You already know what IT stands for: information technology. What you might not know is that most companies have a pretty poor grasp of how best to put IT to work for them.

Why? For the simple reason, that too few businesses take the time to consider the best approach to managing IT needs. They assume it’s as simple as keeping the computers running and the network humming, but that’s not it at all. Not by a longshot.

Actually, the nature of your IT setup has a significant bearing on the efficiency, productivity and profits of your company. By outsourcing your IT needs to an expert, you can majorly fuel your business growth today.

Outsourcing Is a Time-Tested Model

The first obstacle to overcome in using outsourced IT as a means of cutting costs and increasing profits is fear. Many people, unfortunately, are intimidated by taking this critical step.

Outsourcing IT is nothing new though, explains Business.com. “What started as a novel practice of U.S. companies sending IT jobs to India in the 1990s has now become a $88.9 billion industry that connects businesses with IT experts worldwide, from Belarus to Argentina.”

It’s not just big businesses, either: “Companies of all sizes make use of this service to cut down on costs, bring innovation into the business and open up more time to focus on core operations.”

In other words, this is a well-established business model that companies the world over are using the pad out their bottom lines and streamline their workflows. With time-tested results across companies and industries, there’s no reason to fear it – and that’s just the beginning of the benefits.

You No Longer Rely on a Break/Fix Model

Most businesses have a small IT staff on hand. Depending on the size of the company, that might mean a dozen personnel members, a single employee, or Richie over in accounting who is “pretty good” at troubleshooting network problems.

Now, that’s not to say that you can’t have your own staff and get along fine. But in this “break/fix” model, you’re waiting for something to go wrong before you respond. That means you could potentially suffer a breakdown during a seriously important time (Black Friday or April 15^th, for instance), which would dramatically affect your bottom line.

It also means you have relatively little ability to forestall those breakdowns. Without the in-depth knowledge that comes from being steeped in the IT profession, you can’t predict coming obstacles and work around them before they become an issue. As you might expect, however, companies that manage IT for you can do just that.

Outsourced IT Can Help You Grow Intelligently

An unfortunate side effect of rapid growth, many businesses find, is that they quickly bloat their existing infrastructure and aren’t sure where to go from there. For instance, the number of orders coming into the system exceeds your ability to manage those orders. Or the number of new products creates a need for a vastly more agile website, but you haven’t created it yet, resulting in backlogged orders and emails.

Those are just a few examples, but they highlight an important point: Without an IT expert in your midst, your information technology fails to grow with your business. Instead, it can only hurry to catch up later on – at which point you might have ticked off many of your formerly enthusiastic prospects.

You can avoid that when you worked with outsourced IT professionals. They know exactly how to plan for changes coming down the pipeline and adjust your systems to accommodate them upfront. Next time you roll out a new product, for instance, they can adjust the infrastructure to handle additional orders. Or they might help you speed up your system at a crucial time – again, Black Friday and Tax Day come to mind.

Whatever you need, they can help you see it coming and respond intelligently, rather than just waiting for the worst to happen.

You Can Focus on What You Do Best

If you’re reading this article, then money says you’re not an IT expert. You are an expert in your niche industry, which is why you started a business in the first place. Logically, your best bet for growing your business is to continue focusing on what makes it thrive. That might mean:

• Rolling out new products and services to keep your existing customers happy and bring on new ones
• Creating value-added extras to make your products more appealing
• Educating yourself, your employees and your customers about the nature and benefits of your products and services
• Appearing at trade shows, attending conventions or throwing events to increase the awareness of your business
• Negotiating new partnerships with others in your industry

As you can see, “Stopping in the middle of your busy day to fix a finicky router and get the finance department back online” is not on that list. That’s because it does not add measurably to your business growth. At best, you can address the issue quickly so that it doesn’t dampen your workflow.

An IT company, on the other hand, can help you avoid that altogether. They can take care of the issue – or even better, stop it from happening in the first place – while you focus on what made your company great in the first place: interacting with VIPs, attracting clients and customers, innovating.

The takeaway? By turning your IT needs over to a true professional, you can stop worrying about whether you’re “doing it right” and start focusing on what you do best. Say goodbye to the days of confusion, anxiety and technical failure, and hello to a new era of productivity and growth now.