IT Solutions for Associations
Generally, you have to pay a premium for convenience. Managed IT services, however, offer both convenience and cost-savings. They are therefore becoming hugely popular with businesses of all sizes. In fact, they can be vital to SMBs like most associations. Here is what you need to know.
IT recruitment is particularly challenging for associations
It’s common knowledge that there’s a global skills shortage in just about every area of IT. This means that IT recruitment is a challenge for everyone. There are, however, several reasons why it’s a particular challenge for associations.
Firstly, associations may struggle to present themselves as attractive employers. IT is one of the fastest-paced industries around. This means that people who want to make a long-term career in it need to be constantly upskilling. This means that they need employers who can support that in some way.
Associations may not be able to offer the same sort of career-building work experience as larger companies. It may also be more difficult for people to get promoted within a company. SMBs may also struggle to offer the sort of salary and benefits which would allow people to manage their own training in their own time.
This means that associations often struggle to get IT staff in the first place. If they get them, they may then struggle to keep them. What’s more, they’re still going to need a way to deal with absences both planned and unplanned. In fact, dealing with unplanned absences brings a whole new set of challenges and costs.
With IT managed services you only pay for what you need
These days it’s increasingly common for companies to only need a part-headcount. With some positions, it may be fine to hire a part-time employee or freelancer. With business-critical positions, however, this is often very risky. It can leave you massively exposed when people are absent even if the absences are planned.
With IT managed services, however, you just state your requirements and leave your IT managed services provider to deal with them. This guarantees you hassle-free continuity of service.
IT managed services can be less disruptive to your business
When you think of IT, your initial thoughts may be of technical support. This is perfectly understandable. In actual fact, however, modern IT is a lot more about preempting issues. This means that you shouldn’t need to remedy them but if you do you should have a remedy easily available.
This approach is hugely beneficial overall. It can, however, lead to short-term disruptions. For example, modern IT places a huge emphasis on installing updates promptly. If you do this during office hours, you generally have to accept employee downtime (as their computers install the updates). You’re also likely to see your network’s speed go down due to the extra traffic.
Managed IT service providers can arrange for these types of activities to happen out of hours. This gives you the security you need without disruption to your business. If your business doesn’t have out of hours, they can work with you to figure out the path of least disruption.
