If you are running a small business, or in the early stages of opening one, you will be contemplating how to handle your IT department. Even hiring one or two full-time IT individuals can cost a lot of money – not to mention the expenses of having physical servers on the premises. That is why many businesses turn to the idea of outsourcing the IT department to a third party.
But can this work? Is it possible for a business to successfully outsource their IT department and still see positive results? Yes. In fact, there are many benefits to outsourcing your IT department that we are going to explore further.
Outsourcing IT: Why and What
Outsourcing is a good idea for businesses that may have an IT department that is overtaxed and needs help. It is also ideal for businesses that do not want to manage an internal IT department, or feel as though the results from that department are not matching up with the money spent.
Most IT services are easy to outsource. For instance, IT strategy, budgeting and planning can be outsourced without a problem. Similarly, receiving 24/7/365 onsite and remote support is also outsourceable. Specific services, such as IT management, network installation, data backup implementation, patch management, tech recommendations and new user training can be done through a third party provider.
Major Benefits of Outsourcing IT
Financial Incentive
When you hire a third-party IT provider, you are agreeing to a contract. You will pay a set amount each week, month or year, depending on your agreement. And you will receive a bunch of IT services for that price. It is a fixed-fee agreement, so the only added expenses would be equipment or accessories that many need to be bought or replaced. And the cost of hiring an IT firm for a given month is far less than having a small IT department operating out of your offices.
Expertise
You are hiring a company that is an expert at offering businssess IT support. It is what they do. All their employees and technicians know how to help businesses with administrative, maintenance, tech management, network management, data backup management and other IT services. They have spent time and money on finding the best processes for each type of support that is needed. Such expertise ensures that you are getting a cost-effective service that will still deliver each time you need support.
Consistency
When you hire a vendor to manage your IT department, you will be on the lookout to ensure consistent results. In fact, most businesses monitor third parties more closely, as compared to their own employees. This will ensure that results are better and more consistent when you switch to a third party for your IT needs.
Scalable Resources
If you are going through a sticky spell, where many IT problems are coming up, an IT firm can handle these issues without a problem. They will simply allocate more resources to your company. And when there are months of few IT issues, they can allocate less resources. Such scalability is hard to achieve with your internal IT department, as you cannot keep adjusting how many people are a part of the team, and how many hours they are working in a given week.
Trained Experts
When an IT firm sends a technician to your location, or offers remote support, you can be sure that person knows what they are doing. These individuals are properly trained and educated on all aspects of IT. Whether someone is heading to your office to upgrade your network, install software on new computers, or troubleshoot an issue, they have the technical knowledge and experience to solve the problem efficiently and properly.
