By Michael Claxton
I wish I could own more of my time, so I can do the things I love.
Time is such a valuable commodity, and not being in control of it drives me insane. Some people want to spend their time travelling, others want to spend it relaxing. I want to be spending my time with my wife and kids. Even when I’m working from home, as so many teams are these days, with the boys right down the passage, I’m not spending time with them. I’m spending my time in meetings, on virtual machines, checking emails and fixing problems.
Or at least, that’s the way things were in the beginning.
When this pandemic started in March last year, and my teams and I were forced to work from home full-time, there was an overwhelming sense of stress. As CEO of an IT support company, there are a lot of moving parts that I need to be on top of at all times. Not only our own infrastructure and our own teams but our clients’ as well! My small home office needed to turn into my base of operations, and being so close to my family, but getting to spend little to no time with them at all, was heart-breaking.
But I had an awesome team to turn to. An amazing group of humans who work for Solid Systems, who have my back in everything I do. We have a Technical Team at the top of their game, who came together to help not just me, but each other, in turning our personal spaces into functional home offices. They made sure that each and every member of Solid Systems was ready to work productively and efficiently, had the access they needed to succeed, and the tools that they needed to thrive.
We have a Customer Success team, whose job may be to make our customers’ lives easier, but who came together on my behalf to ensure that everything was exactly where and how I needed it to be and that no ball was dropped.
We have this saying at Solid that ‘We’re humans not robots’.
Less than a week after the pandemic hit, I could feel the stress being lifted off my shoulders both by my team members and by the technology that we implemented. These weren’t technologies or that were new to us! We’d been using, promoting, supporting, and helping our clients to implement them for years. But sometimes it takes extreme strain and pressure to truly understand the value of the tools you’ve already put in place.
Tools like our Microsoft suite and cloud services. Tools that so many businesses take for granted became our foundation for success. It amazes me the number of people that think Microsoft is just an operating system, or think of Microsoft 365 just in terms of Word, Excel and Outlook. There’s so much more to it! Without platforms like Microsoft Azure storage, Microsoft Planner, and MyAnalytics, I don’t think our teams would be nearly as productive and effective as they are. And I can’t imagine what would have happened to our company culture without a platform like Teams to keep us connected.
Where I’d been anxious about how things were going to work, how our humans would handle the new normal of working from home, I was reassured that the new state of affairs wasn’t going to be the catastrophe that I had in my mind.
It’s been more than a year since the pandemic hit. Some days I work from home, others I head into the office. And no matter where I’m working from, I have access to everything I need. But what I find myself with more of is that time that I so desperately wanted. Because everything is running so smoothly, my mind isn’t constantly on work and stressing about things falling over or going wrong. Because I have this incredible team behind me, I can own my time, and spend it with the people I care about most.
And the fact is, this is something that I passionately feel every single person should have. Every Solid human, and every one of our clients.
We have this saying at Solid that ‘We’re humans not robots’. And I think that it’s time more companies started taking our approach to business – looking at what makes us human in a digital world, and celebrating it.
Look at your technology, for example. I could talk all day about the benefits of having an IT support company like Solid looking after your infrastructure and implementing the right technology to help you achieve your goals. But when it comes to the crunch, if I had to pinpoint a single advantage that outsourcing IT systems and support can give to a company, it’s time. Time to focus on what means the most to your business, and time to focus on what means the most to you as an individual.
When you don’t have to worry about the state of your infrastructure; when you don’t have to stress about a cyberattack or data breach; when you can rest easy knowing that your business’ software and technology needs are taken care of; you find yourself spending less time concerned with the minutia of running a successful business, and more time reaping the benefits of that success.
Less than a week after the pandemic hit, I could feel the stress being lifted off my shoulders both by my team members and by the technology that we implemented
When you don’t have to be attached to a desk and can access the information that you need from wherever you are in the world, suddenly you can be wherever you want to be. You can travel the globe, and still be productive. You can own your time.
This is the human side of technological advances, and it’s what we love to see. Solid Systems is the company that you can trust to take care of all things technical so that you never have to worry about them. And, based on my own personal experience, not as a CEO, but as a human, I would say that there isn’t another IT support company out there that does it better.
If you want to find out what being humans, not robots is all about, if you want to start owning your time, get in touch with Solid Systems and ask them about how they can change your business’ outlook. We can help you achieve both your personal and professional goals, and implement the right technologies for your business that will see you stepping into the future with confidence.
About Solid Systems:
Since 2003, Solid Systems has specialised in delivering leading technology solutions, including managed IT services, and offering guidance to organisations in South Africa and abroad in the most human way possible.
As an IT support company, we love technology and the exciting ways that it evolves, and are constantly improving the tools that we use. But humans are at the heart of our business. That’s why we value each relationship and prioritise a personal approach, finding solutions that deliver results for companies in the best way possible.
With our highly skilled and passionate professionals behind us, and the latest and most sophisticated tools at their disposal, we ensure that the businesses we work with are constantly evolving. We like to see our clients stepping into the future with confidence, knowing that they’ve got the right technology partner by their side.
About Michael Claxton:
Co-Founder and CEO of Solid Systems, Michael is a father of two, and a mentor of many. His calm focus makes him a natural leader, both in and out of the office, and he has a unique skill in nurturing leadership qualities in others as well. But most of all, he understands the true value of time and the ways that technology can optimise efficiency within a business and see humans making the most of the time available to them, both in terms of productivity, and in terms of personal growth.
