Small firms miss outsource benefits
July 7th 2014
John Bergin recently spoke to Ian Campbell regarding managed services and IT outsourcing. The following article was published in the Sunday Business Post Connected Magazine on the 6th of July.
Ian Campbell reports,
'You don't know the importance of car insurance until you have an accident and it's the same with managed services, said John Bergin, managing director of IT Force. He applies his analogy to small firms in Ireland that have little interest in outsourcing because they have not seen the benefits. They have not experienced the serious pain that would persuade them to find help.
The other problem is the way they regard IT. 'Many businesses see it only as an efficiency tool, something they have to spend money on rather than a fundamental part of the business, he said.
IT Force spends a lot of time explaining to clients that managing infrastructure is all about heading off problems before they occur, that any kind of downtime is costly to a business. By simply reducing helpdesk calls you are delivering benefits by increasing productivity.
Bergin said the single biggest change in managed services has been convergence, bringing communication services and IT into the same domain. 'We are a leading edge player in the space, meeting the demands of customers looking for solutions that no longer fit into the neat little silos that used to exist in the industry.
An IT Force service could now encompass everything from firewalls and disaster recovery to video conferencing. 'We have a portfolio of solutions all underpinned by the highest security standards and best practice, he said.
Central to the IT Force ethos is a commitment to clients that has helped the firm win business from less committed providers, according to Bergin. 'An abused term in this industry is trusted partner. When you have an emergency and really need help, you find out how good your partner is. Some of our customers have come to us from other providers who have let them down when it mattered, he said.