The consumerisation of business IT, the blurring border between personal and business technology, leads business leaders and teams to expect more from their technology. Fundamentally, technical and non-technical users alike, who are used to using basic applications on their personal computers at home, expect (quite rightly) to come to work and find that their business technology “just works”. It shouldn’t matter how intricate or complex systems may be behind the scenes.
But what does technology that just works look like? It has to be simple and intuitive to use, able to increase productivity and output, enabling you to do the things you need to get done. Also, it has to be consistent, reliable and secure, something leaders and their teams can depend on to get the job done. What’s more, these systems are no longer the exclusive realm of internal operations, but are subject to an increased focus on the external customer. Often a company’s technologies are the first and increasingly the main point of interaction between the company and its customers.
In an ever competitive marketplace, successfully shaping the customer experience from the very first interaction with the company is pivotal in securing and increasing the likelihood of repeat business.
It wouldn’t be far-fetched to say that failure to address technological reliability and ensure scalability could cost the bottom line by impacting customer experience KPIs, and negatively impacting staff productivity and retention.
So IT that ‘just works’ has a lot relying on it, and it’s complicated. The obvious questions present themselves: How can this be achieved? How can our leaders and teams be empowered and customer experience enhanced? Expensive computer hardware? Increased capital investment in IT? Thankfully, no.
Ensuring that business productivity is maintained without reliability issues relies a lot more in the way of careful planning and effective management than expensive investment. Guaranteeing that these capabilities are available could actually free up some of the IT budget, rather than increase it.
The key is being proactive rather than simply reactive in supporting the organisation - In other words not waiting until something goes wrong. This requires a depth of knowledge and real world experience in key technologies. This can be accomplished most cost effectively through the appointment of an affordable managed service that provides comprehensive monitoring that is tailored to an organisation.
Ultima’s managed services offloads what would otherwise be a burden and highly expensive task to perform in house, to a highly experienced and specialised 24-7, 365 days a year technology management service team. The team supports organisations with proactive management and monitoring, service desk and telephone support services. Not only are you leveraging specialised skills in house, but direct relationships with key vendors such as Microsoft, Cisco and Citrix as well that would often be cost prohibitive to receive directly.
For a conversation specific to your requirements please contact our Managed Services team, managedservices@ultimabusiness.com
