More commonly than you would think, we hear businesses say their IT Department is a single person. Usually, that person was originally hired to do other roles in the organization that take precedence over IT. In situations like this, their IT Department is usually only devoting 30% of its time to actually running and managing your IT.
It’s important to pay attention to the actual man-hours devoted to IT in situations like this.
As a piece of your organization that heavily impacts the outcomes of your business, can you afford to have someone who only dedicates 30% of their time to it?
Is it reasonable to expect that they could perform the critical tasks needed to keep you running smoothly, planning strategically, and ensure your security in that amount of time?
30% of one person’s time going toward arguably one of the most important components of your organization is simply not enough for most growing businesses.
Managing IT internally -- by someone who was not hired to do IT exclusively -- is no longer sufficient. IT is just too important to the success of your business to only give 13 hours per week.
There are several primary ways this can affect your business:
As a business leader, we are pleading with you: don't neglect your IT.
Having a single person spend a portion of their time managing IT makes sense when you just have a few employees. But as you grow, it’s time to think about dedicated resources.
Whether it is a full-time IT Person, an IT department or a managed services provider like The IT Company, find what fits your organization best and start dedicating the appropriate amount of time.
IT can’t be done well at a 30% level, so it’s time to find a process to ensure you have what you need to grow and scale smoothly.