For companies, installing and maintaining information systems remains a complex task requiring a certain level of expertise. Depending on their size, it's not always possible to have a dedicated department. But don't panic, there are expert service providers available.
Digital tools have become a necessity for almost all businesses, but it's not always easy to know what to choose and how to install and maintain digital services, especially when you're an SME without a dedicated IT department.
Doing things yourself if you're not well versed in the subject can be an obstacle course, and a good way of risking a technical incident, or even hacking.
Calling on the services of a professional in the IT-networks and telecoms sector can help to clarify the process of installing new digital services, as well as maintaining them over time.
Their expertise will help you choose the right services (usefulness for the company, scope of use, adaptation to needs, security, internet/cellular communications...), install them and make them work at their best and in synergy.
Making informed choices from a plethora of offerings
There arecountless digital services available to businesses, and finding your way around them is not always easy when you don't have the time or experience to delve into the arcana of the sector.
From fixed and mobile telephony to videoconferencing systems, Internet access, collaboration tools including Microsoft 365, cloud infrastructures with possible interconnection of sites, as well as equipment management, cybersecurity and facilities management, corporate information systems can quickly become overcrowded, with the risk of becoming overwhelmed.
Support from experts up to date with the latest equipment and technologies will go a long way towards ensuring that infrastructures are correctly sized, monitored over time and secured - at the right price.
You'll find large-scale support structures on the market, or you may prefer networks of experts on a human scale, at local or regional level, who can be highly responsive and as close as possible to customers, to establish a close and fruitful collaboration over time.
Of course, the price of the services offered is also a factor, but SMEs and SMIs will do well to consider the quality of service and follow-up, the responsiveness of teams to resolve problems or open up new services, and the reliability of technical support (and its accessibility: telephone, email, messaging...) so as not to remain without IT services for too long.
Infrastructure supervision: a choice not to be taken lightly
It's obviously a plus to have good transparency on problems and difficulties reported to the service provider's technical departments, so that you can refer to them quickly without having to recap everything for each contact.
Once the digital services have been set up, it will be a good idea to be able to monitor their quality and integrate regular data backups. Regular updating of information systems is a good guarantee of cybersecurity, and a point that is sometimes neglected in projects, even though it can become an easy gateway for hackers to gain access to the company network and its sensitive data.
For companies with no IT department of their own, it may be useful to negotiate managed services from the service provider, who will then take care of infrastructure management, preferably as part of a single contract to avoid complexity, but with the proviso that you don't put your trust in the service provider blindly, and that you keep a close eye on quality indicators.
