Managed IT Service

Small to medium-sized organizations face a number of challenges in managing their Information Technology assets, environments, and organizations.

• Continuity of IT staff: small departments that have staff turnover provide management with challenges in maintaining consistent levels of IT leadership and support. In addition, most of these organizations cannot provide long-term career paths for IT staff.
• Cost of IT Resources: often organizations need a wide range of IT skills and expertise – including:
  • systems administration – to make sure servers and key hardware/equipment are kept operational
  • telecommunications systems management – phone systems, Internet connectivity, video conferencing, and telemedicine
  • technical support – for end-user machines and software
  • web site skills and resources (design and development)
  • application support – from software selection through implementation, training, and ongoing support. This is needed for both end-user applications (such as Office tools – word processing, spreadsheets, etc.) and critical business applications (e.g. Accounting, clinical systems, Enterprise Resource Planning [ERP] applications, etc.)
• Access to a full range of IT resources – small organizations cannot afford full-time IT staff with the skills referenced above.
• IT Leadership – can be an expensive resource for smaller organizations. Very few can afford a full-time IT Manager or Chief Information Officer (CIO).
• Keeping current with IT developments – Staying on top of IT trends, new software, hardware, cloud computing, privacy legislation, and more are essential to retain competitiveness and minimize threats to businesses.

As a result, these organizations ‘make do’ with the few resources available to them, and activities such as preventative maintenance and proactive monitoring of equipment are not usually carried out. As a result: small problems go unattended until they grow into crisis; organizations ‘make do’ with poorly managed IT environments with devices not working and staff finding workarounds. In these environments, productivity and effectiveness for all staff is compromised.