When most people think of IT, they think of the purely technical side of things. However, there are management components that are necessary to keep systems up and running. We depend upon those systems on a daily basis. One of the management responsibilities of IT is contract management. There are many relationships with outside parties that keep various IT services running, thus it is the responsibility of IT to maintain these relationships. Hence the need for contract management, which includes managing existing contracts as well as negotiating new contracts that are beneficial to the business.
Contract management is important to prevent costly downtime by making sure the services your network depends upon stay active. Some examples include domain name registration, email subscriptions, SSL certificates, website hosting, and support contracts. A lapse of any one of these is an inconvenience at a minimum and can potentially cause an outage that disrupts business.
IT systems are mission critical. We hope they run silently in the background, providing the technology services we need to do our jobs. It’s something users rarely notice until something breaks. Maintaining support on hardware and software lessens the impact of failures, as vendors can be engaged to remedy issues, replace failed hardware, and assist in getting you up and running as quick as possible. When renewals are missed, it leads to scrambling at the last minute to restore services. It’s best to track items and take action proactively to maintain service.
The Sikich Solution to IT Contract Management
As part of our many offerings of technology services, we do offer managed IT services. Sikich Tech 360 not only provides support for your users, servers, and network, but it also provides Virtual CIO services and Client Account Management services. We work together to ensure you have the proper budgets in place and don’t miss renewals of important contracts. Sikich Tech 360 also includes managing IT budgeting for lifecycle replacement of hardware/software.
Experiencing some IT headaches? Contact us to see what IT contract management options might fit your business needs.
