Behind every great lawyer, there’s a hard-working paralegal.
Behind every smooth-running sales office, there’s a dedicated receptionist.
It’s true: responsible, capable employees are a business’s backbone.
Finding them feels like we’ve struck gold. We come to rely on their indispensable support and expertise. They make our operations fluid and successful.
But here’s the problem; as comforting as it is to have such loyalty and trust, depending heavily on one employee places us at risk: the key-person dependency risk.
We know that external circumstances—even world pandemics—can affect our businesses and employees at any time.
When a coworker is out sick for an extended period or dealing with a family emergency, we are suddenly without back-up. When stay-at-home orders strike, business becomes impossible.
A salesperson will miss phone calls, appointments, and e-mails when she can’t access her calendar and contacts on an absent assistant’s computer. An architect will miss a deadline when his coworker—with all the blueprints—leaves for an extended vacation.
The solution is simple: every business needs an IT contingency plan.
IT agencies know that companies depend on shared drive and contacts. They set up cloud storage, educate employees on Google Drive and DropBox, and maintain large email distribution lists that all workers can access from anywhere. They understand that integrated technology keeps your business from losing any progress it’s made—no matter who’s out-of-office.
IT infrastructure, in essence, is what keeps your business surging forward.
Still, the key-person strategy remains tempting. Whether out of comfort or attempted cost savings, businesses often try to handle IT on their own or by designating one employee as the default IT “expert.”
After all, unless we’re talking about your grandparents and those undiscovered Amazonian tribes, everyone knows at least a little about tech.
We know how to restart a frozen computer screen and we’re pros at carefully avoiding Reply All in emails. We know to routinely reset passwords. We may have even soaked a wet smartphone or two in rice.
This can leave us feeling overconfident and blasé about the need for IT support. We figure we can handle tech issues on our own as problems arise. Plus, there’s always Google or YouTube for a “quick fix.”
But the next time your default IT help is out of office, or your right-hand assistant is home sick, your computer won’t start. You spend an hour trying to find out what could be the problem. Finally, a coworker asks if your computer is plugged in.
Of course it is.
But, when you take a closer look, it actually isn’t.
We all overlook things every now and again. It’s human error; especially when we have so much other work to do. And we all have essential employees that won’t always be there to handle the details.
Instead of relying too much on one person or even yourself, let IT support be your plug.
With expert IT infrastructure in place, you won’t lose headway every time a computer crashes.
With IT support, you and your team can work virtually when rising COVID cases keep you home.
After all, life happens. But business still needs to happen, too.
Your company has a speciality. A motto, a goal, a focus.
IT support has a specialty, too. And that specialty is making sure you stay focused on those goals. It’s making sure you don’t lose data, get hacked, or start a thriving business from square one every time a key person is gone.
Self-sufficiency and key-person dependency may seem like enough. But when it comes to business, we all need the insurance only IT can provide.
