IT Support

I’d like to share my most unpopular opinion: I believe Valentine’s Day is the best holiday of the year.

I know, I know. People hate Valentine’s Day. But hear me out. I’m a huge fan of everything this holiday represents—romance, flowers, chocolates, love, pink, hearts, going out to eat, dramatic ballads, and champagne. Plus, if you’re in a relationship, it’s an extra excuse to celebrate your partner, your relationship, and more importantly, to be showered with love. That’s my kind of holiday!

But even if you aren’t feeling the love this Valentine’s Day, it’s a great excuse for a little self-care and pampering. Think bath bombs, face masks, nights in with Netflix and delivery, discount chocolates at the grocery store the next day, nights out with friends, reorganizing your closet, and taking some time to think about self-improvement.

That’s what happened internally here at IOSi. That’s right, sometimes even Managed IT Service companies like us need to give a little TLC to our own IT departments. Our IT staff may not have whipped out a dream journal and Epsom salts, but they exercised their own form of self-care by doing a little soul searching to improve their software and hardware processes.

One of our new clients needed a little love as they reported "We really didn’t know how old our assets were, where they were, or when we needed to buy new ones,” they said. "To fix this problem, we needed to know the truth of the situation.”

Visibility is key when it comes to building better IT processes. It’s basically the "dating phase" of the relationship—you’re learning about each other, figuring out communication styles, and trying to build a foundation. When you have full visibility of your IT assets, services, security posture, processes, and outcomes, you can see more clearly, act more decisively, and perform more effectively. This allows you to optimize costs, improve experience, and realize gains in productivity and efficiency.

When Steve and his team began digging deeper into the situation, they discovered that:

1) They were overspending by a significant amount
2)There were assets that were being short cycled
3) Multiple and unused assets were common
4) They generally were not maximizing value

Once the team had increased visibility, they were able to create a plan to fix these problems, which included extending the life of assets by six to 12 months depending on the asset.

"The results of that was the first year, we saved thousands of dollars off our asset budget, and we have a running savings monthly due to the new cloud solutions that we've been introduced to. We’ve done all of that without lowering services to our team,” IOSi's new client reported. “We were able to deliver real value back to the company in that our assets are being fully utilized to the full extent and purpose for which we bought them.”

With a little self-care, internal reflection, and IOSi's solutions, our IT team was able to increase visibility to help their company save money and time. These better insights led to better processes, and therefore better outcomes. It’s a classic story of boy meets IT solution, boy falls in love, and boy and IT solution live happily ever after.

So, when considering your options this Valentine’s Day, just remember that flowers last a week and a box of chocolates lasts one night (oops), but exercising a little self-care in your IT department to improve visibility and processes has a lasting impact—no bath bomb required. Happy Valentine’s Day, folks!