Why Business IT Support is changing

Not so many years ago, IT firms all over the globe were making huge sums of money selling servers and physical technology solutions to small local businesses.In many instances, it helped the small local business scale at speed using the latest technology.These servers and IT infrastructure all required management and support.' However, since the dawn of cloud computing, the IT support model has been changing.' The business no longer prioritises physical technology solutions but instead is now looking at business goals achieved with the assistance of technology.In this article, we will outline three examples of why your current IT provider should be focusing not on IT support but on these three areas to help drive your business forward.

Automation

The goal of automation is to make something that's run manually in the business more efficient using technology.We've helped many small businesses automate different parts of their business process.' It all starts with a close inspection of repetitive tasks your workforce might spend valuable time on.Classic examples that we've helped with recently include ordering forms that used to be paper-based or provided in the email.An analysis of these types of repetitive processes gives us an awareness of opportunities that can be made using software automation.In this example, we chose to convert the ordering form to an online form the customer fills in.No longer is there a need for back and forth email. Just a simple online order form cuts out the need for email inbox management of orders.

Business Intelligence (BI)

With tools open to you like Microsoft PowerBI, you can find out more about the data your business is generating.Some of this data will help you make better decisions and give you unfair advantage compared to your competitors.' This intelligence starts with looking at the different data sources your business captures and might already be storing.' Most of this will be automatic and be logged in the background.A BI analyst can come into your business and lift the data into a readable and insightful format that can help drive and make data-based decisions that will increase your bottom line.

Upskilling

Office 365 now offers many applications to make the day to day running of a business much easier.' You may be surprised to know your Office subscription comes with over 20 installed apps ready to use.With the power at your workforces fingertips, it's never been a better time to upskill your staff on the capabilities of the apps that are included with Office 365 to help drive your business forward.Not only a benefit to the business but moral and a sense of achievement by the workforce can be great to keep a culture of growth in place.If you would like to find out more about how we can help your business, then get in touch with us today.