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Why IT Leaders Should Focus On Desired Outcomes

IT companies and managed services providers are notorious for thrusting “their solutions” on to a client even in situations that might not be in the best interest of the client. Forcing a square peg into a round hole usually turns out bad for the company and the result is costly downtime, not to mention needing to eventually rip and replace the hardware and software that was ill-equipped to help the business grow.

The IT company of the future is one in which the IT company truly understands the needs of their clients and then designs a solution that is truly beneficial and scalable for the intended company.

If a company doesn’t need physical servers… then don’t give them physical servers. Just because you’re a Dell partner and you get a screaming deal on hardware that you can subsequently up-sell to the client, doesn’t mean you should actually implement those servers. A modern managed service provider will implement modern solutions in order to achieve a modern office. If they don’t… then run!

When talking to IT service providers, pay close attention to how they talk about their “solutions.” Pay attention to how well they listen and how earnestly they’re seeking to understand your unique situation. Try and determine whether they are a service provider who is focused on “desired outcomes” or whether they are just trying to add nodes to their NOC.

Many IT leaders simply gravitate towards the strategies that come easiest to them. They’re often more comfortable focusing on the technology they’re familiar with at the expense of long-term planning. They may overlook things such as personnel, processes and business cultures. All of it needs to be taken into consideration. You don’t want a technology provider. You want a business partner with an emphasis on technology solutions who doesn’t get hung up by their own ego. You want a provider that has big picture thinking with precise execution and who is committed to the desired outcome. 

IT companies of the past have sadly been about tools and band-aid like fixes to “get them by.” But we’ve set out to revolutionize the image of an IT provider. Tech innovations improperly implemented at the expense of the long-term desired outcome of the business can come at a horrific cost. We’ve seen it time and time again… 

Understanding the Capabilities and Limitations of Solutions

When selecting a solution for a specific challenge your clients’s business is facing, it’s important to consider its capabilities and its limitations. You’ll only get an idea of where a solution might take you and how close it’ll get you towards a desired outcome when you understand these things. Simply implementing a new type of technology and hoping it’s the silver bullet solution to your problems doesn’t tend to work out well for IT leaders.

Every solution you implement in your workplace has a range of capabilities. Take time to understand what the chosen piece of technology is capable of doing and how it will change the IT infrastructure in place. Doing so will give you a much better idea of what that technology will change and what it’s capable of helping you achieve. A little research and a lot of consideration will be needed in order for you to get this right.

Of course, the capabilities of the solution only make up one side of the coin. It’s just as important to take into account any limitations that are in place too. Every possible solution you can implement has a set of limitations because no solution is perfect and it’s rarely possible to find one that answers all of your problems and sets your business on exactly the right path. 

It always makes sense to fully understand the capabilities and limitations of any solution you choose to implement. Full awareness provides you with better insights and the ability to make the right decisions for your business. IT leaders will ultimately find that it makes reaching their desired outcomes much easier.

Understanding the Importance of People, Process and Culture

The people working for a business are just as important as the new technologies that are being implemented there. The technology should serve the people who work in the business. Working on motivating and developing the skills and capabilities of a team is vital work for all leaders in business and IT especially.

Processes that are reliable and consistent will lead to a more positive workplace in which people really feel like they can work well and productively. For employees, consistency and a common understanding of how things should be done within the IT structure is the key to productivity. 

The overall culture of the business or a particular department within the business can have a big impact on how work is completed. People routinely overlook the role that IT plays in the culture of any company. Frustrated, confused, and hindered employees cause more trouble for growing organizations than anything else. 

Why A Focus on Desired Outcomes Matters Most

But why should we focus so heavily on outcomes? If you can understand the business goals of your clients in conjunction with their current technological infrastructure, you’ll have much greater insight into how to help that business grow. And that’s usually the outcome we all desire. Growth. Scalable, manageable growth. 

So what if we as an industry geared the technological solutions we provide for a client around what they are trying to accomplish instead of what we are trying to accomplish.

Instead, IT leaders and managed service providers often choose what they think works best, even when they haven’t taken the time to understand their client’s desired outcome. They’ll do what’s easiest and what comes most naturally to them without thinking about the destination. It’s a classic tale of how so many companies get lost on the way to their destination. They didn’t have an IT guide to help take them safely there.
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How Much Should You Be Spending on IT Support

When you’re running a small business in today’s digital world, you can’t leave out IT support. But IT support can quickly take up a small business company’s budget. According to research by IDC, small businesses spent $568 billion in 2017 on IT. Much of these costs can be attributed to labor. Thus, it’s vital for small businesses to be aware of the different costs associated with hiring the right team to take care of their IT-related issues. There are different rates that IT companies charge their clients, and much of it depends on who will be doing the work and what services they will be provided. Here is a guide you can use to help streamline the process of knowing what you should be spending on your IT support.

In-House IT Staff

It’s not uncommon for small business owners to hire an in-house team dedicated to handling IT-related issues. But this is also one of the quickest ways to add expenses to the business and consume your IT budget. You’ll need to fill roles that will be crucial to resolving both short- and long-term IT-related issues and goals, such as network administrators, software engineers, system managers, chief information officer (CIO), web developers and computer support technician. But these roles can each be very expensive. According to the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics, network administrators made an average annual salary of $81,000 per year in 2017 while computer and information system managers can cost $139,2220 on average. You also have to consider that to attract these in-demand workers that you will need to offer attractive benefits, too. In fact, benefits are responsible for a 50 percent increase in payroll expenses and cost as much an average of $11.31 per employee. Some of these benefits can include the cost of fully- or mostly-covered health insurance for the workers and their dependents, tuition reimbursement, life insurance and a generous vacation package. Some small firms and startups are even offering beyond these costs with options

Freelancers

One way to alleviate the high expenses of an in-house IT team is to get the help of an outsourced or contracted worker. Freelancers can prove to be resourceful in this case because they help small businesses save on costs for fringe benefits, such as healthcare, worker’s compensation or life insurance. However, freelancers can command the same rates as in-house staff or even more. Moreover, if you’re not careful and don’t find a way to vet the freelance worker, you can run into issues if they don’t really have the experience or level of expertise you were expecting. There is also no way to monitor what your freelancers are really doing. This is part of why 85 percent of the 2,200 companies surveyed in a 2017 Manta study did not have intentions to hire freelance workers.

MSPs

You can also consider the savings you can take advantage of by hiring a managed service provider or MSP. MSPs offer a great deal of savings for small businesses in need of IT support thanks to their ability to leverage the economies of scale. MSPs often have long and strong relationships with a variety of vendors that can help them provide critical IT support when their clients need them. For instance, MSPs offer a wide variety of services, including 24-hour support, virtual Chief Information Officers (vCIOs) and data backup using on-premise or off-premise cloud servers. MSPs also can provide these services at a discounted rate compared to an in-house team or even a freelancer. MSP costs can vary depending on the services needed but are not the same as funding a full-time employee each month, with rates averaging anywhere between hundreds to thousands per month per user ($200-$2000).

Proactive vs. Reactive

Another important factor that you should consider when choosing among IT support providers is the type of service they provide. MSPs can offer proactive managed services and reactive managed services. With proactive managed services, you can expect to take advantage of preventative measures that anticipate IT-related issues. That means you can expect your IT support team to have a mapped out plan to respond to and prevent disasters and disruptions, such as data loss due to a tropical storm or a data breach. On the other hand, reactive managed services are typical of IT support companies or personnel who act only when a problem arises. The problem with reactive managed services is that it does not take preventative measures that can save small businesses big money. Small businesses stand to save as much as hundreds of thousands of dollars when choosing proactive solutions over reactive managed services, considering that the average cost of damages to IT assets cost businesses $879,582 in 2016.

Final Thoughts

Finding the right IT team or stakeholders to help keep your company operational and efficient is crucial when you’re selecting IT support. Consider the costs associated with each type of provider but don’t forget about taking into account their capabilities. The IT support team that you choose should be able to handle your needs in the most efficient way.
Education

How to Choose a Legitimate Healthcare IT Support Provider

Proper IT management of healthcare information can be a matter of life and death. Most patient information is now kept on private servers or on secure cloud storage providers. While written records still exist, getting patients the treatment they need depends on fast access to accurate digital information. If your IT company isn’t knowledgeable about HIPAA, network security and disaster recovery, people won’t just lose money. Their health can be affected. Not all IT management companies can properly handle the healthcare industry, so do thorough research before you hire one.

HIPAA Adherence

HIPAA stands for the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, which was passed in 1996 to protect individual’s insurance and healthcare information as well as allow individuals to keep their coverage if they lost their job. Any company dealing in health information must follow government regulations to secure and protect the confidentiality of protected health information (PHI). This act pertains to all forms of information, including electronic data. Breaches in HIPAA can lead to fines and other legal action.

Your managed IT service needs to have experience in protecting this information, making certain that it cannot be misused in any way. Unless the firm knows HIPAA rules backward and forward, they are not the right company for you.

Network Security

You will need an IT service that provides flexible solutions for security. Of course, your information must be safeguarded from hacking by malicious third parties, so you need to choose a company that keeps up with the latest in security trends such as incorporating AI, protecting against ransomware, and dealing with the Internet of Things.

Your IT management company should provide the option of a Hybrid Cloud, a system that lets you keep some things in the cloud while maintaining other information, such as that protected by HIPAA, on site. Healthcare providers and insurance companies benefit most from the use of this hybrid system since it gives them the storage they need and protects patient privacy.

Disaster Recovery

When a disaster strikes, natural or otherwise, all types of businesses suffer, but none more than the healthcare industry and their patients/clients. During a hurricane, for instance, you deal with injured people who desperately need to reach their healthcare provider or get information from their insurance company. Any problems with data at that point can have serious consequences.

An excellent IT management company can offer you a HIPAA compliant backup and data recovery plan. Having backup is a different process than actual recovery. Backing up data simply means all data is copied and stored in another location from the original. Recovery means retrieving this backup information, even under the most difficult of circumstances.

Because healthcare data is so sensitive, your IT management firm will have to complete audits regularly to prove that they maintain HIPAA compliance, especially during and after a natural or man-made disaster.

Cloud-based recovery, as well as on-site recovery, is necessary to keep large healthcare facilities running after a ransomware attack, flood or power outage. To ensure that their system is adequate, your IT provider will need to conduct regular testing.

Storage Capability

Healthcare data is exploding, both due to patient records and increased use of digital tools. As a result, initial and backup data requires a huge storage capability. Before choosing an IT management company, make certain that they have this capability and the ability to expand as necessary. Also, find out how much such an expansion in data storage will cost your company. You will need more storage, so plan for this reality now.

Data Integrity

Data integrity simply means that your company’s information is kept safe and private from anyone who should not have access to it. Obviously, the more people who have access, the greater chance of a security or ethical breach. A recent Forbes article suggests that you ask the following questions of IT companies.

How do you keep proprietary and candidate data safe? Ask for specific examples.

If applicable, are you GDPR compliant? GDPR is the new European Union law that regulates data privacy and imposes severe fines for non-compliance.

What are your certifications that apply to data privacy? Have them show you proof of specialized training, awards, etc.
You should also add any questions you have that pertain to your particular business.

Healthcare-related businesses require more from an IT management company than businesses from other industries. The privacy issues involved are more sensitive and carefully legislated. Failure to maintain data privacy has severe consequences. The firm’s focus has to be on HIPAA compliance as well as data backup and emergency recovery. A business can lose millions of dollars from even a short period of computer/internet downtime. A healthcare facility or insurance company outage will harm the business financially, but, more importantly, may endanger patient health.

Carefully interview any managed service providers to make certain they can handle your security and storage needs before contracting with them. Inquire about their experience in this particular field and ask for customer testimonials. When it comes to healthcare, your IT management service cannot be less than perfect.