The Dire Need for Professional IT Support in a Shared Workspace

In recent months, my company, a small startup with fewer than a dozen employees, has been relocated to a new building as part of a larger initiative by our parent investment firm. This new facility is intended to serve multiple companies under the firm’s umbrella, including us, but it’s still very much a work in progress. We moved in ahead of the other companies, who will join us once the renovations are completed.

During this transition, I found myself stepping outside my usual mechanical engineering responsibilities. I volunteered to set up a basic Wi-Fi network by assisting an engineer in configuring a few consumer-grade routers from a local electronics store. While I initially thought I was lending a hand, I soon realized I had opened Pandora’s box by laying the groundwork for a shared network that our company and the investment firm now rely on.

Currently, we are all using a single Wi-Fi network that’s secure enough for everyday tasks but ultimately lacks adequate configuration, especially concerning data security and proper network administration. To complicate matters, I learned today that there are no plans to bring in professional IT support to manage this setup. Talk among management suggests there may soon be demands for me to adjust settings, change passwords, or tackle other IT-related tasks—a prospect that fills me with apprehension.

As a mechanical engineer, my understanding of IT is limited to my hobbyist experience of building gaming PCs and the conversations I’ve had with software engineering peers over the years. I recognize that our current setup is far from ideal; it poses security risks and could lead to performance issues as more companies come online.

Now, I find myself in the position of needing to advocate for hiring a professional IT team. However, I am acutely aware of my own knowledge gaps and how difficult it is to convince decision-makers who may not fully grasp the technical complexities involved.

Building Your Case

Here are several points I plan to address in an upcoming meeting to make a compelling argument for investing in professional IT support:

1. Security Vulnerabilities: I will emphasize that sharing a consumer-grade network among multiple businesses increases the risk of data breaches and unauthorized access. Multiple organizations sharing the same network could lead to significant security concerns that a professional could mitigate.

2. Network Reliability: I will discuss the limitations of our current network setup, including potential bandwidth issues. As more companies begin operations, our existing infrastructure might not handle increased traffic effectively, leading to a subpar experience