At such times, IT support is called upon to resolve the issue. Some other times, the exact issue may not be known. You may just find that things are not going as smoothly as they should. With careful troubleshooting processes, IT support can pinpoint where the issue is and fix it or suggest a resolution.

Network Setup and Maintenance

Networks are very important for quick communication and data transfer. IT support will not only set this network up but will also maintain it, ensuring it functions without a hitch.

Software Installation, Training and Update

When it is time to switch to a different software or to introduce a new one, IT support will usually handle the installation and training to get everyone up to speed on how to use it. Should it require any configurations and upgrades, IT support will also be called upon to take care of this.

Data Security

This is critical in today’s business. A company’s entire data can be backed up on a server or in a cloud storage. It is the task of the IT support team to ensure this data is well protected.

The list goes on. We do not think you need further convincing as to the importance of a fully functional support team.

Getting IT Support

So, we all know that getting good support for our IT infrastructure is important, but how do we go about it? There are two basic choices before a small business owner. You either employ a qualified IT expert to be your in-house support staff or you outsource this important aspect of your business to a support company.

IT-Support

Which will make the best business sense? Let’s examine the two.

In-House IT Support

While this can give you a sense of keeping everything in-house, let’s examine the possible implication of hiring your own IT support staff.

Cost – This is the first thing to look at. IT specialists can be quite expensive especially if you want someone who really knows what they are doing. Can your business afford to employ someone who can really get the job done?

Efficiency – Following from our point above, if you eventually find someone who is willing to take what you can afford, will the person be able to do the job? Will you be sacrificing quality to keep things within your budget?

Value – Should you decide to spend as much as a top-level IT specialist demands, will you be getting value for this investment? The truth is that you will not always have a challenge that requires the specialist’s attention, but you must always pay regardless of how much work is or is not done. You may therefore end up paying so much for someone who gets the job done whenever it is required which is not very often.

Outsourcing IT Support

The second option is outsourcing your small business’ IT support to a company. To know more about these companies, you can check websites like 360ict.co.uk. Why would you want to do this?

Cost – When you outsource your IT support you spend just as much as you need to. Payments are made for services required.

Efficiency – You do not worry about who you can afford. The company employs and pays top professionals who will get the job done whenever they are called upon. You however get to pay just a fraction of what you would have had to pay for such level of expertise.

Value – Unlike the case where you had to keep someone on your pay role regardless of how much work is or is not done, in this case, you get full value for your money. You pay only for the services you need, and you can scale up or scale down should the need arise.

Having looked at the points above, it should be clear to any small business owner that the prudent and smart thing to do is to outsource the business’ IT support to a qualified company.

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Vishal Gaikar

Article by Vishal

Vishal Gaikar is a professional blogger from Pune, India. If you like this post, you can follow him on Twitter.

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