Organizations expand geographically for many reasons, whether to tap into new markets, better serve existing customers, gain needed skill sets, or take advantage of lower real estate or labor costs. An organization’s geographic footprint can expand quickly due to mergers and acquisitions, and more and more employees are working remotely in home-based offices that become an extension of the business.
Geographic expansion has a significant impact on an organization’s operations. Business processes become more complex and communication more challenging. To ensure that morale and customer service don’t suffer, employees must have ready access to the applications and data they need to do their jobs.
That means each location must have IT resources — at a minimum, WAN connectivity and endpoint devices such as PCs and laptops. The network must be secured by a firewall or UTM appliance. Some locations may need point-of-sale devices, audio/visual equipment and video surveillance cameras. Data may need to be stored and processed locally to meet business, legal or regulatory requirements.
Typically, however, remote locations don’t have in-house IT support. They must rely on the headquarters IT team, creating headaches for both IT and users. Here are some of the challenges IT teams face when supporting a multisite business:
- Decentralized management. In many cases, the tools used to monitor and manage the headquarters IT environment don’t extend to remote locations. IT must travel to those sites to handle routine maintenance, management and support tasks. This increases costs and the time required to resolve problems.
- Vulnerable systems. Operating systems and applications require regular software patches and updates. Most of these patches address known security exploits, yet companies often struggle to keep systems up to date, leaving them vulnerable to attack. These challenges are amplified in remote locations.
- Inconsistent implementations. Whether organizations grow organically or through acquisition, they often wind up with different systems, software and configurations in each location. As a location grows, IT resources may be deployed in a piecemeal manner. These inconsistent environments are exponentially harder to monitor, maintain and support.
- Lack of control. Without local IT support, users are more inclined to take matters into their own hands. This “tinkering” by inexperienced users can cause bigger problems and security risks. Local users may also decide to install hardware, software or cloud-based services without approval from IT.
- Increasing complexity. Not every location has the same needs. In fact, the very purpose of a remote location may be to enhance customer engagement or advance a new business model. The IT team may be required to implement and support specialized systems and applications at remote sites, which will involve learning curves if they lack that expertise.
Managed services are a great option for multisite organizations. Qualified managed services providers (MSPs) have advanced monitoring and management tools that enable them to handle many tasks remotely. MSPs can ensure that all systems are kept up to date across every location and address many issues before they become full-blown problems. Best-in-class MSPs have a deep bench of engineers with diverse expertise, enabling them to support a wide range of systems.
With managed services, all users receive the highest levels of support. Users in remote locations can call the MSP’s support desk and speak with an experienced technician who’s familiar with the organization’s environment. Users are happier and more productive when problems are addressed promptly and professionally.
The right MSP will assess the entire IT environment and develop a strategic plan for system upgrades and reconfigurations. The MSP may even be able to reduce costs by consolidating or eliminating some equipment.
If your IT team is struggling to support multiple locations, we invite you to give us a call. Verteks is here to help solve your multisite IT challenges and ensure effective management and support across the extended enterprise.