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Although many small business owners believe hiring a professional IT support service is expensive, many companies offer budget solutions. Hiring a managed service provider is much cheaper than an in-house team. But why would a small business need specialised IT help?
We’ve collected various statistical findings and interesting case studies for today’s article. We’ll also look into new technologies, tactics and services to help you understand why seeking professional IT service help is so important for small businesses.
The number of threats detected and prevented.
Many small businesses believe they are not a target of cyber criminals because they don’t have enormous resources or valuable assets. However, small organisations are a much easier target as they typically don’t invest money or time in IT and cyber security solutions.
In addition to the false belief in safety, other entrepreneurs don’t know about the various types of cybercrime and what are the best practices for safeguarding their data. Others don’t find hiring professional IT services necessary, as they believe the price would be too high for their budget.
Impact of cyber attacks on small businesses
A cyber attack directed toward a small business will have a much more significant impact on its functions and processes than if we compared it to a large corporation. Big companies with a set customer base and established reputation will not suffer the same consequences as small and unfamous businesses.
On the other hand, a new company might find it much more challenging to get back on track and continue with its regular operations. This fact is confirmed by a study by Small Business Trends, which states that 60% of small businesses who suffer a cyber attack go out of business within six months.
Findings from Cyber Security Breaches Survey 2022
The Cyber Security Breaches Survey included various UK businesses, charities and educational institutions, totalling 2,087.
The survey shows that 39% of those surveyed shared that they experienced some kind of cyber attack, the most common types being:
- Phishing attempts
- Denial of service
- Malware
- Ransomware attack
The research also went into depth to determine the difference between SMEs and large businesses. They found some differences, likely due to funding and expertise variations.
| Large organisations | Other businesses | |
| Quarterly board updates | 80% | 50% |
| Risk assessment | 63% | 33% |
| Staff training | 61% | 17% |
*Difference in cyber security measures between SMEs and large businesses
Interesting case studies
It’s important to note that professional IT support services are not limited to cyber security solutions. Managed IT support can help start-ups grow into successful small businesses and enhance their IT systems, infrastructure and operations. Let’s look at some interesting case studies of Network Fish’s customers.
Fresh Horticultural Careers
Fresh Horticultural Careers is a London-based company that helps businesses in the horticultural industry by outsourcing trained and experienced staff. Naturally, they needed to communicate with most of their customers by phone, but the problem arose when their client base expanded and they had to move offices.
Moving offices comes with several challenges, including telephony interruption, inability to attend to all calls and decreased efficiency. Our support team started working on providing the best solution for Fresh Horticultural Careers while attending to their business needs.
Integrating and managing a complete 3CX telephony solution for their company not only solved all expected problems but also brought additional benefits, including:
- Increased staff productivity
- Improved customer service
- Improved missed call rates
- Improved communication
Uncommon
Uncommon is a rapidly growing co-working space brand with more than 2,000 users, requiring constant communication, bookings and subscriptions. When we began to work together, their IT systems did not meet their email and file service requirements. Their two main concerns were an overworked email service and a difficult-to-use file system.
Our highly experienced team of specialists started working on migrating Uncommon’s system to Microsoft 365 for business, including Outlook, Office 365 apps and SharePoint Online.
Uncommon received a highly scalable solution which improved various aspects of its internal processes:
- 99.5% uptime
- Improved security results
- Cloud access from anywhere, anytime
- Efficient document management
- Online collaboration platform
- No compatibility issues
- More storage and clearer communication
New technologies and tactics
Information technology and digital solutions are rapidly evolving, and new hardware and software options are coming out daily. Getting IT in-house support or outside managed service ensures business growth by staying on top of new technologies and tactics.
Small businesses can be sure that hiring an external team with IT expertise means investing in up-to-date knowledge and tactics. It’s in the IT provider’s interest to be on top of all new solutions, so they have a competitive advantage over their competitors. Being in the IT industry means constantly evolving and changing.
New services
With the development of digital technology, managed IT service providers expand the range of their offered services. Keeping up to date with the newest trends might be difficult for an in-house team whose job is to solve specific technical problems related to the individual business processes.
To help you gain an idea of what professional IT services are offered, we’ve collected some of the latest technology trends:
- Internet of Things (IoT)
- Blockchain
- Cyber security
- Scalability
- Subscription models
- Cloud services
- Software-as-a-Service (SaaS)
- Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS)
- Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS)
- Real-time monitoring
- Migrations and mergers
The specificity of these trends requires a specialised workforce to ensure a small business is up-to-date with the latest technologies and takes full advantage of them. They are often beneficial as they gain a competitive advantage and increase customer trust in the brand.
Current state and what is to be expected
We’ve summarised some of the main findings from surveys and research conducted in the past few years to evaluate the current state of the need for managed IT services.
According to research by SWZD, remote work in various businesses has increased significantly throughout the Covid-19 pandemic, increasing IT solutions investments.
Their key findings were the following:
- 55% of companies increased their budget for tech solutions addressing pandemic-related needs
- 53% of businesses expect their IT budget to increase
- 35% of companies expect their IT budget to stay the same
- IT budgets are expected to shift towards cloud and managed services
- IT will shift focus on better remote employee support and security, as well as modernising IT infrastructure.