Digitization is becoming a crucial component of success for all industries and sizes of businesses. Many business operations have moved, or are moving, to the digital realm.

I have spent most of the pandemic working from home and going for short walks around my neighborhood to stay sane and get some fresh air. I bet many of you reading this have had a similar experience this year!

Well, after a while, this routine was getting a little stale. To switch things up, I decided to visit a couple of customers in person towards the end of summer. The first thing I realized was how important human interaction is in our lives. It was great to see clients in person, instead of over the phone or even video.

I do not want to talk about the benefits of person to person interaction in this blog, though. What I learned from some of my clients is even more compelling!

I learned that some of them had been hacked virtually, and their business information had been held ransom until they paid a large sum! 🌪

OUCH! What else could go wrong this year? Besides the business being down for a while, they had trouble staying afloat as the monetary loss was substantial, the worry that the hackers were still in the system is viable, and they had to update all their systems to prevent future problems!

This is a hard struggle to hear for small and medium businesses, alike. There is just too much to worry about besides cyber security.

I would like to point out some of the benefits of having a managed IT service provider, and how this can help prevent situations like what happened to our small business owner.

What does a Managed IT Services Provider, provide?!

1.      Cybersecurity – this topic has been brought back again and again with high profile companies getting their data stolen. YES it also happens to small and medium businesses. YES it can happen to YOU!

2.      Compliance – what does your industry need to follow? HIPAA? Another regulatory body? Does your technology follow the expectations?

3.      Cloud-based services – we all use them (most of us, but I’m a millennial, so I just assume everyone uses them 😊). What cloud based services can be managed/outsourced?

4.      Predictable costs – a flat monthly fee instead of sudden high costs due to the need to update equipment, add more IT employees, etc

5.      Scalability – if your company grows or decreases in size, it is easier to scale your IT budgets and environment accordingly

6.      Expertise/planning – avoiding problems is easier than overcoming them (why go over the mountain (unless you are crazy like me, see the photo below) when you can go around the mountain)

Please do not be the next statistic with a cyber security breach. That is all; my sermon here is done.

If you are worried about your technology setup and IT support, please reach out to me or visit https://mrc360.com/request-an-assessment/ to request an assessment.

Xerox IT Services is a nationwide 24/7 US based Managed IT Services provider that can assist with all these issues.

There is so much more to talk about on this topic! Follow me to keep learning about IT and the digital future of businesses.