IT Consulting and Business can’t exist without each other. Even if you happen to have a chronic aversion to technology you must deal with the fact that not only you are highly likely to be using technological devices in your business life (just think about your smartphone or the printer that you use on a daily basis), but you also need to have someone taking care of your IT’s wellbeing.
The sooner you accept this, the sooner you can see your business progressing.
To be more precise, and put it out more bluntly, the more chronically averse you are to technology, the more you actually need to have someone in charge of it.
In these following paragraphs we’ll walk you through our guide on business and IT Consulting. Are you ready to have your problems solved?
Skip To The Best Bits...
Can You Just Ignore Your IT?
The short answer -and also the bad news- is no. You can’t. So sorry to be telling you this in such a strong way. The likelihood of something bad happening is far too high for you to ignore your IT department entirely. And you might end up regretting the fact that you so badly decided to overlook it.
Do you remember what happened when you decided to buy new printers and nobody could connect their computers to them? Remember the time you’ve lost with something that could have been done in ten minutes by a trained expert? Probably you do and, as have your mind flooded by such unpleasant memories, you can’t help yourself from thinking about what you could have done differently to prevent a technology mayhem from happening in your workplace.
The good news is that, while you surely can’t neglect the technological aspect of your business, you can have someone take care of it for you.
Business life can be hectic, especially in the beginning, and you probably don’t have much time to invest in learning new skills regarding something that’s not the core of your activity. And we personally think that you are right.
PITzza: A Tasty Metaphor On Why You Need IT Consultancy…
The more we try to eat healthy, the more we find ourselves craving for pizza. Surprisingly, this is also a metaphor for technology.
The more you think about reducing technology and all sorts of devices, the more you will need them to do the most basic things. Like printing an invoice, or giving a call to a customer. Let’s say that you want to avoid using the internet: first of all, good luck. Second of all, you still want to communicate with customers, stakeholders and coworkers, right? You’ll either need a phone -which is a communication device- or you’ll have to learn the long forgotten medieval practice of sending your letters through a travelling pigeon.
Now, IT consultants get stereotyped a lot but we can assure you that we are not as nearly as dirty as the best-educated travelling pigeon you’ll get your hands on. Yuck! Let’s get back to pizza, shall we?
Now, we are far from recommending that you eat pizza on a daily basis. But even if you were to do so, would you actually consider hiring an in-house pizzaiolo?
That’s right. You probably wouldn’t. Surprisingly you wouldn’t for the same reasons why you shouldn’t be hiring an in-house IT consultant (link to outsource IT).
First, you would pay for more than just a pizza -or IT Support-, and second, you would probably want to try other styles and combinations that your pizzaiolo won’t make. With in house IT it’s the same: you don’t pay for the services that you get but for a great number of other things, plus, your employee might not be that skilled in solving the problems that you are experiencing at a certain moment.
If you really enjoy the cheesy tanginess of pizza you might think about learning to make your own, but it takes an awful lot of time, money and by the time you’re done you might not be as hungry for it as you were in the first place.
And maybe the core of your business doesn’t involve pizza AT ALL.
This is also why you shouldn’t have to take care of your own IT Support and hire IT consultants to do that for you.
Let’s face it, pizza and IT are both essential components of happiness in the workplace, and for both of them, you should outsource your services.
Enjoy your pizza as you enjoy your IT: while you’re relaxing and doing something else. Something that you actually care about!
What Does A Business Use An IT Consultant FOR?
After all these pizza talks you might be hungry, and quite reasonably so. So we’ll cut to the chase and tell you right away what could your business use an IT consultant for, allowing you to go on with your day and order that pizza right now.
There are countless things an IT Consultant could do for you – and plain ol’ pc repair is just one of them.
Yes, an IT Consultant can undoubtedly solve all of your technical problems in a short amount of time, but what does that entail?
Vaguely speaking, it reduces all the risks that are connected to your devices. It prevents malware from happening, checks that all of your systems are correctly configured and updated and helps your business run as smoothly as possible.
But IT can be used for more than that. If you are getting started with a new activity, you probably know that time is money. The more time you spend doing something you don’t need or, even worse, the time you lose because of someone else’s mistakes, can result in a hefty price to pay at the end of the day.
With managed IT you are guaranteed not to have to go through any of these unpleasant occurrences. IT is proven to optimise your time and to increase your business’ productivity by protecting you from external attacks and by providing you with customised solutions to manage your employees’ workflow.
Don’t you feel like ordering that pizza, now? Well, coming back to that… Hiring an IT Consultant will give you more free time to order and eat that pizza without overthinking about cybersecurity.
We got you covered, we promise!
What Does Working With An IT Consultant Look Like?
Well, it depends on the IT Consultant you end up hiring! We can’t speak for someone else, so we’ll tell you what working with us will look like for you and your employees.
We are friendly tech wizards and we love chatting with our customers about football. Oh, and we enjoy pizza just as much as you do! Depending on the type of service you will purchase, we’ll have a different kind of relationship. Should you opt for our managed IT services, for example, you’d have access to us 24/7 and we’d be readily available for any problems you might have.
If you’d prefer to pay for our services on a pay per use basis we’d have a less close collaboration.
In the end, working with an IT Consultant should be pleasant and your IT Support should be a friendly, down to earth technician. Or at least that’s what it works like with us!
What Type Of Things Can They Help You With?
The short answer is that IT Support can successfully help you with all the things related to technology, giving you more time to dedicate to crucial things of your activity – be it pizza, or not.
Here at AIT we offer a wide range of services, each of which is tailored on our clients’ needs.
One of the things that’s fundamental to business and we could help you with is, without the shadow of a doubt, cyber security. We can’t possibly stress enough on how much it is essential for you to have your security sorted and taken care of! We’ll come, assess your risks, tackle the main issues we think you have, and leave you with a brand new system to protect you from evil hackers or nasty ex-employees. In this sense, we can also help you train your employees to recognise threats and successfully avoid them.
Another important asset for any new business is, undoubtedly, cloud computing: because the rolodex days are over!
As a new business you are probably working on building an efficient database so that your clients are readily accessible when they’re needed, and an easy solution would be to ask your IT Support to set up a new cloud storage.
What is cloud? Well, it’s difficult to explain without being metaphorical. Simply put, it is a virtual storage room. Rather than storing data on a single machine or physical server it exists in the misty ether of the cloud and can be accessed anytime, anywhere, by anyone who has been granted access to it.
But IT Support can also help you with communication services, meaning that we can help you improve your internal and external communication system from a technical point of view.
We can help you take care of your communication devices -telephony, emails- and also help you develop highly functioning virtual meeting rooms. Generally speaking, there are plenty of things you might need our support with. And yes, we could even help you order your pizzas more swiftly!
Now how does that sound?
How Do You Communicate?
You can communicate with your IT Consultants the way you both see fit. Certainly, we would advise you against trying to reach them through owls or travelling pigeons. Most of the people in our industry aren’t provided with the right instruments to take care of birds, we are afraid.
All jokes aside, it’s something you and your consultants will decide depending on the nature of your contract together. If you are entitled to 24/7 services, for example, you could find text messages to be quicker and useful for problems that need to be solved in the shortest time possible. We can’t tell you about other consultants for sure, but we can reassure you that we are extremely friendly and we generally like receiving phone calls but you can book a free audit simply by entering your details here.
How Do You Pay Them?
It depends on the type of services you are purchasing and the consultant you are asking.
For freelancing services, for example, a consultant will be able to offer you several payment options: the most common are payments by the hour, by project or on a retainer.
For managed IT services it’s slightly different as you and your consultants will have a Service Level Agreement in place that will regulate the costs on a monthly -or yearly- basis. If you should decide to hire an in-house IT Supporter, the costs would quickly skyrocket. Not only you would have to pay for their salary -and their retirement plans, and holidays…- but you would also be in charge of the infrastructures and the devices. Not recommended.
That’s why managed IT services are commonly the cheaper option: knowing what you will have to pay in advance gives you more time to work and optimise your budget, minimising losses.
Yes, IT Support might not be cheap. But when it comes to hiring highly-skilled, readily available professionals nothing truly is.
Plus, the costs of not caring for your IT are far worse than any contract you might sign with the best of professionals.
Oh, and also: yes, as much as we love pizza we don’t currently accept to be paid with pizzas. We’re sorry, though!
How Do You Build A Good Relationship With Them?
Building a good relationship with your consultants is an ongoing process you have to be committed to. Remember that these are the guys who are virtually in charge of all of your business: you better be polite to them!
Jokes aside, the best way of building a good, trusting and profitable relationship for the both of you is to have an ongoing collaboration. You won’t get to know each other as much if you just ask for their help on a projectual basis.
Managed IT Services can be an helpful solution for this, since most services are offered over a long period of time that will enable you both to get to work on your relationship and have a good one.
As a general rule, try not to be impolite and to be honest regarding what you are asking for and what your problems are. Accept the things that can’t be solved and be prepared to pay the required price for those that can still be saved.
A good way to build a friendship with your IT Consultant, though, could also be to offer them a slice of the aforementioned pizza -not as a payment, of course.
At least, that’s what would win our friendly tech wizard’s hearts!
Get In Touch, NOW!
Now, we feel like we’ve given you all the information you needed in order to take your next step in our direction. Remember that we are friendly, we are tech savvy and we are wizards as well. Whatever your computer is doing, we’ve seen it worse. Get in touch and book your free audit today.
Now go get some pizza!
