This past year has been very tough for our economy and as of Dec 1, we are officially in an economic recession (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/27999557). The vast majority of industries in the US have felt the crunch this year. Many long standing businesses in the US have gone bankrupt such as Circuit City, Linen & Things, Bennigans, Steak & Ale, and others.
Traditionally for many companies, the first costs to cut are usually in the IT budget as we all saw and experienced with the 2000 dot com bubble burst. Many companies learned a valuable lesson from that and we saw a surge of IT outsourcing happen in those days. Many companies outsourced their software development departments to India and China and the US economy saw a lot of unemployment in the software development industry. Infrastructure support of course could not be outsourced for any company since you need engineers onsite to build and support your environment. Back in those days, you only had the option to rely on your inhouse IT support people for this. As a result, infrastructure support and systems administrators did not feel this kind of unemployment impact. Unfortunately for businesses, this meant they had to ride out the costs of having inhouse IT support at a premium price. Over the years, the managed services of infrastructure grew larger and companies like IronTech Solutions answered the call to help support these businesses that were looking to lower costs of IT across the board and not in such niche areas as software development.
These days, businesses are more and more dependent on their IT infrastructure than ever before and the impact of the recession on IT outsourcing worldwide has been no slowdown at all. The outsourced IT industry in Houston and Dallas has seen no slowdown all year. In fact, IronTech has been signing on new clients for managed services exponentially every month as more and more businesses realize the benefits of having an entire IT department supporting them at a fraction of the cost of hiring one fulltime onsite administrator. IronTech has also steadily been increasing our staff augmentation services as well with some companies that have a fulltime admin on site, but just need an extra hand with the day to day support of the business both onsite and remotely.
Most small & medium size businesses and their owners are feeling a credit and funding crunch right now. The solution that most have found is to optimize resources and lower costs wherever possible. This is where choosing managed services/outsourcing can lead to high profitability for a business because the costs are so low, even with 24/7 support such like IronTech provides. Companies want to stay flexible and have a highly skilled workforce, while reducing capital expenditures. Forrester Research says that managed services will see a marked increase for the next few years as more companies realize that benefit of outsourcing their IT according to a study released on Dec. 15, 2008. Besides the macro economic forecasts, this is increase is lead by two factors:
Faster technology change – In the SMB world, think Microsoft Windows Server 2008, Small Business Server 2008, Exchange 2007, Sharepoint Services 3.0, Response Point, Hyper-V, VMware ESXi, etc. These new technologies offer companies a blizzard of new capabilities without a big hit on their IT budgets. In fact, these technologies all cut costs in an environment compared to their predecessors. The companies that choose to invest in these new technologies will see a higher ROI as well since these technologies can lay a foundation in an environment that can upscale for years to come. Additionally, managed services through IronTech can offer safeguards for all this change. Do you really want to spend your IT budget in sending your existing IT to training or do you want certified experts in these technologies ready to work for you now?
We are on the verge of a technology investment cycle – Even with the economic uncertainty, Information Technology is on the verge of a huge investment cycle. The IT industry typically operates in a cycle of innovation and growth followed by a cycle of refinement and digestion. Forrester Research believes that 2009 through 2017 will be a period of innovation and growth unlike any previous cycles.
With the savings on capital expenditures, nimbleness of the network, certified skilled workforce, and ability for a business to focus on core business instead of IT, IronTech Solutions expects to see a period unprecedented growth in IT Outsourcing in Houston and Dallas in 2009. As an award winning managed services provider, IronTech provides desktop support for all users and applications, 24/7/365 server monitoring and support, automated patching and security audits within an environment, server and application hosting in our state of the art Tier 4 data center, and CTO services to provide your company direction in infrastructure as your core business grows. Our pay as you go business model allows small and medium size businesses to easily scale up or scale down based on the number of users at the company and what business needs have to be met. All this is provided at a low monthly flat fee so there are no unexpected costs and a business has total control of their IT budget.
