Small Business IT Woes

According to the results of an ongoing study, small business is struggling to meet best practices and, in some cases, even government regulations in IT. Citing the slowing economy and too small or non-existent IT manpower as the reason, a quarter of respondents get a failing grade and more than one-third get a “C”.

“The results to date indicate that many small businesses are falling behind when it comes to implementing accepted best practices for IT operations and management,” according to Steven Kahan of The Planet, one of a consortium of sponsors behind ITEI.
The results so far are especially disturbing, according to Kahan, since more than two-thirds of the small businesses responding to the survey indicated that IT and Web commerce are the foundations that enable their business success. “The IT Effectiveness Index is telling us that in nearly two-thirds of businesses with 100 employees or less, IT operations are failing to fully support or keep pace with small business needs,” he emphasized.

Areas of downtime, security, disaster recovery, and regulatory compliance top the list of concerns. When coupled with the fact that 2/3’s of business also stated IT and Web capabilities are critical to their success, it paints a grim picture. With these concerns and shrinking budgets, SMB’s are clearly feeling vulnerable to impending doom.

The bottom line is Small Businesses are find themselves sacrificing IT because they feel they cannot afford to keep pace. However, the truth is business can’t afford to not spend this money. If you are not practicing good security, you risk data breech and lawsuit. If you are not practicing good disaster recovery, you risk losing all of your records for past years. If you are not practicing good hardware and network maintenance, you are losing money in the form of employee downtime and an inability to do your business. In short, if you are not practicing good IT, you are spending money on IT; you’re just spending twice as much.

Having a trusted partner in IT is always money well spent. Haphazard security and do-it-yourself networks, with poor best-practices just cost you in the end. Take the survey, then find a partner you can trust to take care of your IT needs.