Your Source for Outsourcing Part 1: When to Outsource Your IT
January 13th, 2018 by admin
We’ve seen a variety of solutions for business IT. Maybe you have a tech on payroll, maybe one of the guys from accounting (or whichever department) knows computers, maybe there is a neighborhood kid who owns a Gameboy and seemed to plug the printers in right when you asked them to (fingers crossed). Whatever your solution may be you may have wondered if it’s worth it to outsource your IT. Here are some of the most important things to consider when outsourcing all (or part) of your IT. The decision to outsource some of your IT can be a tricky one. A lot of factors go into determining whether an in-house IT team or an outsourced one are the best fit for your company. Company size, the complexity of your IT, and your budget are just a couple of important factors to consider. We’ve worked with a lot of companies, and some outsource all their IT support and projects while others take a hybrid “in-house + outsourced” approach.Partially Outsourcing your IT
Here’s something really important to know: outsourcing your IT does NOT have to mean outsourcing EVERYTHING. A large number of in-house IT managers think that outsourcing their IT will leave them out of a job – that’s not the case AT ALL. There are so many different elements of IT that require so many different skills that it is basically impossible for one person to do it all with any kind of focus and quality. You may be an amazing network administrator, but basic help desk tickets have got you booked for days and don’t allow you the time you need to focus on what you’re best at. Or maybe you’re so busy spinning up large projects that proactive care (like patching, backups, and monitoring) take a back seat for weeks or months at a time. Until you have 5 or 10 employees on your IT staff, you probably should be outsourcing a portion of your IT as well. We team up with in-house IT managers at companies in all sorts of industries. From CPA firms, to manufacturing companies, call centers, software development companies, and even resorts, this hybrid solution has its advantages. Their in-house IT manager provides an irreplaceable inside perspective and specialty, while our teams provide the assistance and expertise required to take your IT to the next level. Whether you need help with anything from proactive care to help desk tickets, we’ve got a solution for you. We won’t step on your toes, we’ll just have your back. For a closer look at the most common roles that need to be filled and which you can outsource check out Part 2.Fully Outsourcing your IT
If you don’t already have an IT Manager in-house, don’t worry. Over the past 15 years we have been taking care of IT at a “soup to nuts” level for firms across the Wasatch front. We are happy to provide a full set of teams that allows you and your employees to stop worrying about your IT and stay focused on your customers and your operations. Our help desk team will handle your employee’s day-to-day issues and we will work hand-in-hand with you to ensure that the more complicated parts of your IT are at the top of their game. You may be wondering whether an in-house or outsourced solution is best. One of the major determining factors in this decision is always cost. While many people assume that outsourcing their IT will be the more expensive, we’ve actually found that for companies with less than 50-100 PC’s and whose IT has normal complexity, outsourcing is the cheaper (and far more thorough) option. One of the reasons why is because you get access to top-of-the-line toolsets for a fraction of the cost. By toolsets I’m referring to software that can automatically monitor, update, patch, remediate, and report on every computer in your company constantly. It saves 30-60 minutes of time every month (per PC!) to have these toolsets in place. By outsourcing, you get these toolsets - and the entire team that manages them - for a sliver of the cost of setting them up and managing them in-house. For a full cost analysis see Part 3 (coming soon).What we DON'T recommend: All of your IT in the hands of ONE person
While fully outsourcing, having your own in-house team, or having a hybrid “in-house + outsourced” approach to your IT are excellent options, what we don’t recommend is having all of your IT in the hands of one person. There is a lot of danger that comes from having only one person manage your IT. What if he/she gets sick, or decides to finally take the vacation they deserve? Your lone wolf now becomes a single point of failure. IT is such a broad field that it requires a lot of different skills. IT staff that love helping users are very different from those that excel at proactive care or keeping your servers in tip-top shape. It’s hard to find someone with ALL of the different skills that it takes to get your IT done right. For more information on why we recommend outsourcing all or part of your IT check out Part 2.What we DO recommend:
If you are a relatively small company (typically with 50-100 employees or less) and your technology is not insanely complex, then fully outsourcing your IT is the best bang for your buck. If you are a midsize company (100-500 employees), or you are a smaller company with lots of complexity, then either fully outsourcing your IT or having a hybrid in-house/outsourced solution is recommended. If you are a larger company (500+ employees) then a full in-house IT team is a solid approach for day-to-day work. At this size most companies can afford an entire in-house IT team of 4-10 people, each specializing in key areas such as helpdesk, sysadmin work, networking, etc. But even then, keep in mind both large projects and back-end proactive care toolsets are going to be best with help from outside specialists. Emily BeukersPosted in: Protection, Productivity, Technology, Teams, Toolsets