While it might seem that outsourcing would mean losing jobs in the US, the fastest growing region for outsourcing IT is in the United States. With the ethical concerns for outsourced IT solved, you need to face the real meat and potato issues when deciding which is more cost effective for your company. You might be surprised to find out that hiring the best people could be the best value for your business.
Here are five things to consider when considering this problem.
1. Consider Employee Costs
When you’re deciding between outsourced and in-house IT services, the first thing you’re going to think about is how much they cost. While you might consider the sticker price of managed services versus salary, there’s more to it than that.
Organizations who decide to outsource their IT services are saving more than just the cost of a salary.
You need to consider the additional costs that come with having employees on site versus when you pay to have a service provided. If you’re paying for employees, you’re paying for them on the days when they don’t feel productive. You’re paying for their sick days, their days off, and their vacation days.
You’ll also be responsible for other costs associated with them. You’ll have to provide office space, parking, and other amenities that any reasonable office worker could expect. You’ll pay for insurance, unemployment security, and for the work of your human resources staff to manage them.
You’ll also have to manage your budget against the quality of experience you want. The best workers cost you the highest wages. With outsourced IT, you get the same quality you can expect from a full-time worker with a broader skillset because of the resources their company has on hand.
2. Scale When You Need To
Every company struggles with growing pains. As a company gets bigger, so do its needs. When you’re serving more customers, you’ll need to provide the same quality of attention to detail as you grow.
This will mean that you’ll have to grow your staff to maintain that level of service. This is hard to do overnight when you’re managing a staff on-site. When you’ve outsourced your staff, all they need to do is call in some of their staff and you’ll scale up within a day.
Scaling down is also a reality for a lot of companies. When profits start to drop off, you can’t just let go of employees until things get better. The cost of training them and getting them up to speed costs you thousands that you can look forward to spending every time you need to hire new people.
With outsourced IT companies, you can change how much staff is dedicated to your project on a whim. If you expect a few lean months, you can cut a few people from your project. If you’re anticipating growth, you don’t have to train anyone new.
3. Get the Best in Security
With the average data breach now costing companies an average of nearly $4 million, there’s no way you can afford that loss, no matter how big you are. When you have dedicated IT staff working for you, you’ll have to have them constantly learning about changes to cybersecurity.
Every day, a new security breach is discovered, putting millions of users at risk. This is one of the reasons that systems need to be updated so often.
This means that you’ll have to have staff dedicated to updating your systems, learning all about new security issues, all while managing day-to-day needs. This can add up quickly and if you’re hiring, training, and managing that many people, you’ll also need staff to handle their needs.
You can’t afford to slip when it comes to cybersecurity, therefore you need to get the best of the best. In case of an emergency, a weather event, or a fire at your building, you need help getting your team back up and running again. If you have your systems and staff all on site, you could be in for trouble.
An outsourced IT staff will make sure that you’re backed up off-site and ready to refresh your system when the moment requires it.
4. Be Prepared For New Tech
In recent years, smart devices and IoT have revolutionized every single industry. The need to train and hire to fit your business to that new tech is a struggle for companies of every size.
Managed IT service providers have staff on hand solely dedicated to learning new technology and applying it for their customers. Rather than having to lose control of your systems while your staff updates or learns new skills, you can use new technology as soon as it’s applicable.
Managed IT providers hire only the best of the best. Their whole business model hinges on attracting the best talent in their area.
5. Learn From Other Companies
Because your managed IT provider works across several industries, you won’t fall into the traps that other companies in your industry might fall in to. While it might be standard to use a certain technology or a particular type of system, your managed IT provider can warn you if they’ve seen problems.
Your outsourced IT provider will have their finger on the pulse in a way that your on-site IT staff can’t. You’ll always be ahead of the curve with managed IT solutions.
Outsourced IT Can Bring You Up To Speed
If you’re struggling in a competitive market, outsourced IT will ensure that you can stay competitive. You’ll have access to the most important developments in tech while also having the staff to execute great work with these tools.
If IT tech support is your main need, check out our guide to find the best.