What businesses really want from an IT partner

Posted December 13, 2012 at 10:49 am by Diane Sullivan in General.

As the Jitscale’s sales director in the United States, I meet with a variety of companies to discuss their IT needs and explore how Jitscale can help. I have also come in contact with other IT companies and learned what services they offer. From my position in the field, I understand what businesses want from an IT solution provider. Here is some of what I have learned.

Most companies are using a variety of IT products and platforms, so integration is an important benefit for them. At SMEs it often seems that technology is acquired in an ad hoc manner, each solution selected to address a specific problem as it arises. As companies grow, getting the most out of these solutions requires integration. Where as many IT companies claim they can integrate, my experience talking to business operators tells me this integration is easier said than done. SMEs need an IT partner that has broad expertise in a variety of technologies so as to enable businesses to get the most out of their infrastructure resources. This makes a real difference, both in operations and on the bottom line.

In the IT industry it is rare to find a company that is truly technologically agnostic. This is, however, a real advantage to businesses that don’t have the budget to upgrade their IT to match the capabilities of their outsourcing provider. The variety of IT infrastructure solutions available is vast and a typical SME is likely to have an array of these, from proprietary software to open source programs and anything in between. Too often, IT outsourcers specialize or work closely with specific vendors. This means their customers need to use solutions from those vendors as well, which can add up to an expensive change for an up and coming SME or even an established company. On the other hand, if an IT partner offers management and optimization of business-critical IT platforms with an autonomous view on the usage of soft- and hardware, then the existing technology is never an issue and solutions can be devised and built upon what the customer has in place. Again, this can have a great impact on a company’s balance sheet.

Finally, businesses need flexible solutions to their IT needs. For example, a company wants to sign up with a cloud provider to host their data. What if after a year it turns out the provider is plagued with frequent power outages or has poor customer services? Often, companies are locked into long contracts and must either make do with problematic service or pay substantial penalties to get out. Of course, neither of these is a good option. The preferred outcome would be for the company to be able to move to a new cloud– seamlessly and without requiring any changes or upgrades to existing data or systems.

When companies partner with Jitscale, they get the integration, freedom to choose their technology and the flexibility to use solutions that work for their business. The point of outsourcing IT is to enhance a company’s capabilities, while saving them money. Locking businesses into using select vendors, software and platforms doesn’t achieve these goals. The Jitscale approach is different because it is customer centric: starting with what the customer has and what they need and building from there to create the custom business-critical IT platforms that work for them.

Diane Sullivan is U.S. Sales Director for Jitscale. Based in Orlando, Fla., she leads the company’s expansion throughout the U.S. and Canada. Diane may be contacted at 407-434-0559 or dsullivan@jitscale.com.