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March 27, 2020

Finding the Right IT Support: Where Do I Start?



IT support is an important part of any business, but it's one that's often overlooked by startups and smaller businesses. This is largely due to a desire to get the business plan moving and focus on the core aspects of the business, whereas tech support is often seen as something that just works in the background.



In fact, it's fairly common for small businesses to try and handle all of their technology needs themselves or simply ask friends and family for help. While this may work in the beginning, it can make things more difficult than necessary, and when it comes time to expand your business, you'll definitely need professional team members to help with cybersecurity, server maintenance, and integrations. Here are some things to consider when you start looking for a tech support team.

Check for Local References

While it's likely you'll need to break away from just asking friends and family for tech support as your business grows, they can still be a great place to start looking. Ask them if they know of any companies they'd recommend. Speak with other local business owners to see if their needs align with yours and ask about the support they use. A local company like EC2 IT in London can offer an extended range of options and unmatched response times for service calls.

EC2 offers 24/7 support and can manage your solutions in real time. Their professionals can integrate seamlessly with your team members and provide additional support even if you already have a dedicated team. They can even help you implement third-party cloud solutions like Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2) or Office 365.

Try to Increase Efficiency

Naturally, you'll want to get the most for your money when hiring outside support, and you'll want to make sure your new team members actually improve your business. Look for someone who can help you run OKR tracking software. OKR stands for objective and key results, and it's a great way to inspire employee engagement, increase productivity, and encourage realistic goal setting. The basics are as follows.

Objectives: These are your overall business goals. They may be monthly, quarterly, or they may run the entire business year. It's crucial that these are easily understandable and that everyone can work toward them. Boosting sales by a certain percentage and finding new leads are both great ideas for strategic objectives.

Key Results: These are the markers that show your progress toward your objectives. If your objective was to boost sales by 20% in the coming year, and you found that sales were up 7% in the first quarter, you'd know you were well on your way to completing your objective. It's important to be ambitious when chasing key results to ensure your objectives are feasible.

Good OKR software makes it easier for your team leaders and employees to work together, and flexible employee performance management software make sit easier to gauge performance reviews.

Ask About Specialties

While an IT support team is a necessary component of your business, not all are created equal. Some may specialize in certain areas more than others, and it's important that you work with a company that best fits your needs. For example, if your company stores a great deal of sensitive data, you'll want to work with someone who can offer the best cybersecurity. There are several ways to improve your cybersecurity, and it's important for more than your business secrets. You also need to protect customer information like payment details and identifying material.

If it's important to ensure your services are online at all times, you'll want to work with a company that can keep your servers backed up during emergencies. This will likely include having a virtual server on the cloud. Ultimately, you need a support team that prioritizes your own business goals.



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