Collaborative IT Is The Answer To Your Technology Needs

POSTED ON June 20, 2020

Businesses worldwide have been forced to learn, adapt, and grow in order to survive; the IT industry is no exception. We’ve seen businesses forced to cut their internal IT team to save money; we’ve also seen a massive spike in cybercrime. This is a dangerous combination, as shortchanging your internal IT team to save money will leave you even more at a security risk than before. Fortunately, there’s a way to still save some money, keep some of your internal IT team, and still make sure your technology needs are being met: Co-Managed or Collaborative IT.

Collaborative IT is the practice of partnering your internal team with an external IT resource like Agilitec to cover a wider range of services. Recent events have left many companies with an overworked and overwhelmed IT manager or small IT team, and that means important aspects of IT management like cybersecurity, data backup and recovery, and long-term growth slip through the cracks. At Agilitec, we aren’t fond of the term “Co-Managed”; it presents a problem when two parties are both in a leadership position. Hence, we prefer “Collaborative IT” because that’s what it is: we’re working with you, to support you and your team. We can take the burden of daily helpdesk tasks and rote management while your trusted internal resource can focus on larger projects and needs—or vice versa. Our job is to share the load with your IT team to help your company achieve its IT needs efficiently, effectively, and without breaking the bank.

With a recession looming on the horizon, we understand that you’re looking to save money wherever possible—cutting whatever isn’t necessary. It’s imperative that you realize how important your IT needs are, especially in an uncertain environment. This is especially true for cybersecurity. This is where one of the advantages of a Collaborative IT solution comes into play. It allows you to keep your internal technician on hand while delegating the strategic high-level projects out to an MSP; this lets you cut the cost of those projects in half. Working with an MSP or IT Services provider also allows you to leverage the efficiency and automation tools that they already have, as opposed to purchasing the tools, licenses, and infrastructure on your own. That’s another point of cost savings. It’s the best of both worlds: your business can save money and meet your technology needs simultaneously. This kind of cooperative approach to technology management lets us figure out how to best separate the workload and achieve excellent results.

We want to take the time to highlight one specific area of IT that is dangerously neglected: cybersecurity. There has been a 400% increase in cybercrime in the last few months; hackers are taking advantage of the overwhelmed IT staff, the fear, and the weaknesses in cybersecurity inherent to remote work. Most internal IT managers do not have the tools or expertise needed to properly protect your company from modern cybersecurity threats—this is why a Collaborative IT solution can be the difference between your business suffering a devastating data breach, or shrugging it off. Firewalls and antivirus software are too weak and slow to detect modern threats; malicious code spends an average of 200 days in an infected system before being detected. Supplementing your internal team with an external IT resource will make a difference for your cybersecurity: endpoint detection, network audits, security training, and more are all things that an MSP can do for you.

We hope you’ve learned about Collaborative IT, and that you’ve taken some time to consider your current IT solution. Are all of your needs being met? Do you need to maintain your current solution while saving money? Is your current team overworked and overwhelmed by the growing number of daily maintenance tasks? If so, we encourage you to give us a call—we’d love to help you and your team.

Categories: Agilitec IT Blog
About the Author: Agilitec IT
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