IT Service Management:
The Small Business Challenge
>>> See: "Crowdstrike: 2023 SMALL BUSINESS CYBERSECURITY CHECKLIST"
IT Service Management is a formal set of processes that make IT services available, reliable and secure. In large companies, IT functions are divided amongst specialists in their respective areas of expertise. This works because in an organization with 70,000 employees, there might 1200 people in IT.
But in smaller organizations, this division of responsibility obviously isn't practical because the amount of IT resources may not justify a full time person, let alone a team of people, dedicated to technology. Instead, IT responsibilities are handled by the owner or divvied up between key staff who perform these duties on a part-time, as-needed basis. While essential day-to-day duties get done (because they have to -- new employees can't work if they don't have an email account, for instance), some of the functions that tend to get overlooked or short-shrifted include:
- Data Security
- Network Security
- Network Administration, including system backups and patches / updates
- Security Awareness (training)
- Policy Management (passwords, group policies, etc.)
"In a world where cybercrime never sleeps, organizations need an “always on” cybersecurity plan. And for small-to-medium businesses (SMBs), the need is even greater because cybercriminals have significantly increased their focus on smaller organizations in recent years. Between 2021 and 2022, there was nearly a 200% increase in incidents targeting organizations with fewer than 1,000 employees."
Black Dot can work with you to help you understand whether an MSP strategy would benefit your overall business plan. We also offer "T-U-B Defense for Small Business" for customres who want to immediately tackle the three most critical things SMBs must do to protect themselves from external and internal threats: training, updates and backups.
- John Brooks -- Managing Partner, Black Dot Networks
