Do Your IT Costs Seem Inflated? Ours Do, Too

The technology your business uses can be viewed as a mandatory expense nowadays since so much of your business is tied to its functionality. The more IT costs rise, however, the less small and mid-sized businesses like ours can do with our IT budgets. These costs are affecting the way we think about our technology and you are probably in the same boat. Today, we will go through a few ways the rising costs of organizational technology and technology support solutions impact businesses like yours.

Hardware Costs Rising Fast

Over the past couple of years, supply chain problems and other events have caused technology hardware costs to rise fairly rapidly. On top of that, microprocessor shortages have severely impacted the amount people and businesses are paying for technology. As prices for the core components needed for computing are rising, so too do the retail costs of hardware. This inflation is causing many companies to have to either pay more for the technology they need; or worse yet, pricing them out of new hardware acquisition altogether. 

At SCW, we know that this can be one of the most anxiety-inducing parts of any hardware refresh: not being able to actually get your hands on affordable technology. What we’ve done to combat this is to ensure that our technicians provide comprehensive consulting that will allow our clients to make the plans they need to expand their growing businesses, while also providing the access to the hardware they need. 

Cybercrime Is Ever a Problem

One of the biggest questions surrounding IT spending is how much an organization should spend on their cybersecurity. On one hand, a data breach or malware infection, especially if that malware infection is ransomware, can get exorbitantly expensive very quickly. On the other, while cybercrime is a prominent problem, the percentage of organizations that have to deal with a major cybersecurity issue isn’t all that high. This is what causes a lot of the hand-wringing that comes with making security plans for your business.

Our technicians are adept at dealing with organizational cybersecurity and suggest that you sink any capital that you have earmarked for this purpose into three main investments. They are:

1. Employee training - The vast majority of major security exploits happen after a member of your staff comes in contact with a scam. This typically comes in the form of phishing messages that aren’t identified and give access credentials to hackers that are on the other end of them. Sure, some security problems come from straight negligence, but the lion’s share could be avoided with proper training. We suggest that you spend some capital on ensuring that your staff is sufficiently trained up on identifying phishing, password security, and more.
2. Security tools - Every business should have the tools in place that can give their organization the best chance to thwart potential security problems and network inefficiency. These tools include antivirus and anti-malware tools, spam blockers, some type of content filter, and up-to-date software. Even enterprise security tools typically come at a reasonable cost and can save your organization a lot of money by just working in the background to keep workstations, mobile devices, and networks free of threats.
3. Yearly security assessment - You should have your network audited every year to ensure that there are no gaping holes in the security. One of the best ways to accomplish this is to have an expert IT provider like SCW come in and conduct third-party penetration testing. This is essentially a strategy where your network is hacked into to try and find vulnerabilities. It can be a great resource when deciding how to confront your cybersecurity strategy going forward. 

Uncertainty of Where to Invest

The funny part about this last variable is that you’d think that questions about where to invest capital wouldn’t actually cost your business much at all. That couldn’t be further from the truth. If you’ve earmarked money to spend on your IT, you need to make a decision on where to spend it or reallocate it to some other part of your business that can use it. The fact is that finding the right IT and getting it implemented is a big job, and if you are trying to do that without proper planning, you might find yourself wasting money that could have been used strategically.

We suggest that you sit down with one of our IT consultants and go over where your IT is right now and how to strategically invest your capital. Our knowledgeable experts will work with you to identify needs that can help you expand your ability to take in revenue, as well as get technology that can help your business be as efficient as possible; both can go a long way toward putting your organization in the best position to succeed.

If you would like to talk to our team about helping you address your business without breaking the bank, give us a call today at (509) 534-1530.