Consolidated IT: A Smart Inflation-Busting Strategy

Inflation is making headlines yet again. The core Personal Consumption Expenditures (PCE) price index rose 4.4% for the 12 months ended in April — up from a 4.2% increase seen in March.[i] Even more notable, the core PCE, the Federal Reserve’s go-to inflation gauge that excludes food and energy, was up 4.7% in April compared to 4.6% in March — more than economists expected.[ii] As inflation persists, concerns of a weakening economy and possible recession continue to fester.

This is unwelcome news for small and medium sized businesses (SMBs) already hit hard by inflation. In a survey conducted by MetLife and the U. S. Chamber of Commerce, 85% of small businesses reported being concerned about inflation.[iii] One in three ranked inflation as their top business concern.[iv]

Unlike large enterprises, SMBs typically don’t have large cash buffers and diverse revenue streams to ride out economic storms without feeling some serious pain. You either have to increase prices or cut expenses to counter higher operating costs driven by inflation. Even more important, you need to look beyond short-term fixes and identify ways to operate leaner. That way, you’ll build the long-term resilience needed to manage the effects of inflation and weather future economic turmoil.

Unlock value by consolidating your IT with one vendor

If you’re like many SMB owners, you’re using multiple vendors for cloud hosting, application management, data backup, device management, endpoint security, end-user IT support, and more. What you may not realize is that you can realize significant economies of scale by consolidating all your IT functions with one proven IT partner.

Unlike multi-vendor arrangements, a consolidated approach to IT provides simplicity, efficiency, and cost savings with one predictable monthly bill to pay, one support number to call, and one seamless user experience across all your applications. You can avoid incurring overlapping charges on an ongoing basis or racking up separate, additional charges every time you contact a vendor with an issue. Even better, you no longer have to manage multiple relationships or worry about some critical IT concern falling through the cracks.

Availability, security, and a whole lot more

When you consolidate your IT, look for a cloud partner that offers 100% application uptime and absolute data protection. When you’re running an SMB, you simply can’t afford the business disruptions, financial losses, reputational damage, and client dissatisfaction that can result from system downtime. And with new security threats emerging every day, you need an IT vendor that will stay on top of security across your IT ecosystem — from the data center and network to applications, email, and endpoints.

Don’t underestimate the price of your sanity

Does this scenario sound familiar? Your company is trying to pull together some reports for an important customer, but a remote worker can’t access critical files and your IT consultant isn’t responding to calls or texts. Because the reports are due by the end of day, your tech savvy business analyst drops everything she’s doing to troubleshoot the file access problem. The remote worker is delayed in helping the customer and your analyst’s day is waylaid by IT tasks. Talk about a stressful productivity drain.

By consolidating IT with a single trusted partner, you can avoid these types of scenarios. Your cloud IT provider can make sure your employees have secure, seamless access to all their applications and data on any device so they can enjoy an identical user experience whether they’re working in the office, at home, or from another location. And if a remote access glitch or other issue were to occur, 24×7 help desk support can resolve the problem in a timely and efficient manner.

Infinitely Virtual: The consolidated IT partner of choice

Find out why more SMBs are choosing to consolidate their IT operations with Infinitely Virtual (IV). Our All-in-IT solution can save your organization time, money, and stress — helping you stay resilient no matter what the economic outlook.

IV can host your applications, manage your Microsoft 365 subscriptions, set up and manage your cloud environment, secure and manage your onsite devices, provide unlimited help desk support, or provide any combination of these services to suit your needs. Even better, we offer free white-glove migration to ensure a seamless transition and a customer satisfaction guarantee to minimize risk.

Contact us at 866-257-8455 or infinitelyvirtual.com to learn how we can help you realize cost savings and efficiency gains with consolidated IT.