2020 has been a tough year for businesses, especially SMBs. Small- to medium-sized businesses already grapple with limited resources and tight budgets. With the recent economic shutdowns due to the novel coronavirus, such limitations may have been magnified 10fold.

As SMBs prepare to get back to work as states open up, unique challenges present themselves. Staff layoffs may have been unavoidable, leaving businesses short-staffed and scrambling to develop alternate processes and procedures to fill the gaps.

Technology is a critical area that can easily be neglected in SMBs with fewer than 500 employees. With the complexity of today’s IT needs, a small IT team or solo system administrator can be quickly overwhelmed.

For this reason, managed services can make a huge difference in helping SMBs get back to work after a lockdown. The right managed services vendor can help coordinate IT networks and printer systems to ensure everything is properly functioning – even more critical if many team members are working remotely.

What Can SMBs Do to Get Back on Track as Business Returns?

First, developing a reopening plan and strategy is paramount, obviously, but consider what is less than obvious. What will your business do if another lockdown occurs suddenly? Are contingency plans in place? Given the current economic uncertainty, we might expect businesses and economies to come back in fits and starts, depending on the industry.

Alternatively, you could be in a high-demand business, one that is doing even better in the current economic climate. But success can bring stress, leaving your small business struggling as it works to keep up with accelerating demand.

Outsourcing can be a great way to help alleviate some of these stresses and pressures without the commitment of hiring full-time employees who might need to be furloughed if economic lockdowns happen suddenly.

Along those lines, one of the best things that SMBs can do is utilize managed services for IT, networking, and printing needs. These are outsourced services that take the tech burden off of small to medium-sized businesses. They can also help enable and manage cloud computing to make it easier for employees to work remotely from home.

Even during stable economic times, managing IT and print services in-house can be challenging, if not a total nightmare for SMBs. All SMBs have similar needs to large businesses when it comes to IT, from security to scalability. The problem is that SMBs do not have the in-house resources to make it happen. This can mean that important aspects of IT infrastructure are not in place, such as disaster recovery and backup plans.

How Can Managed Services Save Time and Money?

Consider the costs of hiring and maintaining a full in-house IT team. Furthermore, purchasing and managing equipment such as printers can be extremely costly when done in-house.

Managed print services and managed IT can be a huge help to SMBs. Here are just a few benefits:

1. Reducing Staff Costs

Instead of the huge expense of hiring an in-house IT team, using managed services frees up money to be used for other business investments.

2. Easy Payment Plans

New printing equipment such as the top-of-the-line MFPs (multi-function printers) can cost tens of thousands. With managed services, your business can easily lease the best equipment and pay via affordable financing.

3. 24/7 On-Call Support

With the increase in remote workers, regular business hours may become a thing of the past. As remote employees may be choosing to work in evening hours, or on weekends, depending on their schedule, your company may need to have IT support available 24/7. Fortunately, a quality managed service provider can provide this support for your remote team.

Managed Services Are the Key to Getting SMBs Back to Work

Pretty much everyone agrees that 2020 has been a year of surprises. Will things calm down in 2021? Only time will tell. Until then, SMBs need to be limber and prepared for sudden changes in the marketplace. Using managed services, SMBs can have the support they need to get back to work – without worrying about hiring and maintaining additional in-house IT personnel. For these reasons and more, managed services are a critical key to business success in today’s uncertain environment.

For SMBs that need to get back to work, DSI offers the best in managed services – offering scalable network and printing solutions to meet your business needs. Contact us today to find out more!