What SMBs Need to Consider When Planning an Effective IT Strategy
When you’re trying to run a small to medium-sized business (SMB), information technology (IT) may not always get the attention it deserves. But in today’s demanding, 24/7 business world, you need to prioritize IT to ensure business continuity, safeguard against security threats, and support your employees.
If you’re trying to figure out the best approach to your IT, it all comes down to:
- Your People: How you support your users to keep them productive and engaged.
- Who’s Handling Your IT: Who’s responsible for creating, implementing, supporting, and maintaining your IT strategy — and what they bring to the table.
- The Technology Behind It All: The systems and tools that power your IT to ensure high performance, availability, and protection.
YOUR PEOPLE
Your people are your most valuable asset — providing service to clients and keeping your business operating smoothly day in and day out. That’s why it’s essential that your IT strategy addresses the needs of your people to ensure that they stay engaged and empowered to do their best work — anytime and anywhere.
End-User Onboarding & Support
Your employees need immediate access to knowledgeable, responsive IT support to stay productive and satisfied.
- Comprehensive new employee onboarding
- One vendor to call for tech support
- 24×7 help desk services
- Next business day on-site support
- Easy ticket generation (via phone, email, or portal)
- 100% U.S.-based support staff
Security Awareness
Your employees are your first line of defense against cyberattacks, so you need to make sure they’re aware of the latest threats and how to avoid falling victim.
- Best practices for password changes
- Training to spot suspicious emails and
- Simulations of real-world threats
Remote Work Enablement
Today’s workforce wants the flexibility to work from any location—whether it’s from home, the office, or on the road. To attract and retain top talent, it’s critical that your IT strategy sets remote employees up for success.
- Access to applications and data from anywhere — all on one screen
- A seamless and consistent work experience regardless of location
- Support for multiple monitors even when working remotely
WHO’S HANDLING YOUR IT: PROVIDER, IN-HOUSE, OR BOTH?
SMBs have unique IT requirements and limited resources, so your choice of IT provider matters. You need more than a vendor; you need an IT partner (preferably 100% U.S.based) who understands your business and can tailor best-in-class IT solutions and services to meet your specific needs and budget.
Breadth & Depth of Services
Consolidating IT services with one provider can reduce redundancies, lower costs, and increase efficiencies. Therefore, you need a partner that can handle the whole gamut of IT solutions and services.
One provider to manage all your IT needs:
- Application/data hosting
- Managed Microsoft 365 or QuickBooks
- Onsite device management
- User onboarding
- Cybersecurity
- Monthly health checks
- End-user support
- Consolidated IT
Expertise & Experience
All IT providers are not created equal. Trust your IT to a provider that specializes in serving SMBs, employs a strong team of technical experts, and has a proven track record for client success.
- Extensive experience in IT management for SMBs
- Deep IT expertise and industry domain knowledge
- High customer satisfaction scores and renewal rates
Value Proposition
When you’re running an SMB on a limited budget, value is the name of the game. Partner with an IT provider who will tailor IT solutions and services to your resources — and won’t nickel and dime you every step of the way.
- One predictable, affordable monthly fee
- Free data migration and backups
- Uptime and satisfaction guarantees
THE TECHNOLOGY BEHIND IT
An IT partner’s services are powered by technology — from their hosting environment to their remote monitoring software to their cyber threat detection and prevention. An IT provider’s choice of technology can mean the difference between reliable performance and availability and disruptive downtime and data breaches.
Cloud Hosting Environment
Always-on hosting requires an industry-leading environment with best-in-class components that deliver the 100% uptime, near physical server performance, absolute data protection, and unlimited scalability you need to run your business and serve your clients now and into the future.
Virtualization Environment
When your business is on the line, you can’t leave anything to chance. Work with an IT provider that maintains a virtualization environment built from the ground up for reliability, performance, and security — and continually invests in proven new technologies to keep it state of the art.
- SSAE18 Type II Audited Data Center with uptime power protection and redundant cooling
- Industry-leading fault tolerance and disk performance
- Hypervisor
- Firewalls
- Distributed resource scheduling
- File storage
- Remote monitoring
- Patch management
Cybersecurity
In today’s rapidly evolving threat landscape, your IT strategy must emphasize cybersecurity to keep your employees, customers, and data safe. This requires targeted security solutions that safeguard your entire IT ecosystem for maximum protection and minimum risk.
- Intrusion, detection & prevention systems
- Advanced, AI-drive anti-virus & anti-malware with MDR capabilities
- Email security to protect against phishing and other threates
- Intrusion, detection & prevention systems
- Multi-factor authentication (MFA)
- DNS filter
- Penetration testing
- Data backup and disaster recovery
- Device and network monitoring and event logging
- WISP (Written Information Security Plan) and risk assessment
- FTC Safeguard Compliance, HIPAA, etc.
TAKE THE NEXT STEP
Ready to develop and execute a comprehensive IT strategy that positions your company for success? Contact Infinitely Virtual or call 866-257-8455 to discuss your IT requirements and how we can deliver affordable, reliable solutions you can count on.
