Managed Services

Managed IT: Delegate Your Way to Competitiveness

If you want something done right, do it yourself… or so they say. This is particularly true for those of us who started out as a one-man shop and grew our business into one with employees, room for parking and more than one bathroom. Self-directed, motivated and hands-on are the traits which define many of us.

In the old days, your experience and the ability to roll up your sleeves, dive into code, cables or hardware, granted you the respect of your IT team. It allowed you the insight to communicate with them on their level… but that was a lifetime ago in regards to technology, which is growing at paces unseen before. This isn’t about being out of the loop, it’s about doing what’s best to keep your business competitive in a generation where technology is ever moving forward.

The signs of an effective leader lie in their ability to let go, to use the best tool for the job and not rely only on themselves, but to utilize the resources available. I attended a business development workshop a while back and during the discussion, the topic of delegating arose. Many of us admitted we were uncomfortable with releasing control. We all had the usual horror stories of things going awry because we weren’t doing the job ourselves. However, as the workshop progressed it became abundantly clear, we didn’t trust anyone to do the work.

The lack of trust is the death of a thousand cuts for a business, as not only does it keep your team from reaching their full potential, it restricts the growth of your business. Delegation isn’t about abdicating responsibility; it’s about time management, allocation of resources and focusing on the business’ greatest asset: you.

Time on Task:

The question you have to ask yourself is, is doing this thing – whether it’s fixing your roof, your car, or your tech – an efficient use of your or your team’s time. It’s not a matter of can you do it, but should you do it? Quite frankly, every minute you spend away from your desk and making the decisions needed to push your business forward is time spent standing still and potentially being left behind.

It’s Not Personnel:

One of the issues that promote pushback when considering engaging a managed IT provider is that it is a reflection of the team’s capabilities or lack of. The reality is, managed IT is there to support your team by allowing them and the business the ability to be competitive by providing the same skill-sets available to many enterprise-level businesses, at a fraction of the cost. For small or medium-sized businesses, access to such high-level resources can be critical to prevent your business from falling behind.

Our Managed IT services offer features such as:

  • Proactive Monitoring – We use dynamic remote monitoring and management tools to mitigate a majority of an organization’s technology-based problems.
  • Email Hosting – Reliable email solutions that include spam and virus protection.
  • Business Continuity – Our comprehensive cloud-based data backup and recovery solutions.
  • Vendor Management – Our consultants handle the management of a business’ vendors, providing a valuable intermediary that saves time and allows an organization to focus on their business.
  • Help Desk Support – We provide 24/7/365 technology support to ensure organizations get the assistance they need, when they need it.

Decentralized Knowledge Base:

Most businesses have “a guy” who knows where all the ghosts in the network are and can troubleshoot a myriad of problems. The problem is, is that all the knowledge is in their head and only half wrote down. What happens to all that wisdom when they decide to leave, or technology simply outpaces their ability to retain it all? Without a system or documentation in place, you expose your business to risk of “brain drain.”

An important aspect of managed IT is to develop a ‘blueprint’ of your technology, providing accurate documentation about your systems which transcend any individual’s knowledge. This knowledge base allows your business to have the confidence to move forward, without concern of being held back by what it doesn’t know.

Agents of Change:

The truth is most of us of are set in our ways, comfortable and confident that the way that we have always done things is the way we should continue to do them. Unfortunately, technology and business don’t operate this way, they are always moving forward and will gladly leave us behind. Success comes not to the stagnant, but to the bold and for your entry into managed IT services to be successful, you must be willing to change.

Delegation is fundamentally about two things, trust, and control. Knowing when to hold on to it and knowing when to let go. When it comes to managing IT, we as leaders must be willing to let go of our established ‘rules’ of control. Yes, the managed IT provider needs to project an aura of responsibility and ownership, which in turn inspires the confidence needed for delegation to occur. However, we still have to be willing to take advantage of the opportunity to outsource parts of our technology which makes the most sense and not hold back out of fear of losing control.

By providing a solutions-based approach to an organization’s technology problems, IronEdge can eliminate the day-to-day tasks that interrupt your focus. We take pride in our ability to utilize state-of-the-art tools to deliver optimal uptime, network and data protection, and peace of mind to CIOs and business owners.

Please fill out our Contact Us form, or give us a call at 800-987-4766 to learn more.

Andrew Moore

Andrew Moore has a history of building great operational systems. He has worked in the IT arena for over 17 years and has been instrumental in the successful building of several businesses into multi-million dollar companies. Andrew’s fusion of process development, data analysis and mentoring talented employees has provided the foundation for building strong and profitable organizations.