IT Service Blog

Have you noticed that most small to medium sized businesses are operating some variation of a virtual team? These are the teams that are made up of employees and contractors.

It is not unusual for a company to have an accountant, attorney and IT manager and support staff who are all contracted consultants. Then, their employees make up the core team that is responsible for management of the company, marketing, sales and support of customers. These teams could be spread across multiple physical locations and in different company organizations.

Business technology has made it possible for the very smallest of companies to organize and give appropriate, secure access of information to people inside and outside the walls of companies as if there were no walls. This has spawned the ability for business owners to ‘local source’ (not outsource to overseas companies) key business responsibilities to a variety of professional service firms rather than employees – accounting firms, IT service firms, marketing firms, management consultants and attorneys. Large enterprises have been doing this for years.

The fun and challenging part for small business owners is managing it all. I would enjoy hearing about your experiences with virtual teams and thoughts on local sourcing.