The Benefits of Managed IT Services for Your Irvine CPA Firm

The Benefits of Managed IT Services for Your Irvine CPA Firm

Using managed IT services for your Irvine accounting or finance firm can save you time and money while increasing productivity and security. Here is everything you need to know.

A Computing Technology Industry Association (CompTIA) poll of 400 business professionals showed that nearly 50 percent of the respondents significantly reduced their annual IT budget by working with managed IT providers.

But cost savings are only one of the benefits of managed services. Let’s look at 7 more reasons you should consider these IT services.

1. Predictable IT Costs

Managed support providers will charge you a fixed rate every month that’s based on the level of service you need. While you can always scale it up or down as necessary, this lets you budget for a predictable cost every month.

It also reduces your labor costs since you don’t need to hire in-house IT staff to handle the workload. Not only do you avoid paying those salaries, but you also avoid things like health benefits and employment insurance costs.

2. Stronger Cybersecurity Strategy

Cybersecurity should be at the top of your list of important IT issues. CPA firms deal with sensitive client data and the last thing you want is for any of that information to get stolen by hackers or other criminals.

Managing your own security is complicated because it’s a constant cat-and-mouse game. The bad guys are constantly coming up with new ways to steal valuable data and when those methods get blocked, they find more.

Managing security in-house can take a lot of resources. Good managed IT services ensure their technicians stay ahead of the latest trends so they can be sure your valuable data is safe.

They can also provide cybersecurity training to your employees to help them understand their role in keeping your company’s data safe. In many cases, hackers exploit non-technical staff’s lack of experience so giving your employees a basic understanding of what to look out for is important.

Managed IT services can monitor your network remotely, ensuring your systems and data are secure from things like:

• Viruses and other malware
• Hackers
• Configuration errors
• Security flaws in applications and operating systems installed on your network

3. Managed IT Service Providers (MSP’s) Keep Their Technicians Up-to-Date

Security isn’t the only thing that changes quickly in the IT world. Anything that’s technology-related changes fast, which means IT staff have to learn new things and keep up to date with changes regularly.

MSP’s are better positioned to keep their staff up to date because they provide services for many different environments. They can average the cost of training across all of them. If you have in-house staff handling your IT needs, continuing education and training costs are entirely your responsibility.

4. Implement New Technologies More Quickly

Since Managed IT Service Providers keep their technicians up to date with the latest technologies, they’re better equipped to help you implement those new products and services in your firm.

Since they are familiar with industry best practices, they’ll be able to help you decide whether certain technologies are worth the cost and how it can make your business more efficient. They can also provide training and ongoing support to your staff for any new equipment or applications they’ll need to use.

If you’re upgrading your equipment or software, you can increase the level of support you’re getting during the launch phase. Once your staff are comfortable with the new products and don’t need as much help, you can reduce the level of support needed.

That wouldn’t be nearly as easy with in-house staff since you would have to hire them for the increased resource requirements and then let them go afterward.

5. You Won’t Dilute Your Company’s Focus

Your firm’s main focus is providing accounting and other financial services to your clients. Hiring in-house IT staff can dilute that focus, creating a business within your business.

Your management team will end up splitting its time between your primary work and the internal IT work, which can negatively impact your clients.

Working with a managed IT support provider means you can focus on your core work and let them focus on theirs.

6. Work With IT Consultants Who Understand Accounting Firms

There are lots of HelpDesk services to choose from but working with one that understands Accounting firms makes the process go a lot more smoothly. They already know the fundamentals of how your firm operates so you can skip a lot of the foundational discussion that would be necessary with many services. They should also be familiar with your line of business applications such as Lacerte, Drake, ProSeries, TaxTools and Document Management Systems, Time and Billing, etc.

Managed providers that specialize in Financial firms and other companies in the accounting market will also be familiar with the compliance standards and industry regulations that you need to meet.

If your current IT solution doesn’t meet those standards, it could lead to fines and legal action against your company so this isn’t something you should take lightly.

7. Data Backups and Disaster Recovery

Backing up your data is a critical part of a strong IT strategy, as is having a disaster recovery plan in case something unexpected happens. Recent changes in technology render most older backup systems inferior.

Outsourced IT services can take care of this for you by setting up the backup system and housing the backup off-site from your business. It’s important to have an off-site backup in case of something like a fire or flood. If your backup data is in the same location as your primary data, it could get damaged at the same time.

Where to Get the Best Managed IT Support in Irvine

As you can see, there are lots of good reasons to work with a managed IT service versus an in-house team. And you’ll likely see a significant cost-saving on top of all these benefits.

If you’re an accounting firm looking for a reliable managed IT provider, Skyward IT is here to help. We offer a range of managed IT services for CPA firms of all sizes in the Orange County area.

Get in touch with us today to discuss how we can help you with all your IT needs.