Managed IT isn't just for large businesses. Learn when managed IT starts to make sense based on your security, complexity, risk and reliance on technology.
At what size does a business actually need managed IT?
One employee? Three? Ten? Twenty?
There isn't a magic number.
A better question is:
How important is technology to your business, and what happens if something goes wrong?
For some businesses, managed IT can make sense from employee number one. For others, a couple of people with relatively simple technology may only need good IT support and solid security foundations.
Staff numbers matter, but they're only part of the picture.
Absolutely.
Imagine a one-person accounting firm, law practice, financial adviser or another business handling sensitive customer information.
Even with only one employee, that business may have security, insurance or compliance requirements.
Its technology might need things such as:
There may also be a need to demonstrate that some of those protections are actually in place.
That's why small business doesn't necessarily mean small risk.
If one person is responsible for valuable or sensitive information and losing access to their systems would seriously affect the business, managed IT may already make sense.
At the other end of the scale, some very small businesses have extremely simple IT requirements.
Perhaps there are only one or two people.
Most work happens in a browser.
There are only a few cloud applications.
And an hour of downtime would be inconvenient rather than catastrophic.
In that situation, a fully managed IT service may not be essential yet.
That doesn't mean ignoring IT.
The basics still need to be done properly, including:
But depending on the business, those systems may not yet require someone actively managing the entire environment every month.
Once around three or more people are regularly relying on company IT, it's usually a sensible conversation to start having.
That's because you're no longer looking after a single laptop and a couple of online accounts.
You start having:
And people start moving through the business.
When somebody joins, they need the right access.
When their role changes, their permissions may need to change.
When somebody leaves, access needs to be removed promptly.
At that point, you're not simply supporting computers.
You're managing company IT.
Consider two businesses with five employees.
The first is a trade business.
Most employees are on the road and primarily use phones, email and a couple of cloud applications.
Now compare that with a five-person accounting firm.
Everyone works on computers throughout the day and regularly handles financial records, confidential documents and information the business cannot afford to lose.
Both companies have five employees.
Their IT requirements and risks could be completely different.
That's why choosing whether you need managed IT based entirely on headcount doesn't work particularly well.
A small business can have surprisingly complicated technology.
You might only have four staff but operate from two locations, have remote workers, specialist software, a phone system and several cloud applications.
That environment could require considerably more management than a larger business where everybody works from one office using a handful of browser-based systems.
As the number of moving parts increases, it becomes more important that somebody understands and takes responsibility for the environment as a whole.
Otherwise, individual systems often get looked after in isolation while nobody is responsible for the bigger picture.
This is another useful test.
In many small businesses, the answer is:
The owner.
They're resetting passwords, ordering laptops, sorting out Wi-Fi, managing user accounts and trying to work out why someone's email stopped working.
Every hour spent doing that is an hour they're not spending running the business.
Another common setup is:
“The person who's good with computers.”
Maybe they fixed a printer once and gradually became responsible for everything technology-related.
But being comfortable with computers isn't the same thing as managing:
At some point, technology becomes important enough that responsibility for it needs to be clearly assigned.
Headcount is useful, but these questions are often more important:
- Would significant IT downtime seriously disrupt the business?
- Do you store sensitive or important customer information?
- Would losing a laptop or account create a serious security problem?
- Do you have multiple computers, users or locations to manage?
- Do employees regularly join, leave or change roles?
- Are you relying on the business owner or another employee to look after IT?
- Do you need to demonstrate security controls for customers, insurers or other requirements?
- Does anyone actually have responsibility for making sure backups, security and access controls are working?
The more often the answer is yes, the stronger the case becomes for managed IT.
There isn't a fixed minimum.
As a general way of thinking about it:
One employee: Managed IT can still make sense where security, reliability, compliance or sensitive information is particularly important.
One or two employees with simple IT: Good support and properly configured security foundations may be enough.
Around three or more regular IT users: Managed IT usually becomes a sensible conversation, because multiple users, devices and company systems now need ongoing management.
But staff numbers should never be the only deciding factor.
A three-person business can have more complicated IT requirements than a twenty-person business.
Businesses don't suddenly need managed IT when they become “big enough”.
They need it when technology becomes important enough that somebody needs to take responsibility for looking after it.
That includes making sure systems remain secure, users have the right access, backups are working, devices are maintained and problems are dealt with before they become bigger issues.
The right level of management will be different for every business.
Mint Technology works with businesses of different sizes and levels of complexity.
We can look at how your business actually operates, what systems your team relies on and what level of IT management makes sense.
That might mean fully managed IT.
Or it might mean getting the fundamentals right and having reliable support available when you need it.
The goal isn't to sell every business the biggest possible IT package.
It's to make sure the technology your business depends on is being looked after appropriately.
Talk to Mint Technology about your business IT.
www.mint.net.nz
09 222 0220
