Do you think your business is too small to work with a managed services IT provider (MSP)? Think again. Many IT consulting companies, like Integris, for instance, are set up specifically to work with smaller companies. This kind of MSP prides itself on being your “IT staff that’s not on staff.” The right MSP can operate like a true business partner, providing your small to medium sized business with enterprise IT consulting at a scale and price you can afford. The benefits of IT consulting for smaller businesses are numerous and powerful.
Perhaps that’s why companies worldwide are flocking to IT consulting firms in record numbers. In fact, companies invested $53.67 billion in IT consulting and services in 2021 so far, up over $43.46 billion in 2016. (source: Statista) If you decide to contract out your IT, what are the benefits of IT consulting you should expect?
Top Benefits of IT Consulting: An Overview
An actual run down of every benefit of IT consulting would be pretty long. So, we’ll just discuss the biggest, most comprehensive ones here. When you consider the benefits of hiring an IT consulting service together, they have the power to transform the way you do business, and reduce your stress level considerably.
Free Yourself from Technical Tasks, So You Can Concentrate on Running Your Business
Truly, this is the key benefit IT consulting companies can provide, and it’s not to be discounted just because it’s obvious. When you have an IT consulting agency to handle service calls, hardware inventory, upgrades and security, you’ll be amazed how much time this frees up. And it’s not just time saved for your internal staffer that’s been handling all the IT requests.
The benefits of IT consulting roll to other areas of your company, too. Now, your accounting department isn’t having to juggle constant IT invoices—only one monthly bill. Your HR department isn’t having to sweat the details of getting your new employee set up on the company computer and network. The staffer that was helping everyone in the company when their computer freezes up can now actually do the job they were hired to do. An IT consulting service can make your whole organization breathe a sigh of relief.
Upgrade to 24/7 Monitoring and Service
The benefits of IT consulting are about far more than just being “freed from technical tasks.” In today’s interconnected world where workers are signing in at all hours, and from all time zones, your organization needs an IT consulting service that can cover you round the clock. At Integris, our cross-country network of offices means that we can offer true 24/7 system monitoring for our clients, staffed by real humans. If you have an outage or a technical issue at any hour, we have the IT consulting group to cover it.
When ransomware attacks, or outages, or service issues occur off hours, you can’t afford to wait until your employees come in. And, perhaps more important, do you really want to bother your employees off the clock? IT consulting companies that offer 24/7 coverage offer a mission-critical service for companies that can’t hire night desk IT personnel.
Save Your Company as Much as 25-50 percent over an Internal IT Staff
More companies are turning to business and IT consulting, and for good reason. The savings can be huge for your bottom line. And those savings go far beyond just eliminating benefits and salary for internal IT staff. An IT consulting firm can offer you a variety of services, such as the strategic counsel of a CIO, the expertise of a network technician, or the security expertise of monitoring staff. You pay for only the service you use. To replicate this level of coverage with internal staff you’d most likely have to hire three or more people. When you outsource, you get the enterprise IT consulting you need, scaled directly to your needs.
And that’s not the only savings you’ll enjoy when you’re working with an IT consulting group. MSPs are considered distributors for all the enterprise grade software platforms and devices on the market. So, if you need a software package, or to buy laptops or phones for your people, your MSP can order all that for you at steeply discounted rates. These savings are, without question, key benefits of IT consulting for small businesses.
Buy Just What You Need, and Never Waste Money on Service or Products Again
When you work with an IT consulting service, you pay a package price by the users in your system. This is a big difference of handling your IT on your own. Let’s say, for instance, that you hire an employee on contract, and purchase a computer and software licenses for that employee. That employee’s contract is up, but the money you spent on its licenses still stands.
IT MSPs don’t work this way. You decide on the packages you want to purchase, and you pay a set fee for each person in your system. This can scale up or down on a monthly basis. You pay one predictable monthly fee, instead of being nickel and dimed with a constant flurry of individual expenses. This cuts out waste and ensures you’ll always have enterprise grade software available at scale. And that’s one of the benefits of IT consulting small businesses shouldn’t ignore.
The Benefits of Having a Strategic IT Partner
We’ve just outlined some critical benefits of IT consulting for your SMB. But we haven’t touched on the most important one of all: having a strategic IT partner. When you work with an IT MSP, you are buying into a critical resource network that can support the growth of your small business. Need advice on how to grow your network? On evaluating new tools or services? Or assessing your security risks? An IT MSP can provide you with all that, often at no extra cost. They can help you make the strategic technology decisions that can grow your business. And they have deep vendor relationships, so they can procure cutting edge tools at a scale you can afford.
Do you think your company is ready for the benefits of IT consulting? We can help you make that decision. Check out our whitepaper “20 Signs Your Business is Ready for IT Managed Services.” And, as always, if you’d like to talk with our experts directly about our IT consulting and services, simply contact us. We’d love to hear from you!
