OACBDD members face so many challenges in their daily work – that shouldn’t include managing IT.
Non-profits — such as those in the Ohio Association of County Boards of DD (OACB) — struggle with many challenges that traditional enterprise-based corporations do not, given that they often operate on the bare minimum of resources, staff, and volunteers.
While you’re grateful for every last person who gives of their time and talent to assist in the organization’s efforts, they don’t always have all of the skill sets you need to successfully run the operation. This often means that you have to pick up the slack – but everyone has their limitations.
Non-profits, like all businesses, run best when they have people heading each department that are experts in their fields.
That’s not easy to come by when you are dependent on volunteer labor and have a small budget. More than that, you have a lot of places you need your money — and personnel — to go. Unfortunately, technology and IT employees are sometimes the last things to be considered in the budget.
All of this means that OACBDD members can often run into the same challenges:
It comes down to one simple idea: bang for your buck.
When you don’t have any extra dollars to spend on additional features, surplus services, or other things enjoyed by for-profits, then you have to make every single penny count.
Fortunately, modern models of IT services and the technologies delivered therein offer an economy of scale. Put simply? Instead of having to pay outright to purchase and own something, you pay a fraction of the cost on a regular basis for full access to it when you need it.
It’s all about capital expenditures (CapEx) vs. operating expenditures (OpEx). Whereas with CapEx you pay everything up front and see the costs returned to you over time (which certainly comes with benefits for those that can afford it), OpEx allows you to simply pay as you go.
It’s this model that will get you the best results per dollar spent.
What Are The Three Must Haves Features of Managed Services?
So, in theory, an economy of scale is all well and good – but what can you really get access to through modern managed services?
The math is simple on this one – paying a flat monthly rate for all the IT support work you need is much easier to budget.
Many managed IT services providers can deliver expert consulting services to help you get the most out of a given investment in IT. Implementing new technology is a good start, but by educating you on how to best use those tools and the role they play in your company, we can provide you with the understanding necessary to better utilize those solutions and maximize the return.
Few businesses outside of the Fortune 500 can. That’s why it makes so much more sense to pay a small monthly fee and get access to the server space you require in a professionally maintained data center. Benefits include:
Members of the DD industry have much more important things to spend money on, rather than internal IT staff, expensive training and education, and outlandish capital expenses like server farms and data centers. Managed IT services provide an economy of scale that will not be beaten by any other model, simple as that.
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