It’s tempting to economize on your IT investments when you’re a small business. Small firms, particularly those in the start-up phase, will often rely on an internal resource to act as a one-person IT show to handle any issues that arise and keep things running on a day-to-day basis. But what happens when your one-person IT support wants to take time off? Or even worse, what happens when that person leaves the company?
One of our clients found themselves in just such a predicament. They had given IT responsibility to the son of an employee who was knowledgeable in technology. But the employee became disgruntled over time, and one day suddenly quit, taking the son along with her. Having a resentful former employee is never a positive situation, but in this case the son’s involvement with IT amplified the potential for negative consequences. Our client had turned over the keys to their data kingdom to a one-person IT support team who could no longer be relied on. They quickly realized that only he knew the passwords to their system, which included medical records and other sensitive information. In addition, since he worked offsite much of the time, he had created back doors into the system so he could remotely access their data.
The Advantages of an IT Support Team Over One-Person IT Support
IT Radix was able to step in to reset passwords and close remote access portals, restoring data security. But the effects of having their system vulnerable for even a short period could have been disastrous. While this scenario is one of the harsher possible outcomes, there are other downsides to relying on a one-person IT resource:
- Knowledge silo – as illustrated in this scenario, the tendency is for all the information regarding your business’ IT system to reside with one person. Your data is too valuable to be left in the hands of a single individual.
- Limited knowledge – whether internal or external, one-person IT support comes with a limited amount of knowledge. No one is expert at everything IT, especially with rapid changes in technology.
- Fighting fires vs. issue prevention – if most of your time is spent fixing urgent issues, it leaves scant time to plan for system upgrades or other improvements that would prevent problems in the first place.
You still have a go-to person for your IT needs with IT Radix. But we also give you access to the expertise of an entire team of IT professionals, all at an affordable cost.
Learn more about IT Radix's IT Management and Support Plans here.
