November 06, 2025
You can tell a lot about an IT provider by how you feel on
the phone with them. If your stomach drops every time something breaks—or you
find yourself dreading the runaround—you're not alone.
I was on a call recently with a CFO from a mid-sized fabricator
in western Ohio. He was calm, but you could hear the wear. A recent business
email compromise led to an $80,000 loss after a fraudulent wire transfer. They
had invested in CrowdStrike, a strong endpoint protection tool, but had skipped
proper configuration. "I bought it because my peers said it was solid," he
said. "But we never deployed the modules that mattered."
They didn't have a process to match the tool. And they
paid the price.
"Technology doesn't solve problems. People with a process
do."
— Jim Collins, author of Good to Great
They're not alone. According to IBM's Cost of a Data
Breach Report, over 80% of mid-sized firms breached in 2023 had security tools
in place—but failed to configure or monitor them properly.
Safe IT support means more than having a phone number to
call. It means knowing your provider understands your business, your systems,
and what matters to your auditors. It means they fix the problem—but also
explain it in plain terms. So you sleep better at night, not just hope the red
light doesn't flash again.
Here's what real, safe support feels like:
· The
same techs answer your calls—no handoffs, no call trees.
· They
know your systems, your compliance needs, and your change calendar.
· You're
given options before invoices, and advice before emergencies.
· When
something breaks, they tell you why—and how to stop it from happening again.
Compare that to a prospect we spoke with last quarter.
Their last provider took two days to respond to a firewall misconfiguration. By
the time someone logged in, production was delayed, payroll was late, and
leadership was on edge. All because "it wasn't flagged as critical."
You shouldn't need to know the difference between endpoint
detection and DNS filtering. You should just know someone has your back. The
right tools are only half the equation. The other half is people who show up
early, stay late, and explain things like your best plant manager would.
"The best IT support is like a good maintenance team—you
don't notice them, because things just work."
— Mary Barra, CEO of GM
If your current support makes you second-guess, it might
be time to stop settling for sketchy.
Interested in a conversation or want to learn more? Contact us here.
