Two-fifths of SME business owners (42 per cent) say they’ve lost income due to IT issues, according to a survey commissioned by worldwide IT support and technology services specialist A&O IT Groupwww.aoitgroup.co.uk.
A quarter (24 per cent) of SME business owners typically deal with issues every week, with their regular IT supplier being unable to resolve the problem quickly in 24 per cent of cases. Plus nearly a third (30 per cent) have admitted they had recently experienced technology blackouts wiping out at least one full working day.
Launching in Reading today, the specialist SME and small business IT support service – A&O IT ‘One Solution’ www.aoitgroup.co.uk – asked SME business owners to consider the long-term impact of overlooking their IT support. Despite the high-cost that computer glitches can have on a company’s bottom line, the research revealed that over half (54 per percent) don’t have regular IT check-ups that could identify and prevent potential system issues.
With cybercrime costing UK businesses around £124 million last year according to KPMG’s Fraud Barometer – a rise of 1,266 per cent – the potential risks of overlooking IT are on the increase, particularly for small businesses that are more likely to be targeted due to their lack of adequate security systems.
Mike Walker, spokesperson for A&O IT commented:
“Whilst we take it for granted that technological improvements are making our working lives simpler, it’s all too easy for IT to fall to the bottom of a company’s priority list. For many SMEs, outdated technology and lack of regular attention can negatively impact productivity as well as profit.
“As the world moves increasingly online, business success will become even more reliant on smooth-running IT services and air-tight cyber security. For small and medium-sized companies, finding the right supplier to outsource these functions to can be a great way to free up internal resources and reduce overheads.
“In the case of A&O IT One Solution for Small Business, we provide our customers with the security of knowing their IT is being managed and maintained around the clock and provide annual reviews pre-empting problems.
- A&O IT One Solution allows SME’s to pick and choose from a raft of services including:
IT Health checks - Network monitoring and reporting – 24/7 monitoring for peace of mind
- Wi-Fi set up and support
- IP Telephony
- Backup and data restoration for peace of mind
- Disaster recovery
- Cyber security advice and support via a ‘vulnerability tool’ to assess the level of threat a business currently faces
- Antivirus installation and updates
- Cloud consulting and implementation to improve security
A&O IT One Solution is available in Reading from today with further outlets in Birmingham, London and Cardiff. To find out more about working with A&OIT please visit www.aoitgroup.co.uk, emailreading@aoitgroup.com or call 01184 670 836.
