Why Skilled Trades Need Managed IT
Learn how managed IT can enhance operations for trade businesses.
Skilled trades are often considered the backbone of the workforce for a good reason. Plumbers, HVAC technicians, mechanics, electricians, and other trade professionals use specialized skills to support residential and commercial settings. Tradespeople are an essential part of life because they ensure day-to-day necessities run as intended.
While most aspects of these services primarily involve tools, businesses of all specialties ultimately depend on IT to serve their customers and clients. From scheduling appointments to tracking inventory, technology plays an increasingly important role in every trade company. Still, just like using the wrong tools can cause damage instead of repairs, IT can do more harm than good in any industry if it’s not correctly configured and maintained.
With skilled trades, improper IT solutions can keep technicians and their businesses from operating efficiently. By partnering with a managed service provider (MSP), trade businesses can avoid technology drawbacks and reach their full potential. Here are four of the most common IT-related obstacles within skilled trades and how an MSP partnership can turn them into growth opportunities.
1. Hardware and software inefficiencies
Whether you maintain AC units or lawns, you want to equip your technicians with the latest-and-greatest tools. While this is a smart priority to have, it doesn’t often translate to IT resources like computers, job management software, and other technologies. Brian Schlechter, Director of IT at Bit-Wizards, says that using misaligned or outdated tech can hold your team back from making the most of their time.
“While many tradespeople use top-of-the-line tools for their work, they are often required to use whatever IT equipment their company can get that’s affordable and understandable,” he explains. “Those resources are often outdated or geared for personal use instead of enterprise-level operations, leaving their companies to deal with inefficiencies and inconveniences.”
How can an MSP optimize my IT infrastructure?
Once you partner with an MSP, their team will assess every aspect of your IT resources and conduct an infrastructure optimization to get your business in tip-top shape. From implementing overdue updates to identifying better options, MSPs ensure you have the right resources to minimize or avoid downtime and maximize efficiency. Schlechter believes a majorly understated benefit is the long-term cost-saving efforts.
“Any time your team loses because of improper IT is time that could’ve been spent building client relationships or working on billable jobs, so an MSP can make sure you have the right tools to focus on what you do best,” he says. “Even if you have to switch to paid resources when you were using free programs, the benefits of using assets that better fit your needs can save significant time and money, which turn into even bigger savings in the long run.”
2. Lack of in-house IT assistance
Even if your company’s IT equipment is new, updated, and ready to hit the ground running, something is bound to go wrong. If you don’t have a dedicated IT employee on your team, someone has to stop what they usually do to try to fix the issue. Additionally, that single patch is rarely enough to address your team’s IT skills gap. Schlechter compares plumbing and technology to highlight the disconnect in solutions.
“Just because someone can fix a leaky toilet doesn’t mean they can be a full-time plumber,” he says. “The same goes for technology—if you have someone on your team who can fix a printer, that doesn’t mean they can be a full-fledged IT engineer who handles every aspect of your infrastructure.”
How can an MSP provide dependable IT support for my business?
Partnering with an MSP means your business can leverage a whole team of professionals with the certifications and skills needed to keep your IT running smoothly. Additionally, working with an MSP for help desk support and other services is a fraction of the cost it would take to hire enough employees to manage IT in-house. Schlechter believes an MSP’s breadth and depth of skills are similar to those of most trade businesses.
“Lawn care companies offer multiple services, from pest control to lawn aeration, so they need a team with different skill sets to provide each one for their customers,” he says. “Managed IT is the same, with a team of engineers covering areas like cybersecurity, cloud infrastructure, and more to provide holistic support for each client.”
3. Communication and connection issues
Technicians of all trades need to access information and connect with in-office employees while visiting customers. Issues with processing payments or pulling client details can quickly lead to significant lost productivity by impacting current and upcoming appointments or requests. Schlechter emphasizes that any disconnect in communication or details often leads customers to switch to another company.
“Since many skilled trade services don’t involve interactions on a regular basis, the dynamic between customers and technicians is more about transactions instead of relationships,” he says. “A customer’s main concerns are going to be how much you cost, how well you do your job, and how quickly you can get it done. If the services don’t meet their expectations in those areas, even if it’s out of your control, they’ll look for someone else to help them in the future.”
How can an MSP streamline communications and connections?
As part of an infrastructure optimization, your MSP can help you minimize disruptions to your team’s interactions by managing the devices used in the field. From ensuring each one has the right apps to implementing programs with improved offline capabilities, an MSP will help you save time by avoiding outages and creating a plan for handling the occasional issue. Schlechter also underlines that these resources promote data resiliency, which enables your team to restore critical information, even if it’s lost.
“Nothing’s worse than having a customer email a completed form or sign a quote digitally, and then running back to them later to have them do it all over again because the file got lost,” he says. “Instead of wasting a few hours going back to each point of contact to explain the situation and get new copies signed, your MSP can help you restore backups and offline resources within minutes.”
4. Data security concerns
Cyber threats affect businesses of all industries, and skilled trades companies are no exception. With payment details, addresses, and other personal customer information stored, an IT security failure of any scale could cause catastrophic losses to your business. Schlechter says that issues with damaged reputation and revenue are incredibly difficult to recover from, especially if you don’t have a plan in place.
“The liabilities related to damage from a cyberattack aren’t your only concern—these issues keep you and your employees from working, instead leaving them to deal with lawyers and insurance companies to get everything restored,” he states. “It’s hard to come back from the effects a breach would have on the trust your customers have in your company, especially because loyalty is already tough to build when your interactions are more focused on transactions than relationships.”
How can an MSP enhance my data security protections?
Entrusting your IT security to an MSP shields your information and operations using multiple security measures. Using enterprise-grade cybersecurity measures and best practices, your MSP can ensure your files and programs are protected from malicious or accidental incidents. Schlechter thinks that one of the greatest advantages of an MSP partnership is the ability to switch from reactive to proactive efforts.
“HVAC technicians always recommend regular, proactive maintenance of your AC units, and your cybersecurity approach should be no different,” he says. “You should address your IT security and overall business continuity and disaster recovery (BCDR) posture by identifying and resolving potential issues and vulnerabilities before they’re used in an attack or outage, instead of cleaning up in the aftermath.”
Leverage tricks of the IT trade with Bit-Wizards
While the run-of-the-mill MSP can resolve technical issues, your business needs a partner who understands how to turn technology from a source of trouble to a platform for growth in your industry. With Managed IT Services (MITS) from Bit-Wizards, your business can use resilient technology to propel your operations. Schlechter highlights that the parallels between skilled trades and IT services strengthen our ability to support technicians and trade companies more effectively.
“Just like it is in skilled trades, the depth of skills needed to succeed in IT is greater than most people realize—no single person could do everything on their own,” he says. “We understand the unique challenges present in service-based industries, so we can help make your business technology more robust and ready to overcome obstacles that have consistently kept your team from reaching its full potential.”
Ready to add managed IT to your company’s technology toolkit? Get in touch.