Smaller companies tend to under staff their IT department – usually because they lack a budget that allows them to hire all of the needed positions. And since someone has to do things like backup and recovery, patch management, network setup, etc., the most tech-savvy employees usually end up being assigned these types of various IT functions.
When you’re juggling too many things you’re way more likely to drop a ball (or two). Spreading employees too thin makes it nearly impossible for them to be productive and perform at their best. When you put a person in charge of IT and they aren’t an IT expert, new technologies and capabilities aren’t able to be adopted. So, not only does it spread the employee too thin, it also creates gaps in your IT processes.
And, hackers are increasingly targeting SMBs. Do you really want to risk having a security hole in your network just because you “think” someone can juggle your business’ network management needs?
“…the largest growth area for targeted attacks in 2012 was businesses with fewer than 250 employees; 31 percent of all attacks targeted them.” Source: Symantic Corporation, Internet Security Threat Report 2013
Information technology is continuously evolving, and it’s easy to fall behind. Maybe your current network is secure, but how do you plan to remain secure? What’s the upgrade path? And who’s planning it? If you expect it to be your part-time IT person, they’re most likely already struggling to stay on top of current IT needs AND their “day job” – they probably don’t have spare time to be planning for the future.
You get the advantages of a fully-staffed IT department without the burden of having to pay for or manage one.
