The reality is two or three people can’t do the projects, the cybersecurity, advance the business, and keep the business running day in and day out. The business decision makers are looking at that IT manager and saying, well, can’t you do this? So it doesn’t feel okay for them to say, no. I I need some help with this. But the reality is they do. They also can’t be available twenty four seven. Some of our worst security events that we’ve come in and and helped with later were the result of an IT team that was stretched thin, but but didn’t feel it was okay to say we need external help. Welcome back to another episode of Unraveling IT, expert tech talks. I’m Garrett Wiesenberg, VP of solutions consulting here at Corsica Technologies. And I’m joined today by our CEO, Brian Harmison, to have a very important and and timely discussion, how to recession proof your business through smart Technologies economic markets, understanding where you can really be smart and lean within your business is something that every business should be discussing and thinking through right now. So welcome, Brian. Yeah. Thanks, Garrett. Nice to be here. Great. And and I think you’re right on, not that we necessarily need an excuse to consider, you know, our investments or our cost structure within our businesses. But I I think when business is booming and and economic times and and wins are favorable, we tend to maybe be a little bit looser in in our cost control. And and then when events happen like we’ve had happen over the last quarter related tariffs, it’s a good time to to go back and evaluate where we’re spending money, how we’re spending it. I know we’re doing that that here at Corsica, make sure that we’re being responsible. And IT and technology spend is, you know, it it it’s a pretty big line item for most businesses now. Yeah. So let’s let’s go ahead and dive in. You know, how would you describe the the current economic landscape? I mean, as, you know, as a CEO, what are you seeing out there today that, you know, has you concerned or is making you think twice? Uncertainty. I I mean, I think that’s that’s the one word that sums up where we’re at today. Uncertainty about, you know, what the long term impacts of things like tariffs will be, uncertainty about, you know, things like supply chain and how are we going to to see the manufacturing businesses here that rely on those those foreign suppliers impacted. Is that going to start to hit revenue? Are we gonna see, you know, things that we wanna purchase for our business become either unavailable or really expensive? Or are we gonna see some some import export, you know, delays and and hold ups? You know, early indicators are, you know, those exporting out of the the countries with the highest tariffs like like China are are putting the brakes on because they’re assuming their products won’t sell. So as I talk with with business leaders in in our customer base, uncertainty and caution is the main the main theme. Many of them today are still feeling good effects of the tariffs. There there tends to be kind of a surge early on of I better buy what I might need this year now. Yeah. I think we’ve actually seen a few cases of that client reaching out and asking, you know, we’ll buy ten firewalls or we’ll buy, you know, five servers or whatever it may be. They’re they’re trying to get that in prior to the the tariffs going into effect. Yeah. And then their customers are doing the same thing Yep. In in a lot of those cases as well. Yeah. So time will tell how long we’re gonna, you know, not know what’s going to happen. But the the point remains, you you know, it it’s a good opportunity to really kinda tighten the belt a little bit. Mhmm. Now speaking about the the tariffs specifically, have you seen any surges in pricing on on any of the equipment to date? We we really haven’t. And, you know, Garrett, you you and I talk about this a lot and, you know, keep kind of weekly tabs on what’s changing and and what we see as kind of the most common items. And and we really haven’t seen fluctuations in price or in in lead time yet. So it’s it’s still, you know, as of today, while we’re recording this, you know, not a bad time to buy. We’re not necessarily advising against, you know, buying what what you feel you might need in those businesses where that technology is really critical for the operations. You mentioned a few buying, you know, wireless and and firewalls and and other things. Those are really the growth focused businesses that are planning ahead maybe for their future acquisitions this year for the things that they have going on. It’s very wise to to buy now. If you have it in your capital budget, it wouldn’t hurt to buy it now and instead of later. We’ve talked a little bit about the tariffs already. Inflation is also another concern that, you know, I continually hear about. And while I think inflation, you know, year over year isn’t rising like it was in in years past, what avenues or other areas, you know, should we expect to see inflation hit? Like like SaaS products, for instance. Are are we seeing an increase in cost with, you know, Microsoft licensing or Adobe licensing, things like that? Yeah. I I mean, we can expect prices to always go up. They don’t go down often. And and as everyone continues to adopt the recurring revenue model, they oftentimes get that model started with a lower entry point than what it’s going to take long term. And and specifically around the technology that’s now being built into a lot of those SaaS products, the prices and price points are are increasing. AI is a great example of that. Mhmm. We’re seeing the the price point of the AI being used in these SaaS applications growing very rapidly and not being, you know, offset by other revenue streams. So that’s that’s requiring the SaaS providers to to increase those prices. As far as the kind of general effects of inflation, we we really haven’t seen a a big impact on on what we do beyond, you know, the the normal wage increases that that we see and and cost of living increases that that our team see across our client base. And and, of course, here at Corsica as well. So you’ve mentioned, you know, these SaaS providers including more into their products. And products, and and what they’re adding in is intended to, you know, add more value and also help maximize efficiencies within, you know, the the product set that they’re they’re selling. Does that lead to, you know, reductions at all? Or or how should you be thinking of your, you know, employee account? Yeah. As far as the the SaaS provider Yep. Your capabilities, a lot of those really are meant to automate more the the the simple or mundane tasks. Mhmm. And so, you know, as we see those adopted, there usually is an opportunity to either reskill or repurpose some of your workforce that maybe was doing some of those those tasks that that now can be automated. I’d say we’re the adoption of those things and then the the move to to make labor changes is pretty slow compared to what it could be. Be. Yeah. But but it definitely presents that opportunity. And I I think for most of us in in our businesses, our our biggest expenses is people. And and we wanna be really responsible with that expense in in a couple of ways. One is we don’t wanna carry any labor expense beyond, you know, what’s required in the business. That’s that’s kind of the basic one. But what’s becoming a a bigger emerging trend is that we want those people working on the right things and meaningful things. That’s becoming a much more important aspect to a younger workforce than maybe just compensation was ten, fifteen years ago. And AI plays a really strategic interested in leveraging those tools. So they wanna feel like they’re making a difference. They don’t just wanna come in and do mundane tasks day in and day out, go home, collect their paycheck. Yeah. Maybe another example of that, you know, if you take a factory example, you you know, there there was a time where where people were willing to work the overtime to make extra money, especially as they were maybe beginning a new role. Well, they’re looking at that and saying my time is more valuable to me than working that overtime. And so we have to find really smart ways to increase that productivity and give them more of that meaningful work and and a little better work life balance. That makes sense. When it comes to since we’re on the topic of staffing, what do you see most organizations doing from an IT department perspective specifically? I mean, are are they reducing their IT teams? Are they outsourcing or, you know, where possible, what’s that look like? Yeah. So so a couple years ago, we had a real shortage of technology people, you know, in twenty twenty. It was very hard to find talent. There were a lot of folks that that were working either remotely or in in alternate kind of models or or businesses. And there were also a lot of large corporations that had really large IT teams. We’re seeing that that shift towards a much leaner, more focused team that’s focused more on the culture of the business and what the business needs day in and day out and less on the specialties. So so most of the businesses we work with are are in that small to mid sized range. They’re they’re not enterprises. They’re not public companies. And so they they aren’t usually able to to find and hire, you know, the expertise, you know, a network admin, and it might not make sense for their business to to have a full time network admin. Instead, you know, they bring in in people who are really focused on the productivity and and the use of their line of business applications, AI, business analytics, how do they handle their data within that business. And those people tend to be very focused on the end users and and their productivity. And then look to, you know, an a MSSP or an MSP or an outsource model for more of the heavy lifting and and specialized disciplines. So you’re seeing more of a co managed approach? Yeah. I don’t really like co managed as as a term, but but that is the the industry, you know, lingo for that. I’d I look at it and think, you know, as we think about the cost structure of our business, we have to decide which investments are the right ones and and where. And one of the things that that we see is a lot of IT managers, you know, they view successful IT management by how many people they’re managing. Mhmm. Not necessarily the technology that they’re managing. And And and so that that distinction is really important because if we’re a manager of technology as an IT manager, then then certainly we’re managing people too that that are part of the people process and technology that traditionally makes up IT. But we’re maybe missing out on, you know, the traditionally makes up IT. But we’re maybe missing out on the opportunity to leverage some of those domain experts in an outsource capacity. Brian, can you give me a a a recent example or, you know, practical use case of of where an organization has recently made some of those adjustments or begun to to look into making those adjustments? Yeah. Sure. I I think the the first part of that is, you know, understanding, am I am I even overall spending what I should be spending within my business? And and I that’s a question we get a lot. Yeah. I don’t know if I’m optimized. I don’t know if I’m spending what I should be. Am I overspending? Am I underspending? And, you you know, it feels like a big investment maybe to to a CFO, but it might be or it might not be depending on what that team’s accomplishing and and how it’s structured. And so one of the the things that we do pretty often is is say, well, tell us about who your team is today, and let’s talk about if that makes sense. And a recent example, manufacturing company that that we talked to, and they had about seven people on their IT team. And those people had really broad disciplines. And, you know, three of them were were more focused on the general end user support, and the other four, including IT manager, were were more on strategy or or maybe it’s network engineering and system admin and and server engineer. And as we look at an environment like that, there there’s just not enough work for a system admin or a network engineer to to really do in their discipline. Mhmm. And oftentimes, those people also aren’t real willing to, you know, roll up their sleeves maybe and and do something outside that discipline because they’ve chosen that path for a reason. And so what ends up happening is this feeling of we’re spending a lot. Lot. I don’t know what they’re really doing, and the things that are important to maybe a CFO or a CEO aren’t getting done. Mhmm. Meanwhile, those people are busy. No. Nobody’s claiming that they’re not. It’s just an example of not allocating the right resources in in kind of the right places. And so, you know, when we look at that environment, we we say, well, one, you know, you should really be able to accomplish what you wanna accomplish with two or three IT people. And then look to another party, you know, like a Corsica or or someone else who can do a couple of things for you. One is they can execute the larger projects and do so within a defined time frame. We see these large IT teams struggle to get things done because they’re constantly pulled into the day to day Mhmm. Away from that project. And so it’s the same reason a manufacturing facility hire somebody to build them a new building. They don’t hire all the different parties and have them work for them and build them a building. Yeah. They they look to someone who said, you know, they build buildings, and I need a building. I need it by this date. And for whatever reason, we see a lot of CFOs and CEOs not treat IT that way. They treat it as, well, kind of a both end situation. My team should be able to do everything they do on a on a normal basis and get all these projects done. It doesn’t happen. It’s very, very rare that we see those happen. That’s one area. Yeah. Focus your team truly on on what needs to be done day to day and let those specialty items be done by specialists. Don’t hire the specialists to do them once or twice and then hope you can keep them busy because you’re you’re really paying for something that that you don’t need in that case. So we expect that that team to be down to two or three people, hire a cybersecurity provider, whether that’s an outsourced SOC and MSSP and MSSP that does SOC services, which they all do now. That really builds a model that’s really lean, really efficient. And in their case, we’ll we’ll likely save about half a million dollars a year by the time all is said and done and and those transitions happen. And and so and it’s a significant amount of money that, you know, think of what you can do with that half a million targeted towards marketing or targeted towards sales or maybe it’s product development. Mhmm. It’s a substantial savings. So, you know, I’d say if you have an IT team that’s more than that two or three, think about or or engage with someone who can give you some of those options. If you only have two or three people and you’re not getting outside help, chances are you’re you’re not in the state you think you are. So so the opposite is true too, and we’ve seen this many times, Garrett, which is you you go in and and there’s a lot of things that are being assumed that the IT team is doing. And the reality is two or three people can’t do the projects, can’t do the cybersecurity, can’t advance the business and keep the business running day in and day out. And a lot of times, it’s not safe for those IT managers to say that, to say I need help because the business decision makers are looking at that IT manager and saying, well, can’t you do this? You know, you’re the IT people. And so it doesn’t feel okay for them to say, no. I I need some help with this. But the reality is they do. I mean Yeah. One person, two people, they just can’t know everything there is to know in today’s technology landscape. They also can’t be available twenty four seven. Well, and they certainly don’t want to be. Exactly. I mean, they need to take PTO once in a while or get sick or have a weekend. Yeah. And some of some of our worst security events that we’ve come in and and helped with later were the result of a an IT team that was stretched too thin, but but didn’t feel it was okay to say we need we need external help. So we talked about some of the cost savings, and I think you might have even hit on kind of my next question. But what are some of the other benefits of partnering with somebody else or or looking externally for, you know, assistance? Business continuity is a is a huge one. You know, the average IT person stays at their job for eighteen months. That’s not very long, and it’s about if I think about, you know, starting a new job and what that looks like, eighteen months is about the time you feel like you’re really starting to hit your stride and you know what you need to know. And so for those that have smaller teams, having a a partner who really is is owning and responsible for the continuity of that environment is really valuable. And it’s so common for us to talk to a a business leader or decision maker, and they say, I I feel kinda held captive. The people usually aren’t doing that on purpose. It’s the environment that they’ve created and and they being, you know, more the the leadership of that organization to say, this all rests on this person. And so a lot of times that stems from a leadership decision. I’ve been focused on how do I save money in IT? Well, I save money in IT by keeping that budget really tight, not asking how can how can we grow what we’re doing in Technologies. And then what happens to that person tends to get burned out. When they leave, then you you have all this tribal knowledge walk out the door with them and end up in a really tough spot. So having a a partner that’s working with you that’s a business that has longevity and that can bring that continuity as as people come and go, because that’s the natural thing that happens. Part of our goal here is is to grow and develop people, and we realize part of that next step for them and that path might be going to another organization. We wanna support them in that. And so we all need to be thinking about, you know, what does succession planning look like Mhmm. On our IT team. And and usually, it’s no. I just need to hang on to this person and hope that nothing happens. Yep. And, you you know, things happen. People win the lottery, not very often. More often than than not, they find a new opportunity that they they’re excited about. And and we we as employers wanna be in a position where we can be excited for them. And, you know, part of the way businesses can do that is by having a partner who’s gonna ensure that as that person transitions to their new role, somebody new can come in, join the team, and be super productive. Is that also a way for an organization to stay agile during this this time of uncertainty? It it definitely is. Anything you can do to have some variable optionality in in the way your cost structure’s in in place, it’s a lot easier to work with a company and and say, hey. You know, we’ve hit some kind of tough times right now, and and so we need to change the scope or the magnitude of what we do with you. Mhmm. That’s that’s easier to do than than firing people. Yeah. And as you grow, the the inverse is true as well. So how can we expand those resources quickly? And a a partner can can help you do that. Yeah. We we’ve talked about, you know, what businesses can do kind of in the moment, what some of the trends are, and and and the way some of the outlooks are, you know, uncertain. We don’t really know where things are gonna go. Looking forward, what can businesses be doing now to prepare them for coming out of this time of uncertainty, whether it’s, you know, good or or bad? Is there is there something tactical they could implement today or or be looking at? Yeah. It’s really around being ready. And, you know, I touched on it a little bit ago, which is, yeah, how am I gonna scale as a business? And Yep. That’s that’s a great problem to have, which is how do I grow fast enough to meet the, maybe, new demands that that are coming from changes in in the external environment. And a partnership is a is a great way to do that. And, you know, consistently, we see not just people in IT, but in other areas of technology struggle with what does the vision look like for the future? Where where can we go? How can we grow this? And so a lot of businesses feel like IT’s holding them back. Yeah. And, you know, we joke about CFOs being CF nos. Well, usually, it’s it’s the IT team that’s saying no to more than anyone else. And and that typically comes from a combination of capacity and knowledge. They don’t wanna say, and and we’re wired, you know, whether you’re a network admin or a sys admin, people don’t wanna say, I don’t know how to do that because ultimately, we recognize we can go figure it out. We can find a way. That’s not always the most efficient way and and not always what’s best for our business. So understanding how we can grow and scale quickly comes from having some external input from someone who’s who’s been there, seen that happen, and and done that before. And so it it’s getting that that right combination of of really knowledge and vision of how can we expand the way we use technology quickly. I think I have one final question for you. Okay. So these organizations that we’ve talked about hypothetically, how do they go about finding an external partner? Are are there certain criteria they should be looking at? Is there, like, just a website with, you know, the the help wanted sort of ads? Like, how how do they get in contact with someone? Yeah. I I think, one, do do your homework. We live in a world where reviews rule the world. Look at the at those common sites for technology industry. GT is a great example of that in our industry and across others, but look for those external proof points. AI is another good good place to go And use some of the the AI search to help you find a partner who who can work with you. But I I think a lot of this comes down to, you know, look for someone who’s built a strong external presence, has a good team because, you know, what what we’ve talked about a lot here is how do I expand my knowledge in in my team. We don’t wanna expand it by five. You wanna expand it by fifty because there’s there’s that much depth in in what we do to need more experts across the board so so that you have someone that you can really turn to and say, here’s what I’m facing. How do I how do I navigate through this? How do I help make my IT team be successful as we navigate through, you know, maybe it’s our next growth wave or an acquisition? So those those are the the places to go look first. You I mean, you can always Google, but we all kinda look alike. At face value. Yeah. From from what we offer. But find those that that have the proof points, awards, certifications, good reviews, those types of things. Well, I appreciate you joining me today and and talking through the this timely topic. And, you know, I hope you have a great rest of your day. Alright. Thanks, Garrett. Thank you.
