Information Technology (IT) makes you think of the technology professionals that you call when you have a problem with your computer. While that’s not the wrong way to think about IT, it’s not the complete picture. IT uses technology to solve business problems throughout multiple departments to solve technology problems large and small.

An IT department typically deals with IT systems like network and cloud security, IT operations like tech support and maintenance, and hardware like routers, servers, phone systems, and computers. Those who work in IT handle many different functions on a daily basis that help keep the business running efficiently.

Why Is IT Important?

Most businesses and organizations would have trouble scaling without IT. All businesses rely on computers and networks. Everything from customer service to accounting needs an IT professional to make sure the business is running smoothly.

Consider all of the software your business uses daily, from Salesforce to QuickBooks. IT spans across departments to make sure all of your employees have access to the data and tools they need to succeed.

IT can help companies beat out the competition by allowing them to scale effortlessly while technology helps keep up the pace in the background.

Keeps Technology Running

From office computers to integrations and other software, your IT professionals know how to keep your business running while they work tirelessly in the background. A single IT problem can cause delays across departments.

For example, your network might go down from time to time, which means that none of your employees are able to work for at least a few minutes. These few minutes can cost your business thousands of dollars in sales and relationships that you value.

Improves Security

There are many different types of IT security that you should know about, including network security, cybersecurity, endpoint security, and SaaS security. A security breach can cost your business money and your reputation. New threats are popping up every hour. Governments around the world are constantly trying to find ways to tighten their IT security.

While your business may not be holding any government secrets, your business secrets are important. If your competition finds out about your processes, partners, where you buy your supplies, you might lose valuable relationships that hurt your business.

What if you lost your customers’ personal information? When a customer buys something on your website, that information is stored, which means that it can be stolen by cybercriminals at any point. Losing your customers’ data can absolutely ruin your reputation and make people not want to shop on your website anymore until you can earn back their trust.

IT can provide you with security and monitoring solutions that keep your data safe by monitoring threats and keeping customer data under lock and key.

Provides Backup Solutions

Let’s say that your business operates primarily in the cloud. This is where you store all of your internal and external files. One day, an employee accidentally deletes a file. Believe it or not, this is more common than you think. Some cloud services allow you to retrieve data that’s been deleted before a set period of time (typically 30 days). However, once those 30 days are up, your data is gone forever. You can try contacting your cloud services provider, but they make no guarantees about helping you recover your lost data.

Let’s use a real-world example. Let’s say that you’re an attorney who is working on an online will for your client, and it’s saved in the cloud. Your assistant walks in and is cleaning up the cloud and reorganizing to improve efficiency and productivity, accidentally deleting the drafted will. When you go to work on that file again, you can’t find it.

What do you do? Well, if it’s only been a few days, you might be able to recover the file. If it’s been more than 30 days, you may never be able to recover that data, which means making an awkward phone call to your client.

Now not only have you lost valuable time (and money) by losing this data, but you’ve also likely lost a client who no longer trusts you to keep his or her information safe.

The good news is that IT can help you prevent these situations from happening by backing up your data at the end of every day so that even if a file appears permanently deleted, you can still retrieve it from another source. This means you won’t lose your work or upset any clients from a simple error.

Provides Data Recovery

Now, let’s say that you don’t have backup data solutions, and the same thing happens. Your assistant has permanently deleted an important file. Instead of panicking and calling your client to apologize, you can use your IT department to help recover this data, if possible. Not all data is recoverable, which is why it’s always important to use a backup solution.

If the deleted file was located on the server, an IT professional might be able to help you recover without losing too much valuable time. However, there’s no guarantee with data recovery.

How to Get IT Help

If your business doesn’t have an IT department to rely on, you can contact an IT company to take care of all of your technological needs, from sending you recommendations for the best computers to setting up backup solutions so that you never lose another piece of data again.

They will also be sure that all of your data is protected from cyber attacks and hackers who may be trying to steal your customers’ credit card information as we speak.

Without the right IT solutions, your business will never be able to beat your competition. IT helps improve and maintain productivity, increase annual revenue, streamline all of your operations from the warehouse to the office, boost efficiency, decrease downtime, cut costs, and improve customer relationships. Overall, there’s no reason not to invest in quality IT, which could be the difference between your business’ growth and its demise.