Service: IT management
IT management for small businesses
One person who looks after all of it: laptops, email, Microsoft business tools, the office network, backups, accounts, and your website. I do this now as the IT manager of Elements Hospitality.
What I look after
- Laptops: fixing what is broken, and replacing software that does not suit the team.
- Email and accounts: who has access to what, and getting it back when it is lost.
- Microsoft business tools for the whole team.
- The office network, so everything in the office stays connected.
- Backups, so nothing important exists in only one place.
- Your website, built and maintained by the same person who runs the rest.
The day three POS terminals went down
At Elements Hospitality, all three point-of-sale terminals went down at once: locked out, full of bugs, and with the subscription lapsed. I recovered access, fixed the faults, renewed what had lapsed, and had all three back in service in four days. They have stayed up ever since.
That is most of what IT management is: knowing where the accounts are, who holds the keys, and what to do when something that should just work stops working. Read the Elements case study.
Why the IT and the website should be one person
The website, the email and the domain are tied together. When a different person holds each one, every problem becomes a question of whose job it is. When one person holds all of it, the answer is always the same person, and every account stays documented and registered in your name.
Questions people ask
Do you work on site or remotely?
Most IT work can be done remotely: accounts, email, Microsoft business tools, backups and monitoring. For anything that needs hands on a machine, we agree how that happens before we start.
What happens when something breaks?
We agree up front what counts as urgent and how quickly I respond, and it is written down. You call one person, who already knows your setup.
How is it priced?
IT management is quoted after a call, based on the size of your team and what you use. You get the number in writing before anything starts.
Can I hire you for only the IT side, or only the build?
Yes, either on its own. Most people come for one and end up wanting both, because the two halves keep handing problems to each other.