The thing about your internal enterprise IT support is that the latter is always a cost center and somewhat like a 25-pound weight around your otherwise lean midsection.
Who hasn’t cringed under the gimlet eye of the IT manager, who, in response to a suggestion or request for more data access has replied, “No, we can’t do that now.
Our system is maxed out because of the monthly usage reports we in the IT department need”?
OK, that’s somewhat of an extreme example, but it does conjure up familiar memories of the old-time IT support. It was like Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz being warned not to look behind the curtain. You don’t know exactly what’s going on there, but you certainly know that when the system is down, it’s still gnawing at your bottom line.
Then there’s the effect of equipment aging when amortization deteriorates past depreciation and into another looming capital investment liability. All the while, everything you do and all the business records you have accumulated during the past ten years are in the form of digitized zeros and ones. Sure, everything is backed up, but what if your backup goes belly-up because of an act of God or the negligence of man?
You’re aware of your own playing field, because you’ve been competing out there. It’s like a three-legged race, and what you’re tethered to is both your cost of doing business and your lack of agility as equipment ages in the face of stiffer and increasing competition by hungry competitors, who are increasingly relying on and employing outsourced IT.
A great example of how effective the use of outsourced IT is our air traffic control system. Imagine if every airline had to do it’s own traffic control. For a start, we’d need private airports for each, and the redundancy and confusion would be unimaginable. Likewise, our air traffic control system is a classic example of leveling the playing field. All airlines, regardless of size and revenues, benefit from outsourcing a service to which each airline has immediate and equal access.
Analogies and metaphors notwithstanding, it may be time to take your IT support out of the realm of a significant cost center where you pay to be somewhat encumbered. Why not make your IT support a scalable and predictable expense? It is scalable in the sense that you pay for what you use, and it is predictable because you know its monthly costs without having to factor in breakdowns and training curves.
Here at 4 Corner IT we can give you that aforementioned leg up with a customized outsourced IT management program. We’ve been there a long time and are still doing that today.
Contact us and see how outsourced IT services can help you drop the burden of high IT costs.
