By Mark Shaw
I guess the recession is cancelled. Who knows, right? The world seems a little upside down, but as everyone knows life continues to go on. What we are seeing in the technology space is very interesting as we have, for most intents and purposes, been immune to the economic tides of layoffs and downsizing. This did not hold true in 2023, and so far, 2024 is starting off with a bang. Over 24 tech firms have already had layoffs in 11 days into this year. The big companies have over-hired during the good times and are trimming now. Technology is often the canary in the coal mine. What happens there flows down to the more stable and long-term organizations in healthcare and manufacturing.
What does this mean to you and your business? It means that the pendulum is swinging again. The rise of good economic times buoyed by the funds from PPP, EIDL, and for some, the ERC (All government programs through COVID-19) are starting to come to an end. The funds have been used and now we are back to equilibrium. As you look over your staff and study your business trends, you might also find yourself needing to reduce staffing to keep moving forward.
One area everyone worried about making any cuts is typically in the technology area. These people have special skills that are often, in our area, hard to find. You trust your IT person to be making good choices, to be protecting you from threats, and most importantly to just make “IT” work.
But what do you do when the realization that your beloved IT person is moving on to another role, perhaps in another state or country? What if that resource is unable to grow with the big plans you have made for success in 2024. What if they need some help because the day-to-day is burying them to the point their project timelines are slipping?
I can list in the last three years alone how many businesses, from manufacturing to government, have felt the twinge of panic when the person they have relied on for years hands in the dreaded resignation letter.
But instead of considering this a time to panic, consider this a time to make a change that benefits you, your company, and your wallet. Consider the benefits of letting someone else manage your technology that isn’t one person or a small team. What if you could have 24/7 support, someone always ready to answer the call for any technology needs? What if that group could have people with a diverse set of skills that would be able to cover all your needs from A-Z in your company technology wise? What if they could run a new cable for a copier, install updates to your business applications, protect against threats, provide backups to all your mission critical data, help in the case of any security risk and act as you own personal Chief Information Officer?
This is what an MSP does. Perhaps you have heard the acronym and wondered what that means. It stands for Managed Service Provider. They handle your technology needs on a day-to-day basis and provide road maps tailored to where you see your business going in not only the next twelve months but looking beyond that horizon to say 3 to 5 years. You jointly set the pace and the plan for how your business can thrive using the technology in your organization today and dream of what the future could be.
In most cases this is at a price point lower than you could have with just a single employee or even a small team. Now that is something to consider in these more chaotic times.
What is even more powerful is if this partner MSP could work with you without contract or long-term commitments, letting them earn your business every single day. That’s how the best-in-class MSPs work.
As 2024 comes in like lion, if you are in a tough spot trying to find the best way to use technology, cannot afford an IT team to be on your payroll, or are losing your trusted IT resource maybe an MSP is right for you.