There is a lot of news floating the internet by experts proclaiming the United States will hit a “moderate recession” in 2023. Not only will individuals and families be tightening up their extracurricular spending, but organizations of all sizes will be watching their budgets too. One of the first places organizations commonly look to cut their spending is in IT. We’re here to tell you why that’s not a good idea, and more importantly, why IT services are still critical despite economic tough times.
Predictable Costs
One of the scariest things about economic tough times, and other major events outside of our control, is the uncertainty of them. However, if you’re working with the right IT services provider, you’ll likely be paying the same predictable cost for your services each month. Some fixed costs relating to IT include:
- Staff and their compensation and/or outsourced labor
- Hardware
- Software
- IT subscription programs
When working with Nutmeg Consulting, you only pay for what you need. Knowing what to expect for these costs month to month relieves a lot of the stress around budgeting during economic tough times.
How to Budget for IT Services and Make Your Life Easier
No Overhead Costs
Another positive benefit of outsourcing your IT services is that they don’t contain any overhead costs. Overhead refers to the expenses involved to operate a business while not being directly related to creating products or services. This plays a part in the predictable costs we just covered and should help ease any concerns about business expenses when going over your budgets.
Scale Up or Down in the Cloud
One of the greatest benefits of operating your organization through the cloud is the ability to scale your IT resources up or down to accommodate fluctuating demands. Things like data storage capacity, processing power, networking, and user seats can be increased or decreased as your organization’s needs adapt to economic times. With that said, you only pay for what you use and nothing extra.
The Cloud Reduces Downtime and Stress
Especially during economic tough times when money is tight, you can’t afford to let your organization make many slip-ups that cost you time, money, or resources. Moving to the cloud provides a host of benefits that help your organization avoid unnecessary stress in already trying times:
- Cybersecurity protection to avoid a breach
- Better access and collaboration to improve efficiency
- Increased employee productivity
- Faster restorations in the event of an emergency
- High availability and less downtime
Cost of Cybersecurity Services are Less than the Cost of a Breach
60% of small businesses fail completely within 6 months of a data breach. What’s the point of working so hard to grow your organization if one minor slip-up could cause you to lose it all? Most small to mid-sized organizations avoid cybersecurity services because they think only the “big guys” get hit, but they couldn’t be more wrong. Trust us, the cost of signing up for ongoing cybersecurity services is worth it compared to the cost of paying a cybercriminal a hefty ransom or worse, closing your doors for good.
Many don’t know this, but often insurance WON’T cover you if you get breached. In other words, cybersecurity services enable insurability to make sure you can recover from losses in the event that you do get breached.
Getting Breached Means Losing Contracts & Clients
Not only is getting breached a huge hit to an organization financially, but also to its reputation. It’s very common that when an organization gets successfully breached and people’s personal information gets exploited, that organization will lose contracts and clients. It’s a devasting snowball effect that organizations cannot afford to endure, especially during economic tough times. Investing in cybersecurity services may seem like the last thing you want to do when money is tight, but you’ll be better off in the long run for it.
Contracted Labor is a Cost-Effective Solution
Unfortunately, one of the many hard decisions organizations have to make is it to lay off employees when economic times get tough. You shouldn’t have to leave your organization vulnerable to cyber breaches and other IT issues just because you have a reduced staff. Often the cost of outsourcing IT services is less than the typical salary of an internal IT person. And not only that, but with outsourced IT services, you get an entire team of different types of IT experts with varying levels of licenses. This provides a much more well-rounded suite of skills than a single internal IT person could provide, all at a lower cost.
Gain Experts Outside Your Area
The great advantage of the remote and hybrid working world we now live in is that organizations can hire talent from anywhere in the world. When you work with an outsourced IT team, you enable your organization to gain access to a broader talent pool – beyond who is in your backyard. You can get a larger level of breadth that your modern organization requires when you look for IT services outside of your immediate area.
Again, too many organizations are spending a lot on an internal IT person and not getting the knowledge they would get with an entire team of IT experts behind them. It’s important to remember that when money is tight, it is okay and encouraged to look for services beyond your geographical location.
Nutmeg Consulting’s IT Services Support You in Economic Tough Times
With an impending recession on the horizon, it’s important to take a hard look at your organization’s budget to see where adjustments can be made. Keep in mind that it’s not always about what you can remove from your spending, but what you can add that is smart for your organization and will help you stay afloat during tough times. IT services is one of those areas that you can add to support your organization when times get uncertain.
Don’t wait until you’ve hit a hole that’s too hard to crawl out of. Set up an appointment with us todayto see how Nutmeg Consulting’s IT services can support your organization through the good times and the not so good times.