Twenty years ago, IT was an afterthought for most businesses. Technology had only been in the workplace for a few years. If a company had to hire an “IT guy”, it was rarely seen as an investment. It was a necessary evil to keep other parts of the business running.
The attitude today is completely the opposite. Computerworld reports that 43% of companies expect their IT budget to be larger in 2015 that it was the prior year. Companies now see IT spending as an investment in the future of their company. IT is no longer about making sure the server is up and the printer is plugged in. It’s about developing technology that makes the company better at what it does.
How Can Technology Help Your Business
Consider a small business with sales people or other employees in the field. How are they connecting with the home-office? Most small businesses with field employees operate through e-mail and text messages. What if you had a custom system that allowed sales people to enter orders while they were at the client’s office or allowed maintenance workers to update work tickets in real time? Would that be valuable?
What about if you had a system that monitored key metrics for your business and generated alerts when something was out of a normal range? How much time and money would that save?
Technology is about far more than technical support. A real technology expert can build systems and software that make your business more productive and profitable.
The Value in Real Experts
Hiring someone for an IT role isn’t just about finding someone that is tech savvy. For example, if you hire someone to build a piece of software to make your field-employees more productive, are you confident that this person can write secure code that won’t leak customer’s sensitive data?
The work that individuals within IT perform necessarily requires them to handle sensitive systems and data. You need to be confident that this person is a real expert in their field. The problem is, most business owners don’t have the technical expertise to identify the true experts from those that just use a lot of technical jargon. Herein lies the value of IT staffing services that pay attention to significant industry vertical trends and emerging technologies.
Working with a Small Budget
By definition, small businesses don’t have a lot of resources at their disposal. This is especially true for small businesses that are just getting started. It’s likely that there isn’t a budget to hire an experienced IT professional. Herein lies the beauty of using a staffing company.
A staffing company can usually provide temp and part-time labor. You are able to utilize an expert to complete your project without worrying about how you can justify a full-time salary. Likewise, once your business grows to the point where it makes sense to have a full-time position, the same staffing company can use their expertise to connect you with a highly skilled IT professional that will bring tremendous value to your organization.
Don’t let a limited budget keep you from the expertise that will make your business soar.