If you’re in an executive position at a company, you might not think a lot about the IT department. That is, until there’s a problem with your computer, network, or cloud.
We want to bring a new question to your mind. Should you outsource your IT department?
There are many pros and cons to outsourcing your IT department and we’ve put together some thought-provoking points that will help you make a decision.
IT outsourcing
Outsourcing your IT department simply means that you’re going to hire an outside company to take care of all of your business’s IT needs. There are many benefits and drawbacks to hiring an outside company instead of using an internal team. Let’s investigate.
Benefits
We’ll start by looking into the many benefits of outsourcing your IT department.
Control and reduce costs
When outsourcing IT work, you might consider hiring an MSP. When outsourcing your IT department to an MSP, you can control the cost of your IT services. With an MSP, you pay a monthly fee and will know what your IT needs will cost you each month with no fluctuation.
Hiring an external IT company can also save your company money by taking advantage of an economy of scale. The IT professionals at the external company are more affordable but also more knowledgeable.
Offsite hardware
When you outsource your IT, you also have the option to use their hardware, including servers and cloud services. By having this hardware located offsite, you don’t have to worry about maintenance, monitoring, or broken equipment. Keeping hardware offsite gives you peace of mind.
Improve business focus
If you’re not an IT company, chances are you don’t want to be thinking about IT. Outsourcing your IT department makes it much easier to focus on the things that are most important to your business.
You can direct your resources towards core competencies and not IT. Leave the IT management to the external company.
Access to updated tech and knowledge
When outsourcing your IT department, you are also giving yourself access to the most current technology. The external IT company that you hire will have first-rate knowledge and vast experience in the IT field. They will also have access to technology and tools that wouldn’t be affordable to your company’s internal IT department.
Outsourcing IT also means that you’re hiring an IT team that is managed, trained, and tested to make sure they are the best at what they do. These professionals give you access to a wider range and depth of knowledge than you would have with an internal IT department.
Constant monitoring
With an internal IT department, your systems are likely monitored only during work hours and if they’re monitored during non-work hours, it’s only minimally.
Outsourcing IT gives you constant monitoring, all day, every day. You can rest assured that your IT systems are being checked and made efficient at all times. This might include installing software updates, patches, and antivirus updates; making data back-ups; and auditing the system.
Minimize risk
Because your IT system is constantly being monitored, you reduce your risk of IT problems.
Outsourcing IT can prevent backup and hardware failures, database corruption, software crashes, virus intrusion, and spyware installation. An external company that focuses solely on your IT system can also reduce the length of time that your system is down in case of failure.
An expert external IT team can keep your IT system running efficiently and solve problems quickly if they do arise.
Proper planning for the future
Outsourcing your IT to an experienced company can also help your company to better plan ahead for its future IT needs. If your company doesn’t fully understand what it will need in the future for online resources and an IT system, IT outsourcing can help.
Technology is always changing and it’s hard to keep up with the times. Instead of trying to know what new tech is best for your company, outsource your IT and let someone who is knowledgeable create a plan for your company’s IT future.
Increased Business Productivity
When you and your company don’t have to worry about or struggle with IT problems, you can focus on your true business and job. Outsourcing IT allows your business to focus and increase productivity while the IT works seamlessly in the background.
Potential problems
Now that we’ve learned about all of the potential benefits of IT outsourcing, we have to look at what the potential problems of outsourcing your IT could be.
Cost
Depending on the company you choose and how they charge for IT work, it’s possible that IT outsourcing could cost more. This is truly case by case. If you hire a consultant for your outsourced IT work, you might incur costs that you wouldn’t have with an internal team. The contractor will charge for drive time and they may not be able to solve every problem, meaning they’re learning on the job, on your dime.
The outsourced IT company might also recommend products that you don’t actually need, charging you more money than you really need to spend on your IT maintenance.
Time
Depending on how busy the company that you hire to manage your IT department is, your problems might be fixed in a timely manner or they might not.
Employee relationships
This may sound like a minor issue, but you might be surprised how often it comes up. When you have an internal IT department, your employees know one another and how to work with each other. This is not the case with IT outsourcing. Each time you have an IT problem, you may work with a different IT contractor. Some might have good personal skills while others won’t. Building a relationship helps people to get along and solve problems. Outsourcing IT works against the idea of building employee relationships and cause discord in the office.
Liability
All companies have internal documents and privileged information that isn’t to be shared with the outside world. This becomes a liability when outsourcing IT. When a contractor comes in to fix an IT problem, they may have access to protected documents and could potentially leak that information.
Depending on your business and the security surrounding your business information, you may not be able to take the risk of outsourcing IT.
Priority
When you outsource IT, you’re likely added to the company’s list of hundreds of other client companies. When a problem comes up, how can you know who will be prioritized first? It’s likely that the company who spends the most money with the IT company will receive first priority. If that’s not you, your business could be hurt by waiting to get IT problems fixed.
Control
An external company will do as they want. They have a business to run, after all. This makes working with an external IT company a little more difficult than having in-house IT staff. By outsourcing IT you’ll be relinquishing control. Can your business afford that?
When to outsource
Now that you’ve reviewed the benefits and the drawbacks of outsourcing IT, let’s look at how to know when it’s time to consider outsourcing your IT.
Your organization is changing infrastructure
If your company is in a growing stage, that might be a good time to assess and outsource your IT department. When things are already in flux, outsourcing IT is easier than when your company is in stasis or not growing.
Too many changes are needed
If new technology and changes to your IT system are needed, your internal team may not know how to implement and install those changes. This is also a good time to outsource IT as an external firm will have the necessary knowledge and may have other changes to recommend.
When considering to outsource your IT or not, it’s important to consider the benefits and the drawbacks and choose the right time to implement the change. Benefits of outsourcing your IT department might include controlling cost, increasing focus and productivity at your company, having access to newer technology, and having year-round security monitoring. The drawbacks include having to wait for contractors to solve IT problems your company might face and relinquishing control to an outside company.
If you decide to outsource IT, consider doing so at a time when your company is growing or changing.