Why Do So Many Small Businesses Outsource Their IT?
If you run a company, you know that managing information technology can be a challenge. It’s complicated, and people in your organization usually don’t have the skills to make a good job of it.
For that reason, a lot of companies choose to outsource the work entirely, passing it over to a third-party company. While there’s an inevitable loss of control, there are substantial benefits too.
Let’s take a look at all of them in turn now.
Get All The Services That They Need For A Low Monthly Fee
Running an IT department is expensive. Just a single salaried worker can cost tens of thousands of dollars per year. A whole team can easily cost hundreds of thousands.
The problem is that your business probably doesn’t have the cash available to finance that kind of operation. Sure, it’d be nice to have a team of dedicated specialists supporting your IT infrastructure all day, every day, but for most small firms, it’s not financially viable.
The good news, though, is that an outsourced IT service company can solve this problem. The way that they do it is simple. You pay them a monthly fee, and then in return, you get access to a team of people with the skills that you need to correct pretty much any issue that might arise.
When you think about it, this system probably works out better than anything that you could do in-house.
Even if you employ half a dozen people, there may still be gaps in their knowledge, leading to difficulties when troubleshooting problems. The same is much less likely when you choose to outsource.
Reduce The Risk Of Downtime
Downtime is a severe and potentially business-damaging event. Ideally, you want to be in communication with your customers all day long. You don’t want issues with your computer network preventing you from carrying out your operations.
Companies that operate legacy computer systems are at a high risk of experiencing downtime. So much can go wrong. The business could be hacked, have network configuration issues, or simply be overloaded, leading to frequent crashes.
Companies outsource IT, therefore, to reduce the risk of downtime. External providers help them to reduce the likelihood that they will suffer a security breach or experience crashes.
IT companies usually have sophisticated tools to predict and monitor network data requirements, ensuring that both the hardware and software in place can deal with them.
Get Assistance During Restructuring
Making the transition from one IT environment to another can be a challenge, especially if you’re going through a restructuring.
Adding employees, firing people, and moving departments around all have ramifications on the computer system. It’s vital, therefore, that you’re able to rely on a team of experts making sure that everything fits together as it should in the background.
Small businesses use IT companies to help them set permissions, add extra storage space, and add users to various software packages.
Focus On The Core Operations Of Their Business
When you think about it, IT is just as incidental to your businesses as the electricity supply to your building. Sure, you need it to function, but it has very little to do with your products directly.
As a business leader, your primary focus should be on the core operations of your firm. Your main tasks – and the task of your employees – is to meet customer needs. What you don’t want is a situation where you have to dedicate vast resources to managing IT systems.
With IT support, all of that stuff gets done in the background. You don’t have to waste time messing around with network configurations or security protocols – that’s all done for you. Instead, you’re able to focus on the core requirements of your firm and serve your customers.
Get Strategic IT Support Help
While most business leaders can imagine the benefits of particular IT solutions, they don’t always have the skill to implement them effectively. Most of the time, they make do with generic solutions instead of getting something that aligns with their strategic objectives.
Savvy small businesses, however, outsource their IT operations. They get a third-party firm to create bespoke solutions for them that allow them to meet the needs of their customers better.
What do bespoke solutions look like? It could be anything, from creating custom user portals to getting two different pieces of software talking to each other.
So there you have it: why so many small businesses choose to outsource their IT, despite the loss of control. Will you join them?
Does your business outsource IT?
