Reliable IT Solutions Business Guide

EFFECTIVE IT SOLUTIONS CAN:

• Empower your employees and business.
• Drive efficiency.
• Increase profitability.
• Enhance client satisfaction.
• Measure what matters, and more

POORLY PLANNED AND IMPLEMENTED IT SOLUTIONS:

• Frustrate your employees, your clients, and hinder your business operations.
• Increase costs without productivity gains.
• Increase business operation disruptions and cause quality and timeliness of your client deliverables to suffer.
• Deteriorate client satisfaction.
• Decrease net income as overhead increases and clients look for more reliable & efficient competitors.

IT Solutions are not about technology, they are about your business.

Don’t get intimidated about technology. The focus and discussion should be on your business goals and bottlenecks.

Because the main driver of any IT solution is typically to improve the business operations, the solution has to leverage IT consultants that understand your business. In the guide, you’ll see one factor to consider is the number of year’s experience each IT service company has delivering successful IT solutions in your industry, and for your size company.

One mistake business owners can make is to fail to consider how long each MSP has been in business. While years in business is a positive indicator, the IT company’s operational maturity is a more significant metric that should carry more weight in your decision. The more mature the MSP is, the better equipped they operate, and are more capable of helping improve your business. Both in designing an ideal solution, and when supporting it. The free IT Solutions Vendor Selection Guide will help you identify and compare different key metrics that matter.

To understand the significance of selecting a high operational maturity level when selecting an IT support company, take a look at the top 15 reasons IT solutions fail below.

1. Inadequate planning: IT solutions and implementations may fail due to a lack of proper planning and understanding of business requirements.
2. Insufficient stakeholder involvement: IT solutions suffer when key stakeholders are not engaged or do not fully understand how the proposed IT solution will help their business.
3. Unclear objectives and goals: Ambiguity leads to misaligned expectations and ineffective solutions.
4. Inadequate resources: Insufficient resources, including time, budget, and personnel, hinders the success of IT projects. Experience with accurately estimating resource requirements and allocating them appropriately ensures smooth implementation.
5. Poor communication: Miscommunication among team members and stakeholders can lead to misunderstandings and project delays.
6. Ineffective change management: A poorly planned IT solution can result in confused and frustrated employees, which in turn leads to delays and errors in your deliverables.
7. Lack of training and support: Your employees may struggle to use the IT solution effectively if they don’t receive adequate training and support.
8. Insufficient testing: Inadequate testing can result in bugs and issues that disrupt the IT solution’s ability to empower your people.
9. Inflexible solution design: IT solutions should be designed with adequate flexibility in mind to scale and accommodate future growth and adjustments based on documented objectives.
10. Scope creep: Expanding an IT solution’s project scope beyond initial plans can lead to delays and increased costs. When changes are needed, changes should be managed through a formal change control process.
11. Misaligned technology: Choosing the wrong technology for the project can result in an ineffective IT solution. Each industry typically has unique requirements and regulations that can affect your IT infrastructure. Integration with existing systems must also not be overlooked.
12. Inadequate vendor selection: Choosing an unsuitable vendor can lead to implementation issues, and support problems.
13. Poor project management: Ineffective project management can result in delays, budget overruns, ineffective IT solutions being implemented, your employees & clients becoming frustrated, just to name a few of the resulting issues.
14. Unrealistic expectations: Overly optimistic expectations can lead to disappointment and dissatisfaction with the IT solution. The ideal MSP with experience in your industry should be able to help establish realistic goals and stakeholder expectations throughout the project.
15. Lack of post-implementation support: After the IT solution has been implemented, ongoing support and maintenance are crucial to its long-term success. For industries with regulatory requirements, this is even more essential. A post-implementation support plan should be in place to address any issues that may arise and revisit to ensure the solution is & remains effective.

By selecting an operationally mature MSP that focuses on your industry and with many year’s experience, you can greatly minimize the above risks that could impact your business. We cover ways to assess the operational maturity of an MSP in the free IT Solutions Vendor Selection guide.

One trap that sucks some business owners in is the lure of trying to save money by going with a low-cost IT company for a solution.
Investing in a low-cost IT company for a solution that impacts your entire business operation may seem like a cost-effective solution but have devastating long-term repercussions. In the service industry, a subpar IT solution can lead to inconsistent and unreliable service delivery, reduced productivity, and compromised quality of your company’s deliverables. It can create a stressful work environment, impede growth and adaptability, and result in costly compliance nightmares and security breaches.
While cost is an important factor when selecting an IT solution provider, it’s essential to consider the value that an industry-focused MSP can bring to your organization. By opting for a partner that understands your unique challenges and holds itself accountable to agreed-upon metrics, you can enjoy long-term benefits and a competitive advantage that far outweighs the potential short-term savings of choosing a low-cost IT support company. IT companies that are just technically competent simply don’t yield the same return.

Understanding the potential risks of selecting the wrong IT company is vital for business owners and stakeholders to understand. The hidden costs of poor IT solutions is not limited to the implementation of the project or its cost over another solution. It’s your ROI resulting from those changes & the improved service you will be able to deliver to your clients. Partnering with the right Managed Services Provider can help you avoid these pitfalls and reduce operational expenses while also increasing billable productivity to unlock your organization’s full potential.
Again, the free IT Solutions Vendor Selection Guide will help you select the ideal MSP for your company.

We may or may not be.

At Weston Technology Solutions, we’ve been designing & supporting IT solutions that empower businesses for over 29 years in Anchorage, Alaska.
Our clients are experts in their industry. As experts, their clients expect prompt, high-quality deliverables with consistency and reliability.

Our process-focused approach helps ensure tailored solutions aligned with our client’s processes, objectives, and industry-specific compliance requirements. We understand the challenges and nuances of these industries, enabling us to create IT solutions that minimize risks and help empower our incredible client’s success.

We are one of a very few MSPs (less than 5% globally) that feel so strongly about being accountable to our clients, that at our expense, we go through the effort to help ensure prospective clients know how we operate by hiring third-party auditors to regularly assess our business.

Learn more by reading: What it means to be an audited IT company.

(You can also request the auditor’s report on that page as well). This report will help prospective clients gain insight into the level of our commitment to ensure our client’s success.

We focus on professional service companies with 20 to 250 employees, mostly in regulated industries where compliance and excellence in service matter, specifically:

• IT Services for Architectural, Engineering and Construction companies
• Managed IT Services for Healthcare organizations
• Financial such as Managed Services for  CPA firms and Wealth management companies

We possess the industry knowledge necessary to deliver IT solutions that mitigate risks and drive success.

We serve our clients as either their entire IT department or in a hybrid arrangement where we offset internal IT staff with our team and extensive resources and experience.

We provide Service Level Agreements, and our Happiness Guarantee.

If you’re realizing your current IT provider isn’t ideal for your business, or if you have an internal IT person or team that can use some additional help, and you are in an industry that we work with, contact us today.