Written By: Frank Saulsbery
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A running column from Frank Saulsbery. Not a sales pitch, just the way he’d explain it if you pulled up a stool next to him. Meet Frank →
A SNEAK PEEK…
“Your office manager should be managing the office, your operations lead should be focused on operations.”
A business owner will say, we’ve got someone in the office who handles our IT. They’ve done okay so far, why would we need anything more than that?
And on the surface, that makes sense. You have a capable person, they’ve helped fix a few things, and it hasn’t seemed like a big issue. But if we’re being honest, it often looks very different behind the scenes. That person might be your office manager, your operations lead, or just someone who is “good with computers.” Maybe they set up a printer once, solved a Wi-Fi issue, or figured out how to get a new laptop working. So naturally, technology ends up on their plate. The problem is, that’s not actually their job.
What I’ve seen over the years is that these individuals are usually doing their best, but they’re stretched thin. They already have a full-time role with real responsibilities. Now on top of that, they’re expected to handle things like outages, security concerns, software issues, and backups. And when something serious happens, they feel the pressure.
If the system goes down or data is lost, they’re the one everyone looks at. It doesn’t always matter that they were never trained for that level of responsibility, but it creates a stressful situation for them and, frankly, a risky one for the business.
Even when nothing major breaks, there’s another hidden cost that most business owners don’t see right away, time. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve talked to someone in that role who spent hours trying to fix something that, with the right experience, could have been resolved in minutes. Not because they aren’t capable, but because they don’t work on these issues every day.
They’re searching online, digging through forums, sitting on hold with support lines, trying different fixes. It’s a lot of trial and error, that’s normal when you’re outside your area of focus, meanwhile, their regular work is piling up.
When you step back and really look at it, that time has a cost. Your office manager isn’t just an hourly rate. They’re part of how your business runs, every hour they spend chasing a tech issue is an hour they’re not doing what you hired them to do.
So when someone says, We’ve never paid for IT like this before, I get where that’s coming from. But in many cases, they actually have been paying for it, it just didn’t show up clearly on a bill.
It showed up in lost productivity, slower operations, and added stress on key people. Now, to be fair, not every business needs a full-time internal IT department. For many small to mid-sized businesses, that wouldn’t make sense either. But every business does need to think about who is responsible for technology when it really matters, and whether that person has the time, tools, and experience to handle it efficiently.
In many cases, the best move is to let your team focus on what they’re good at. Your office manager should be managing the office, your operations lead should be focused on operations. Technology can then be handled by someone whose job it is to do that work every single day.
It doesn’t mean your internal team disappears from the process. They’re still involved, still informed, they just aren’t carrying the full burden on their own.
At the end of the day, this really comes down to a simple question. Is the person handling your technology the same person you would trust to solve a major issue quickly, under pressure, without it disrupting the rest of your business? If the answer is “maybe” or “I’m not sure,” that’s worth taking a closer look at.
If nothing else, it’s a good conversation to have. Step back and map out how much time your team is spending on tech issues and what that’s pulling them away from. You might find everything is working just fine. Or you might realize there’s a better way to support your team and take some pressure off the people who are already doing a lot.
That’s how I see it, anyway, and I’d enjoy hearing how you see it. None of this is a sales pitch. It’s just the kind of thing I’d talk through with you if we were sitting across the table. If it raised a question, or you think I have it wrong, I want to hear about it.
My door is always open. Whether you want to talk this through or just say hello, you can reach me anytime.
Network Solutions Unlimited is a generational managed IT services provider based in Decatur, Illinois, serving businesses and nonprofits with genuine support and decades of trusted relationships. Led by Baily Saulsbery and founded by her father Frank, we're not just your IT provider; we're your neighbors who happen to be really good at technology. Contact us today to experience IT support that actually cares.
