If you’re an entrepreneur, you know how important it is to be able to move fast. The one thing you absolutely don’t want holding you back is technical issues. You need to have an infrastructure that can scale as fast as you can, instead of waiting for IT to catch up—or worse, going through a hiring process.
Partnering with your Internet Service Provider (ISP) to get managed IT services, or using a third-party Managed Service Provider (MSP), frees up your team to concentrate on innovations that will help your business do what it does best, better, without worrying about what it takes to keep the lights on.
Here’s how a technology partner can help you keep up with the fast world of entrepreneurship.
Technology Partners Have Expertise
A technology partner should have a track record that proves they can handle whatever you throw their way. The ideal technology partner will have experience with organizations of all sizes, which means that even if you’re headed into uncharted territory, they’ll know the lay of the land.
The kinds of services that ISPs and MSP’s provide focus on keeping your business operating smoothly. You’re looking for a partner that is reliable, experienced, and well-resourced.
While disruption can often be the name of the game with entrepreneurship, you don’t want to take a risk on key technology like your business’ WiFi, connectivity, and network security. The right technology partner will have the experience and infrastructure you need to take necessary risks and avoid unforced errors.
A Technology Partner Can Quickly Respond to Your Needs
One of the great things about working with a technology partner is that it’s a continuing relationship. And like with any successful relationship, the key is communication.
You’ll have an agreement to provide an ongoing service, and that’s what makes it so valuable. You won’t be paying for a set of deliverables, but rather continuing services that can be adjusted based on your needs without the need to micromanage implementation details.
When anyone in your organization has a problem, you’ll rest easy knowing a representative from your technology partner is a phone call away to help resolve the issue as quickly as possible. The best-managed service providers use sophisticated tools like live video chat to diagnose and debug problems remotely before they cut into productivity.
Technology Partners Are Ready to Scale
When you run a startup, the number one thing on your mind is growth. You’re not just thinking about how you can meet the business demands of today—you’re thinking about how you can expand to take over your market. You’re thinking about how your business can scale.
The best technology partners for your startup will have that in mind, too, and they’ll already have the infrastructure in place to make it happen. There are some things that you need to build from the ground up if you want to innovate. However, your business WiFi, network security, and organizational connectivity are not on that list. You need technology that just works—that rises to meet the new demands your growing company places on it and helps you do your job better.
One other thing to keep in mind is that as you get bigger, the labor you need to keep the lights on may grow exponentially. Between new equipment, network security, and run-of-the-mill IT support, you’re looking at more than just a few new tech hires. Growth is expensive, and a technology partner can help defray those costs.
Superior Availability
Entrepreneurship runs on a 24-hour clock. You never know when you’ll get that moment of inspiration or, on the flip side, when an attacker with malicious intentions will try to get at your data. A technology partner can have your back no matter when you need them, with 24/7 monitoring and remote tech support.
Always-on threat detection means that you can be proactive with your cyberattack response. The right tech partner can work with you to make sure that you have a plan in place even if you get targeted by a sophisticated DDoS (Distributed Denial of Service) attack. Startups are being targeted by hackers more and more, so you need to have a plan in place for when you fall in the crosshairs.
Creating a Resilience Plan
Another often overlooked factor when choosing a technology partner is the additional resilience they offer. If you’re a technology company, then your data is your business—you need to be thinking about the worst-case scenario before it happens and have a plan in place to make sure you’ll be able to pick up the pieces. Remember: 40 percent of small businesses never reopen after a natural disaster.
The right technology partner can assist you with resilience planning by creating off-site backups of your data. Beyond that, make sure you can still reach your customers while managing the crisis. An ISP can help you make a plan for rerouting your calls to make sure you don’t skip a beat.
What You Can Do Right Now
While the main focus of any entrepreneur should be growth, it’s important to remember that your technology should scale with you to avoid any growing pains. Working with the right technology partner can help make that happen.
- Reach out to Cox Business if you are in our service area
- Make sure any service level agreement can evolve as your company grows.
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