A recent study which investigated IT in SMEs quotes a senior manager of an accounting practice:
“We have had trained IT staff once. Like in any accounting firms there is always staff turnover. In the past we had two very good people that were very knowledgeable about computers. I got the management function of IT in the firm by default when they left”.
We work with business owners and senior management of organizations with less that 200 staff providing a one-stop shop for all their IT infrastructure needs. We have been doing this since 1996. Over this time we regularly come across the same, repeated concerns facing SME management. Regardless of business sector, the same challenges continue to crop up. One of the biggest issues is: “Who manages the company’s IT?”
For large companies with over 10,000 users it is easy – they have an IT Director with a fully staffed IT department to cater for all their IT requirements.
The challenge is that managing IT in an SME environment of under 200 users is not a full time job.
When you have 10 (or 100) staff, it’s a much more difficult question. So who actually does it?
As with the accounting firm mentioned above, it is almost certainly undertaken on a part-time basis by a manager or director with other responsibilities. But this approach carries risks and can have a detrimental impact on the business.
The business impacts of “part-time”/dual function IT management
Let’s briefly consider 3 typical scenarios:
[1] If, as an owner-manager, you do it yourself it takes time, and that means time away from building your core business. This also assumes that you fully up-to-date in the IT field, and staying up-to-date takes even more time – i.e. time away from your core business. Conversely, NOT staying up-to-date can also have a negative impact on your business. So the reality is that is a “catch 22” situation.
[2] If one your staff members does it, assuming they are sufficiently ‘up to speed’ with IT to provide support, they also lose valuable time and that distracts them and diminishes their core value to your business.
[3] Or, maybe like many companies, you have a guy who comes in as and when needed to deal with problems on a one-off basis. This can work out fine when dealing with the “known knowns” – BUT [and this is a very big “but”] what about the “unknown unknowns”? For example, how do you deal with the problems that you don’t know about, like security, malware protection, data leakage?
If you would like to discuss this issue and what it means for your business, please get in touch. Since inception in 1996, PASR Technologies has been providing SME business owners with a level of service and support to the SME business owner that is typically only directly available in very large organisations.
Servicing businesses from 10 to up to 200 employees, our clients range from local SMEs through to regional offices of larger MNCs, and include airlines.
At PASR Technologies, we solve your IT problems before you even realize you have one!
