|
|
Running a business requires top-flight skills in many areas.
The problem for a small business is that there are less people
to share knowledge. In fact, people may mean ?you?! Not everyone
can be an expert in everything.
In a large business you can afford to hire individuals to
specialize, a smaller business cannot. What do you do when you
need to be everything from the graphic artist to the network
administrator to the janitor?
For starters, you need to identify the activities that only you
can do. Then get help for the ones you can delegate. And
delegate them!
Unless you run an IT company, your computer support is one area
you can delegate.
Say you spend four hours per week working on or fixing computer
problems. Over the course of a year, that is more than 200
hours! Problems like printer issues, virus cleaning, spyware
removal, email issues, training your new employee on your
software and a whole host of other annoyances.
How much time is lost when spyware makes your computer take five
minutes to open a program that should take less than one?
Computers can greatly enhance the productivity of your business;
however, they can cause a loss of productivity when not properly
maintained.
While the 200 hours can be a huge investment in your time, it is
only a fraction of the time worked by one fulltime IT support
person. In fact, you would be paying a fulltime support person
for approximately 1880 hours per year for doing virtually
nothing. At $20.00 per hour, that is well over $37000.00. With
all the associated employment costs, it could be over $50000.00
per year!
Here is where a Virtual IT Support Agreement can save you time
and money, and increase your productivity. What is virtual IT?
Virtual IT is where you contract with a third party to provide
just the services you really need. Why pay $37000.00 when you
could pay $4000.00 instead?
A sample contact could offer services like this: ?Service Level
Agreement Four hour response time Eight hour response time
Twelve hour response time ?On-site desktop support ?Help Desk
services ?Project management ?Computer Training ?Network security
Service Level Agreement
A service level agreement is a contractual response time. For
example, a four-hour response time would mean that a technician
would be onsite within four hours of you initiating a call for
assistance.
On-site Desktop Support
Here the technician actually goes out to your place of business
and performs his duties.
Help Desk Services
Not every call requires a technician to go out to the customer?s
location. Often the issue can be resolved over the phone. This
allows your employees to get back to work faster and saves you
money. Typically, phone support costs less than on-site support.
For example, a typical desktop support call in a large corporate
environment could cost about $150.00 per incident. While a call
to the same corporation?s help desk might only cost $50.00 per
incident. That is 300% less!
Project Management
While the services of a project manager are required
infrequently, they can quickly prove their worth. A good project
manager will save you time and money. His job is to coordinate
and put all the pieces together.
Computer Training
You can have all the latest and greatest computer hardware and
software and still not have a very productive staff. In order to
get the maximum value of your investment your employees need to
know how to use your equipment.
What good is Excel if you do not know how to setup simple
formulas? Would you rather your admin person type addresses on
500 letters, for you new marketing campaign, or do a merge and
cut the time down to almost nothing?
Simply put, training increases productivity. Increased
productivity translates to increased profits!
Network Security
Security is a big issue in today?s business environment.
Inadequate security can jeopardize your business in several
ways: -Allow intruders to steal customer data -Allow employees
to steal customer information -Allow intruders to use your
computers to commit other crimes -Cause a loss of productivity
None of this is good for the survival of your business.
Every business owner should take security seriously, even if it
is only to reduce potential legal liability.
Small business owners often spend their early years forced to
handle every task themselves. They just do not have the money to
delegate most of their work. As the business grows, this becomes
more and more of a burden. Delegation of activities is a crucial
task that some never learn to do.
Pick your experts carefully and it will free up your time so you
can grow your business.
About the author:
Rick Parrott, MCP - SA Secure, a San Antonio Texas company
specializing in desktop support and help desk services for small
to medium businesses. Our goal is to provide an alternative to
maintaining an expensive in-house IT staff or relying on many
different individual computer repair technicians. We have over a
decade of experience in both the Government and Private business
sector. Visit our website: http://www.sasecure.net
|
|
|
