7 Reasons Why You Should Outsource Your IT Support
The last few years have seen increasing pressure on businesses. The effects of lockdowns have caused significant income reductions, in some cases leading to company closures. Corporate development plans have morphed into corporate survival plans.
IT Support has not been spared and must support the new business environment. They have been asked to do more with less as they manage on restricted and reduced budgets. Outsourced IT Support has come into play as a means of controlling IT spending.
Here are seven positive benefits of moving to Outsourced IT Support.
Cost Benefits
IT Support costs can be seen as a grudge purchase. Often, you pay for services you don’t need, and training end education costs are a significant element. Using Outsourced IT Support can limit those costs to only those of the contracted services.
Further, retooling and upscaling usually mean capital costs for new equipment and software. Outsourcing removes the need for those costs. It also transfers regular operating costs from capital expenditure to operational expenditure, which often is more easily met from income.
Support
There are several support benefits that accrue from outsourcing:
- Access to expertise. You have access to a team of experienced experts at the outsourcer. No costly training is needed, and you don’t need to bring in expensive temporary resources.
- Reduced Staff costs. Outsourcing will reduce the need for in-house staff, reducing the salary bill. In many cases, the outsourcer takes the excess staff onto their payroll.
- 24/7/365 cover.
Business Focus
Handing over technical matters to the outsourced means that you can concentrate on the business.
Changing business operations means changes to policies and operational procedures. Many other considerations come into play. These are reflected in IT support requirements and removing day-to-day support tasks releases staff to concentrate on creating and bringing the new processes into operation.
Security
It is in the outsourcer’s interest to have comprehensive and effective security measures in place. New security threats are appearing daily, and network-based attacks are increasing in virulence and frequency.
Outsourcers are exposed to a broader range of threats and network threats than individual businesses. As a result, they will have more experience in establishing a secure security environment, and in mitigating and recovering from cyber-attacks and from malware. It is clearly in their business interests to have a demonstrably secure security environment.
Scalability
Over time, the IT infrastructure will need to be upgraded with new and replacement equipment and software. However, Individual companies have a definite lead time to supply. There may be a requirement for formal procurement procedures including Invitations to Tender and supplier selection. Purchases over a certain level may need expenditure approval. Finally, the supplier may have an availability lead time. All cause a delay in procurement.
An outsourcer is likely to have a much quicker response to a need for new hardware or software. They may have the capacity already available onsite. They may have preferential arrangements with suppliers.
Overall, it is very likely that they can procure equipment more quickly that an individual business.
In addition, they will have the technical expertise onsite that can install and configure new installations.
Reduced Downtime
As mentioned above, minimising downtime is essential for a technology-based business. For an e-commerce retailer, it is vital.
It’s in both your and the outsourcer’s interest to resolve any IT issues as quickly as possible. Again, having on-hand expertise means that problems can be resolved with minimum delay.
Future Proofing
In today’s fast-moving business environment, a business needs to be nimble and able to react quickly to new business opportunities and threats. Having access to the latest technologies and tools provides that ability. From a budget perspective, it is also important to ensure that any new equipment and software can be upgraded without replacement. One common consideration is that software is backward and forward compatible. This generally means that it has industry-standard interfaces.
That requires a budget for hardware, software, and training. It also means that the IT staff need to continually review their existing infrastructure against planned developments to make sure it is compatible.
For the business, that means a budget to upgrade, one which is unlikely to be available.
The alternative is to outsource and hand all that over to the outsourcer.
Summary
When comparing the benefits and downsides of outsourcing IT Support, there are clearly substantial financial and operational benefits. However, to fully realise them, when a business is contemplating doing so, it is essential that they first, document what they will need from the outsourcer, and then carry out a full-blown review of the potential outsourcer against those requirements to make sure that they can meet them.
It is also worth noting that outsourcing arrangements are long-term, so there needs to be a cultural fit as well as a technical fit between the two organisations.
Overall, Outsourcing your IT Support can bring benefits.