Most folks never think about IT as providing a competitive edge. Most folks think of IT as boring, at best, but mostly annoying or even a giant headache. And if you were to ask many people about gaining a competitive edge in technology, they’d probably say something about AI. 

But the reality is this.  Right now, the competitive edge in IT isn’t related to AI. It’s in something much simpler: eliminating digital friction.  

What is digital friction?  Basically, it’s IT disruption.  TeamViewer says that, even for enterprise organizations, digital friction is still a massive problem. For example, 88% of survey respondents say the experienced in the last year, 80% hardware failures, 80% authentication problems, and 82% software failures.  

Over the past year, you say?  That’s not bad.  But survey respondents also reported losing 1.5 days PER MONTH to digital friction.  And another 50% of respondents said digital friction had cost them revenue. 

Again, these are enterprise businesses with loads of resources.  Consider how much this could impact an SMBs with fewer resources dedicated to IT. 

Costs of Digital Friction: 

  • Lost Productivity – As seen above, digital friction can cost an employee 1.5 workdays per month  
  • Security Risks and Workarounds – Security issues can be a cause AND an effect of digital friction.  Of course, cyber incidents can cause downtime and lost revenue.  But consider how security is compromised when “normal” digital friction occurs.  For example, many employees (40%) report using their own devices to get around security features or other IT failures (this is called “Shadow IT”) 
  • Human Impact – Digital friction impacts employee satisfaction. and it can even cause employees to leave.  
  • Management Gap – Importantly, there appears to be a gap in how management perceives digital friction and how front-line employees perceive it. Because management is often further away from the real-time effects of the friction, they tend to see it as less of a problem 

How to Address Digital Friction: 

1. View (and invest in!) IT as Vital Business Infrastructure  

Most importantly, all businesses (including SMBs in particular) must see IT as a vital utility EXCEPT that you pay for what you get. If you want IT infrastructure that works well and reduces friction, you’ll need to invest in it. The good news is that this investment pays off in increased productivity, morale, and revenue. 

2. Build Trust with your IT people 

You can do all the IT work yourself – worrying about chokepoints, hardware needs, tool stack, etc – or you can work with IT people you trust.  Your IT provider, whether an internal department or an external IT MSP like BIT Services, should be a trusted partner who focuses on responsiveness, reliability, and communication to make sure you are all on the same page. 

Final Thought:

Most businesses are out chasing the next big thing, hoping it will give them an edge. Meanwhile, the companies quietly pulling ahead are doing something far less flashy: making sure their systems just work. No constant logins breaking. No mystery slowdowns. No “we’ll deal with it later” IT problems piling up in the background. 

When your team isn’t fighting technology all day, they can actually focus on the work that grows the business. The real competitive edge is not adding more tools, but removing the friction that keeps everything from moving forward.