Most traditional IT departments or outsourced IT providers only cover 3/5 of today’s IT needs. With a changing business and technology landscape, it’s a critical time to assess your IT situation.
Why is it more critical than ever to have Complete IT?
Over the past two decades, technology has become increasingly integrated into business operations. This past year accelerated this trend substantially. With a severely reduced ability to collaborate face to face or serve customers in person, the ability to operate digitally has become paramount for survival.
In-person services and collaboration will certainly rebound and resume (hopefully shortly). That is largely great news, however, digital transformation will continue to define the business world going forward.
As businesses go increasingly digital, the cost of incomplete IT services will grow exponentially. The IT industry as a whole has not adapted to address the needs of a more technology-driven world.
We have outlined five areas of IT that together form Complete IT. We have also created a free Complete IT Assessment to help you determine potential gaps with your IT setup.
What is Complete IT?
1.) Strategy
Strategy, as it relates to technology, can be roughly divided into three categories: Operations, Innovation, and Security.
Operations: You have a service or a product that needs to be delivered to your client, and you rely on technology to make that happen. How can your day-to-day tech support be designed in a way that allows you to deliver your services in the most effortless way possible. It’s important to know the context of the situation and the people who will be using the technology before implementing solutions.
Innovation: The tech world is constantly coming out with new and innovative products, processes, or services. When you are trying to run a business, you don’t have time to stay up to date on these trends. Companies need a trusted technology partner that can provide the technical expertise/understanding combined with the deep knowledge of your business to advise on what will work best for your business.
Security: Choosing what cybersecurity products or services to use is ultimately a business decision. It’s important to have a trusted partner that provides cutting edge security solutions; however, it is also important to have a provider that can translate the pros and cons of those security solutions as it pertains to your business.
2.) Support
Support is the foundation of IT services, yet many companies are not satisfied with the support they get. Part of this frustration can be attributed to the service model that many IT providers offer. In this model, support requests are sent to the least experienced person first. If they are not experienced enough to handle the request, they send it to the next senior person and so on. This often can lead to a delayed response, especially when a support request is a complex issue.
Another factor that leads to frustration with IT support is a siloed approach to support. Many IT providers and departments have not evolved from a gatekeeper approach to technology and support. This mentality often leads to employees not feeling empowered to ask IT for support with issues they may be experiencing. This also leads to IT providers implementing solutions without fully understanding the context of the situation or the real needs of the client.
3.) Security
Cybersecurity has changed a lot over the past two decades. Two decades ago, cyberthreats were nowhere near as sophisticated, costly, and prevalent as they are now. Today cybercrime is the most profitable form of crime in the world and a top concern for businesses.
Protect:
Detect: The growing number of cyber threats that exist requires advanced and sophisticated detection abilities. Your provider needs to have the tools necessary to monitor all the potential attack vectors. This includes anti-virus software, Advanced Endpoint Protection, Security Awareness Training, Dark web monitoring, and DNS filtering services.
Respond: The quick moving nature of cyberattacks means that not only do you need the ability to quickly detect a threat, but also the ability to respond equally as fast. A security operations center or SOC is a dedicated team of people that constantly monitor your systems for cyberattacks. Working hand in hand with the detection tools, a SOC can quickly respond and remediate security issues.
Cybersecurity is not a stand-alone issue. All aspects of your technology should be viewed through a security lens. End-user behavior and training, hardware and software lifecycle management, daily support, and more need to be considered to have a strong cybersecurity strategy.
4.) Tools
Mature IT relies on the power of technology in many of the same ways that your business does. Tools that provide the ability to automate tasks, gain efficiencies, improve processes, and remotely monitor and manage your technology are essential to a Complete IT experience. Unfortunately, these tools are often cost-prohibitive for smaller IT providers or departments. To have a complete IT experience your provider needs to provide their people with the tools they need to deliver the best IT support possible.
5.) User Training
Have you ever had a tough time using a new computer, piece of software, or phone? You may have rolled your eyes a little at that question. Almost everyone at one time or another has had to learn a new piece of technology and it can be challenging. On top of that, even when you master a new piece of technology there is often a new tech trend shaping the business world that you now need to go learn.
The cost of not keeping up with tech trends can be high. One of the factors that often contribute to a cyber breach is a lack of education and knowledge around the best technology cybersecurity practices.
Many IT companies do not offer training because they forget that ultimately, it’s humans using technology. Training your employees is essential to getting the most from technology and keeping your business safe.
WHY DOES COMPLETE IT MATTER?
Incomplete IT is costing your business. Your business has at least one or more components that rely on technology. That means that at a minimum an incomplete IT service hinders your ability to deliver your service or product. On the extreme end not having complete IT could ultimately lead to a crisis for your business.
Curious whether your company has Complete IT services right now? Use our free Complete IT Assessment to find out.
Since we first started delivering IT services 20 years ago, we have been able to study and analyze the shortcomings of the industry and come up with solutions that address those shortcomings.
Contact us today to learn more about how Complete IT can make technology one of your company’s competitive advantages.
