Outsourcing to IT Consultants Could Be A Wise Investment In this day and age, no one can get the most efficiency out of their business without using the latest technology. A myriad of software packages will automate tasks such as payroll and bookkeeping allowing one to hire fewer employees and get the same work done. However, to make sure that these systems work properly you should seriously consider hiring a team of IT consultants. The first reason that you should consider hiring an IT consultant is that your time is too valuable to waste fixing IT headaches. We all know that most software does not always work as well as designed or is not as user friendly as we desire. When you encounter a problem and try to fix it yourself, you could spend literally all day managing something that an expert could solve in a couple of minutes. Your time is certainly more valuable doing what you do best - running your business. Another reason to hire an IT consultant is that the vulnerability to hacker attacks seems to have never been higher. Even large financial institutions have reported being temporarily crippled by well co-ordinated attacks. Having your network taken down or proprietary company information stolen because you skimped on security protection is an unnecessary risk for your business. Hiring an IT consultant who has a significant experience in creating secure networks can go a long way in preventing these situations, as well as mitigating the legal liability if any private customer information such as credit card numbers are stolen. IT consultants can also make you aware of alternatives to improve your business that you might not be aware of. For example, a consultant can come in and provide innovative marketing ideas such as search engine optimization, viral marketing through Facebook, SMS messaging, or mobile app development. A good IT consultant can also keep you apprised in the latest trends in inventory management software to improve your working capital management, meaning more cash available to spend on other parts of your business. IT consultants can also help you to save money on systems purchases. As experts in their field, they have a lot of experience acquiring products for their clients. They probably know where to source the cheapest reliable components for your technology infrastructure, and can probably suggest open source alternatives to the expensive proprietary software that most businesses use. For example, if you have a lot of employees and you are shown Open Office as a viable alternative to the Microsoft Office that most businesses buy, you could literally save thousands of pounds in unnecessary software costs. There also exists a big advantage to hiring a team of IT consultants over hiring an in house employee to take care of the same duties. A team will have economies of scale because different people will have different areas of expertise. Hiring a team gives you access to all of these core competencies as well as their numerous hours of experience dealing with similar problems at other companies. You rarely will find a single person who can provide all of these skills.
Hiring a team of IT consultants could be the best business decision you ever made. While there might be some expenses at the outset, creating a successful small business is all about maximising return on invested capital, and the improvements that these specialists can provide can quickly repay the costs of their services.
Iconic IT Ltd 46 Newbridge Street Newbridge Wolverhampton West Midlands WV6 0EQ Office: 0330 088 3338 Email: enquiries@iconicit.co.uk Website: www.iconicit.co.uk