They span industries, with a steady presence in nearly every business. When trouble arises, they’re never far off. They’re here when you need them, and they have the superpowers to swoop in and save the day when technology won’t cooperate. But more than that—they keep technology running smoothly so most of us hardly give them a second thought.
They’re the IT pros of the office—the system administrators, network engineers, database administrators, developers, IT support specialists and more—and they’re the true MVPs of any company.
Whether they’re troubleshooting networks, protecting your information or helping you install new software, IT pros are the right folks for the job. And though they may not get much of the spotlight, the IT department is definitely worth its weight in gold. Keep reading to learn why IT is home to the true heroes of any organization. Wondering "should I be an IT major" Read more here.
7 Reasons why IT pros are our unsung heroes
1. They are the keepers of the digital kingdom
To put it simply, IT pros hold down the digital fort at any company. They pave the digital infrastructure, guard networks and maintain operating systems for scores of individuals. With so much of the business world living entirely online, including valuable information and daily work functions, IT pros become all the more important to organizations.
“An excellent IT department can be invaluable to a firm. They control the flow of information traveling within the company and to external sites,” says Fernando Leon of Single Point of Contact, an IT support company. “Maintaining a server environment and ensuring it is secure, updated and backed up is a huge undertaking, depending on the complexity of the environment.”
2. They’re technical-support saviors
Forgot your password? Can’t find your files? From big issues to small, IT pros can solve your problems and get you back on track.
“IT pros constantly have the chance to save the day in any given office or business, just by correcting an application issue that will unblock the whole invoicing process, fixing basic network issues or recovering lost files in backups and so forth,” says IT executive Rodrigo Montagner.
3. They’re undercover educators
Everyone has their area of expertise, and for a lot of people that doesn’t include technology. Fortunately, that’s where IT pros come in.
When faced with confused users, IT pros can turn the situation into teachable moments, showing users how to complete everything from basic to advanced tasks on the devices they use day in and day out. Without the guidance of the IT department, many workers would be in the dark about the functions needed to complete their daily work.
4. They’re the geniuses behind the scenes
The IT pros behind the curtain are the ones responsible for keeping all operations seamless. Most people don’t even realize all the hard work that goes into keeping things running smoothly; they only realize how essential IT pros are when things go wrong.
“I have heard compliments from upper-management more than once about our IT department going totally unnoticed throughout critical performance periods,” says Montagner. “In other words, they’re happy when things works out so well that they forget they have IT pros on-site.”
5. They can help from near or far
With so many employees working remotely, what is one to do when things go wrong outside the office? Luckily, IT pros have a way of working their magic and assisting workers near or far.
By supporting the technical needs of workers at home, IT can help ward off viruses and compromised data. They can also support the needs of remote workers through streamlined audio and video collaboration with those in the office—an increasingly critical need of organizations as more and more full-time employees work remotely.
6. They are conference-call champions
Where would we be without IT pros to help us with big conference calls and virtual meetings? How many times have you been on a big call only to lose someone, struggle to share screens or face other inconvenient technical issues in the big moment?
IT pros maintain telephony technology and are there when we need them, keeping our calls and meetings operating efficiently and allowing communication and business to flow seamlessly.
7. They are the ones to save the day in emergency situations
“We have saved the day too many times to count,” says Leon. “We’ve helped with everything from company-wide viruses to deleted files and recovering data to crashed networks.”
Computer crashes? System hacked? Can’t access the network before a big presentation? When big things go wrong at the worst possible moments, IT pros are the ones to call to smooth over any situation.
“We once received an inquiry from a company indicating they could not open files on their shared drives. Sure enough, ransomware was the culprit and many of their files had become encrypted,” says Bob Herman, co-founder and president of IT Tropolis, an IT services company.
“We quickly rebuilt the affected server and recovered their files from backup, albeit some of the recovered files were a number of days old. We've since implemented our continuous backup and disaster recovery solution that ensures more recent copies of files can be recovered in the event of a disaster.”
Now you know…
IT pros save the day every day, whether or not the rest of us realize it. But to be so great, they can’t do it alone. IT pros rely on each other to provide the best possible service and to protect organizations. Each team has critical components that add to the greater success.
Learn more about what makes an effective and efficient IT team and check out our article, 9 Individuals an IT Team Can't Survive Without.
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