Ever built a house without a tradie?

I don't know about you, but when I watch a good tradesman it looks easy. Surely I could build that frame, tile that floor or pitch that roof? In fact, I probably could - if I had 10 or 20 times as much time to spare and I was willing to compromise on quality!

But when it comes to our business - managing and supporting corporate grade information technology - it's amazing to see how many “weekend warriors” create issues and problems that end up in our lap. I think the trouble is that most of us have PCs and wireless networks at home - which makes us all experts!

The reality is often different and can be expensively so.

As far as I'm concerned, IT is one place where a little bit of knowledge can be dangerous. Arm a CFO or Office Manager with a systems administration password and access to Google and problems won't be too far away.

Ask yourself what would happen if your team couldn't work for an hour, a day or a week because your “accidental” systems manager made an inadvertent mistake? And what if your IT provider had to spend a heap of time finding the small fault because your guy didn't even realise that he'd created a problem somewhere downstream?

Yes…. This is a bit of a plug for our Managed IT Services practice, but more importantly I want to raise the profile of the risks that many small to medium businesses are exposing themselves to.

Why not give us a call on 1300 22 48 48 (or email This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it ) to discuss your IT issues. Quite often five minutes of advice can prevent a lot of heartache later.

Thanks for reading this far - next time I'm going to take a look at the true cost of IT support.