How Managed IT Could Affect Iowa’s IT Skills Gap
Iowa’s unemployment rate is one of the lowest in the country, hovering at about 2.4 percent since July 2018. For employees, the low unemployment rate is a reprieve from the 7.3 percent high nearly a decade ago, according to the Iowa Workforce Development. The low rate also means employees have more job choices. Employers are not only must secure skilled employees to fill open positions, they’re tasked with retaining their employees and finding employees with the proper skillset to fill open positions.
Iowa’s information technology employers not only need highly trained employees, but they also need specialists in the various fields within the IT industry. Iowa has one of the lowest rates in the nation of people graduating from post-secondary computer and information technology-related programs, according to an Iowa State University Iowa Community Indicators Program report.
So what are employers to do if they can’t find employees with the proper IT background? If they do find skilled employees, how do employers keep them happy? Managed IT services could be the answer. Managed IT services allow companies to use third-party experts to handle or supplement their IT needs.
Small businesses who don’t have a full-time IT professional may rely on a tech savvy team member for their technology dilemmas. That solution — or lack thereof — takes an employee away from their daily work while also leaving the company’s preventive and responsive IT services severely lacking.
“With managed IT services, Infomax can address many different business sizes,” said Doug Postel, Infomax’s IT director. “On the smaller end, we can bring in expertise for a single monthly fee that would be less than employing a full-time IT professional.”
Medium-sized businesses may likely have one or two IT professionals for more employees than they can manage. Additionally, IT professionals may not have experience with certain types of software, hardware or other industry intricacies. Employers could spend years training IT professionals, only to have the employee overwhelmed with knowing a little bit about a lot of facets of IT.
“You could exhaust that employee,” Doug said. “When you hire a person, they have a certain set of skills. With managed IT, we bring a whole team of experts who have individual knowledge on security, firewalls, antivirus programs, software and hardware.”
With Infomax’s iGuard Managed IT, companies gain access to Infomax’s IT help desk. The help desk frees up the business’ existing IT staff to focus on specific projects instead of pesky password updates and software license renewals. Infomax’s IT team also maintains a company’s software licensing, security and data backup and recovery so IT needs are preventive, not reactive.
Overall, managed IT services can provide a business with a full team of IT experts for one consolidated monthly fee. Managed IT could also give time back to existing IT employees, allowing them to develop in their career while taking away stress.
“IT can be overwhelming for one person,” Doug said. “We can provide that net around an employee, and it allows business owners to know they don’t have their all their eggs in one basket.”
To learn more about our iGuard Managed IT Services, contact us today.
