Technology is a key differentiator across business verticals, and the Financial industry is no exception to this. Finance and accounting organizations are struggling to strike the right balance between the ever-changing regulatory landscape and the pressure of curbing data threats.

Partnering with a Managed IT services provider can help finance and Accounting Firms strategically respond to risks and secure their business. However, the adoption of managed IT services demands the transfer of a high degree of control to a third party. Therefore, it is important that you rightly determine when and how to use IT support for financial services. When these services are implemented appropriately, they can provide you with highly beneficial business outcomes.

Having said that, let us check out a few ways in which IT support can enable finance and accounting firms to perform better.

1. Protect Financial Data

Accounting firms perform tasks that involve the use of cash flow statements and transaction data. They handle the financial records of numerous people.

Managed IT services for financial institutions can help you secure your sensitive data and IT environment. They begin with evaluating and protecting your digital assets that include financial details of customers, copyright data, and privacy requirements.

Managed IT services for accounting firms then safeguard these digital assets by installing appropriate anti-virus, anti-malware, and firewalls. Furthermore, they make sure that your enterprise IT network is checked for security patches regularly. This helps identify vulnerabilities and rectify them on time.

Also, reports suggest that in 2017, 20% of data breaches ensued due to employee negligence. This percentage increased to 21% in 2018 and returned to 20% in 2019.

IT support for financial services trains your employees to identify the signs of a data breach attempt. They may conduct a company-wide survey to gauge their employees’ knowledge of cyberattacks. Accordingly, they create and schedule training programs to educate them.

Managed IT services for financial institutions to implement multi-factor authentication for accessing sensitive information. Also, they provide role-based access to critical data. Employees are educated about possible phishing attempts through malicious links, downloads, and emails.

Furthermore, MSPs emphasize the need to guard critical information with passwords that aren’t easily guessable and changed periodically. Employees are also encouraged to collaborate over a Virtual Private Network (VPN) when handling business information. This helps track browsing activity and identify security issues if any.

2. Boost Employee Productivity

Unavailability of the required tools and technologies will result in underperforming employees, thereby negatively impacting their overall productivity.

IT support providers take complete charge of this concern as they are equipped with state-of-the-art technologies to support their clients.

For example, in a financial firm, having customer transaction details on a single page can expedite processes. Your cloud-based managed IT services for accounting firms can offer you a customer relationship management tool on the cloud. This tool can be accessed from anywhere and can facilitate simultaneous edits to ease work in a distributed working environment.

These tools not only improve productivity but also help you stay ahead of the competition since they’re based on the most updated technologies.

3. Facilitate Maximum Uptime

The adoption of managed IT services comes with several benefits. One among them is the continuous monitoring of your enterprise IT system. Your service provider will be available round the clock to address any technical concerns that may arise.

Furthermore, they proactively detect and rectify glitches in your system. The blend of proactive and reactive responses ensures that your IT landscape is forever in a ready state to offer uninterrupted services.

Managed IT services make sure to curb technical hiccups as and when they occur along with diligently checking for issues and correcting them. This eliminates the chances of downtime and facilitates unrestricted availability of services.

Moreover, managed IT services providers maintain a 24/7 helpdesk that is available at your call. When you experience any issue, you may contact the helpdesk to seek immediate help. This further contributes to the hassle-free functioning of your enterprise’s IT ecosystem.

4. Maintain Compliance

It is pivotal for financial organizations to operate according to industry-specific compliance. Non-adherence may result in penalties and pose serious threats to cyberattacks.

Compliance and security regulations heavily depend on your industry type. The financial sector deals with highly sensitive customer data. It is crucial to secure this information, along with providing seamless customer experiences.

For example, the Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council (FFIEC) aims at identifying vulnerabilities and ensuring strong cybersecurity. Moreover, the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) plays an important role in the encryption of financial data during transactions.

However, these compliance regulations are subjected to periodic updates/changes. Your IT support provider keeps a track of the changes and maintains a compliant enterprise IT system for your business. This not only allows you to earn a competitive edge in the industry but also safeguards your customer data to the highest degree.

5. Enable Backup and Disaster Recovery

The financial sector works on prioritized digital channels. Accounting firms need to ensure that they have an appropriate disaster recovery plan to minimize downtime and facilitate uninterrupted services after a disruptive event.

Disasters may be man-made, like a cyberattack, or they may occur naturally, like hurricanes and tornadoes. Either way, they pose a serious threat to your sensitive customer information, especially if it is stored onsite. Almost 22 billion records were exposed to data breaches in 2020.

Collaborating with managed IT services for accounting firms enables you to maintain a data backup on the cloud. Their cloud recovery solution creates copies of your data and restores it when required.

Furthermore, an on-premise disaster recovery solution can be heavy on your budget. Cloud-based recovery, on the other hand, comes with minimal costs. You incur additional costs only when a cloud-based disaster recovery system is utilized.

As the need for securing your customers’ sensitive information continues to increase, the implementation of a disaster recovery solution is also becoming a requisite for accounting firms.

Wrap Up

Managed IT service providers can help accounting firms improve their productivity through high-end tools. They also equip companies to manage disaster recovery and compliance regulations effortlessly. Hopefully, the above-mentioned points will throw more light on the role of managed IT services in boosting the efficiency of financial firms.

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