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THE CHALLENGE

All organisations rely on Information Technology systems, applications, and communications [IT] to a lesser or greater extent. As IT has become increasingly embedded in how organisations operate, much of this IT has become regarded as being akin to a utility. This is a very reasonable approach with a small business or charity with perhaps just a couple of employees. Computers can generally be made to connect to and work with a limited number of other computers and peripheral devices like routers and printers. This apparent ease of limited networked machines tends to lull the organisation into a false sense of security and, in any event, running the business and making those early sales always get priority over support requirements.

Unfortunately there comes a point where, without the users being able to see the problem, something fails. All too often this happens at just the wrong moment when somebody is trying to create, share and dispatch a vital document. With luck there will be probably informal help at hand and a fix is found for the immediate problem with a quick Google search. Unfortunately, a little knowledge can be a dangerous thing.

Time spent trying to 'fix' the IT begins to escalate to the point where the drop in effectiveness or productivity of parts, or in extreme cases, the whole of the business threatens overall operations. Research released in late 2017 by Samsung [part of their 'More Good Days at Work' initiative] revealed that, on average, SMEs spend close to 3 hours every week dealing with IT issues, and suggested this was a major issue undermining overall productivity. Especially if this falls to the MD of the company.