Are You Lacking an Experienced IT Technician?

Are You Lacking an Experienced Technician?

If so, don’t hesitate to outsource. 

According to a recent CIO survey of over 3,000 technology leaders, 65% believe that hiring challenges are hurting the industry. There is a HUGE shortage of IT expertise and the timing couldn’t be worse. Nowadays, every business is a technology business to some degree. Why? Forbes once noted:

“Today, no company can make, deliver or market its product efficient without technology.”

A competitive business simply needs to invest in digitization – from using data analytics within the marketing department to leveraging automation for their day-to-day operations. Beyond that, the world is digital. Customers depend on technology to communicate with businesses, learn about products and services, and overall, get the experience they desire.

In the simplest terms, every business is a technology business because that’s what’s expected and required from them. If you’re not taking advantage of technology to the fullest extend, it’s going to be much more difficult to survive in this ever-evolving, increasingly competitive marketplace.

Being agile = being competitive

At the end of the day, businesses can’t afford to move slowly. They must stay agile to maintain their market share against more nimble organizations that know what they’re doing from a technology standpoint. There are two main problems that have arisen over the past few years:

• Product life cycles have shortened
• Digital advances have accelerated

Businesses need to be agile to stay ahead of these two problems. Does this mean it’s important that you’re able to quickly take advantage of new opportunities – and what better way to do that than using flexible technology that can go with the flow? There are many ways adopting a digital mindset can be used to:

• Grow your existing client base
• Minimize operational costs and save money
• Engage your customers through new channels
• Add more value to your existing customers

But first, you need an experienced IT technician.

For many organizations, the most difficult part of leveraging technology to stay agile and competitive is finding the talent and resources to actually do it. As we mentioned, there’s a major shortage of IT expertise happening right now. The lack of expertise in the industry is a HUGE challenge for not only technology providers, but businesses all over the world. So let’s take a look at what makes a talented technician…

• Communication
• Problem solving
• Adaptability
• Teamwork
• Customer service

They must be qualified in all of the above. In addition, they must be able to address a range of areas, including network design, cybersecurity, hardware implementation, troubleshooting, and more. This, in turn, makes it difficult because they need to be incredibly well-rounded in terms of skills.

The Bureau of Labour Statistics reports that employment opportunities in the computer and IT sector will grow by 12% over the next decade, which is much faster than the average expected rate of job growth. Simply put, the amount of talent is far lower than the demand. So what does this mean?

• It’s hard to find and hire a great technician because not only do you have to consider their technical abilities, but also their ability to communicate, problem-solve, adapt, and more. If you hire the wrong person, it can become a costly mess.
• It’s hard to find a technology support company with great technicians as there are many new players in the industry – meaning they have likely struggled to find great technicians as they’ve entered the market while a talent shortage is happening.

What are your options? 

If you have an internal IT person but they’re struggling due to a lack of experience, don’t give up. You do have options. Sure, you can invest heavily in training them to get up-to-par, but that doesn’t always work out, especially if they’re lacking experience in non-technical areas that are necessary. Instead, you can:

Augment their capabilities with an outsourced MSP

An MSP can take over parts of the workload that your internal technology support person simply doesn’t have the experience to handle, such as:

• Business continuity
• Cloud consulting
• Help desk services
• And more

This is referred to as co-managed IT services. You get access to an entire team of technology professionals for a flat-rate monthly fee. This means you benefit from:

• Keeping costs low because you’re paying a flat-rate monthly fee – there’s no need to hire, train, and pay salaries for additional people to meet your ever-evolving technology requirements.
• Ensuring the availability of support whenever necessary as you have access to an entire team as opposed to one person who may fall ill, go on vacation, etc. and not be available when you need them.
• Gaining access to an extensive range of services and/or products as technology support companies typically have various partnerships with manufacturers in the industry, which means you may also find yourself getting discounts on products.
• Replace them with a new internal technology support person

This is an option, but you’re losing your entire investment into the technology support person you have. Think about it… You spend a lot of time finding the right person, then you invest in putting them through your onboarding process, which likely involves some degree of training. You also pay them a salary, benefits, and other expenses that will go to waste if you let them go. In addition, you may end up back to square one given the shortage of talent out there.

Sure, an internal person gives you a dedicated resource. But it’s an expensive option, especially if it doesn’t work out:

• Salary
• Benefits
• Vacation time
• Sick days
• Training and certifications
• Overtime
• Workstation/equipment

It adds up fast. In fact, the average investment is $80,000.00 per year, per individual hired. An MSP, on the other hand, is much less – averaging at around $150 per user, per month.

Experience doesn’t have to cost a lot

Now you might be thinking “more experience will cost more money,” but that’s not always the case. This is particularly true if you’re outsourcing to an MSP that charges a flat-rate monthly fee rather than hiring another internal person. In fact, if you’re happy with the person you’ve hired but simply feel like they’re lacking the experience necessary to drive your business forward, co-managed IT services gives them the ability to learn from your MSP.

Contrary to popular belief, MSPs aren’t looking to replace your internal person. In many cases, they’re happy to share the workload and teach your internal person a few tips and tricks along the way. But if you do choose to augment your internal person’s capabilities with an MSP, it’s important to make sure they’re experienced enough to achieve your desired results.

Here are a few questions to ask before you go ahead and sign up for co-managed IT services with an MSP:

How long have you been in business? 

Don’t forget about the shortage of talent that’s happening right now. In many cases, a brand new MSP will also be struggling with this, which means they may have a less experienced team working for them. Sysoft, for instance, was founded in 1991 with a passion for creating manageable, cost-effective technology solutions for small to midsize businesses. Many of our technicians have been with us for years, and rest assured, they know what they’re doing and they do it well.

How do you handle cybersecurity? 

Cybercrime isn’t slowing down anytime soon. In reality, hackers are ramping up their efforts and becoming more sophisticated with each passing day. They are attacking every 39 seconds. If you’re outsourcing, make sure they have a clear and well-defined list of the comprehensive cybersecurity services they’ll use to keep you safe. This should include:

• Firewalls
• Anti-virus software
• Intrusion detection software
• Encryption

In today’s day and age, cybersecurity is an ongoing challenge for most organizations. They know hackers are out there and they see data breaches on the news, but they don’t know what measures to put in place to stay safe. Sysoft offers the right assessment, implementation, management, maintenance, and monitoring to stay ahead of cybercrime.

Our managed cybersecurity offering is a subscription-based service – meaning you pay an easily budgeted fee each month to protect everything:

• Computers
• Mobile devices
• Cloud environments
• Servers
• Network
• And more

What experience do you have with my industry? 

This is an incredibly important question, especially for businesses operating in a heavily regulated environment. If you need to comply with industry-specific regulations, such as HIPAA, PCI DSS, FINRA, and more, you’ll need to outsource to an MSP that knows your industry. They should be well aware of your pain points, your line of business applications, and any challenges or changes on the horizon for your industry.

Sysoft works with a range of industries and we’ve put in a lot of time, energy, and resources to become experts in those industries. Why? Because we know each business has unique requirements, especially when it comes to compliance. In fact, industry-specific regulations change and evolve so frequently that it’s vital you’re invested in staying ahead of them.

Who we serve includes:

• Non-profit organizations
• Law firms
• Financial services firms
• Startups
• Small businesses

Although we focus heavily on the industries listed above, we’re able to work with any business that values their information technology.

Do you require your staff to undergo any specific training? 

Make sure you discuss their staff’s qualifications and certifications. Do they undergo any specific training? Are they certified in the technologies you’re using? This is one of the best ways to ensure they have the experience necessary to serve you properly. Sysoft values ongoing education and strong partnerships with leading manufacturers. We work with only the best of the best in the industry to provide enterprise-grade solutions to our clients.

Do you have any clients willing to speak about their experience? 

Lastly, feel free to ask about their current clients. Many MSPs will be happy to give you testimonials from current clients, case studies outlining projects they’ve done, and in some cases, contact information so you can speak with business owners that are working with them. This will give you invaluable insight into:

• Their response time and whether or not they’re quick to pick up the phone or respond to emails requesting support.
• Their communication levels and whether or not they’re able to clearly define expectations, keep in touch during projects, etc.
• Their technical expertise and whether or not they’re able to resolve issues the first time around, implement products properly, etc.

A good outsourced IT company is invaluable

It might seem like choosing an IT company will take a lot of time and effort, which is true, but it’s well worth the effort to find an experienced MSP that can truly help you digitally transform your business. A good MSP will not only help you embrace innovative technologies, but they’ll also help you prevent unexpected costs associated with:

• Extensive downtime resulting from uncaught issues
• Repair and/or troubleshooting frequent problems
• Non-compliance fines and/or lawsuits
• Recovering from outages or cyberattack
• And much more

They will become an invaluable partner that will help you improve the efficiency of your day-to-day operations while offering helpful guidance for your internal technology person to learn from.

Get in touch with our team of professional, experienced IT experts now. Call (416) 410-7268 or use the chatbox.