How To Choose the Right IT Company for Your Manufacturing Business

Modern manufacturing facilities rely on their technology solutions to maximize production efficiency, maintain a safer work environment, reduce costs, and leverage more data. The right IT company is a valuable partner for selecting, building and maintaining the technology that makes achieving these business goals possible.

IT Challenges in Manufacturing

The unique IT challenges of the manufacturing industry require an IT services provider experienced with this environment.

File Sharing and Collaboration

Most manufacturing companies have various departments that need to share access to files and collaborate with each other. The administration team, engineers, production managers, outside sales, and external partners all need to be able to work with each other seamlessly. If the network is weak, time-sensitive information can fall through the cracks and cause a delay in production and profits.

Network Reliability

A minute of unplanned downtime feels like a lifetime in manufacturing. It throws off production schedules and can lead to costly issues down the line. If your company doesn't have a network you can count on, you run into many counterproductive situations.

Scalability

Can your manufacturing IT infrastructure support your capacity five to ten years from now? A lack of scalability can limit your company’s ability to take on new opportunities or puts you in a position where performance suffers. Your competitive advantage will rapidly diminish if you're unable to get the resources needed as your company grows.

Network Security

The Internet of Things has many useful applications in manufacturing, but poor network security measures could render them useless. Cybercriminals take every chance they can get to try to access sensitive data or company secrets. Network security measures must keep up with an ever-changing threat landscape and the sophisticated attackers taking advantage of social engineering and other techniques.

Data loss can cripple a manufacturer. Keeping up with the expectations of customers becomes increasingly difficult when production comes to a stand still.

IT Solutions for Solving Manufacturing IT Challenges

• Cloud file sharing and collaboration: Cloud-based sharing and collaboration systems get everyone in your manufacturing company on the same solution. You reduce incidents where employees worked on old file versions or fail to convey the necessary changes to a document.
• Proactive IT maintenance and hardware upgrades: A proactive approach reduces the risks of unexpected downtime. An IT managed services provider stays several steps ahead of common issues by putting best practices in place that handle them ahead of time.
• IT strategy: This is an overall strategy that evolves as your company grows or changes. It can accommodate both the expected and the  unexpected to support your organization throughout its growth.
• Cybersecurity, monitoring and response plans: Your business needs robust cybersecurity measures in place and the technology to support it. A comprehensive response plan establishes the chain of command, the necessary processes and what to do in the event that data is lost.

The Benefits of Working With a Managed Service Provider

A managed service provider offers you the necessary resources to implement these useful manufacturing IT solutions. Hiring an MSP like Integritek , is often less costly than the price of one full-time hire for your organization.

You end up getting a local team of expert engineers, an arsenal of tools and resources, and access to experienced 24/7 support. The challenges of a manufacturing company may become more complex over time, but with this type of partner, you're ready to adapt to everything that comes your way.