Even though in 2017 every business needs an IT department, sometimes it simply isn’t cost-effective to keep one in-house. Sure, having everything done under your direct supervision may seem reassuring, but the price of this privilege is usually too steep for most startups and SMBs to pay. With this in mind, here are five advantages of outsourcing your IT support.
1. More people on core activities
The greatest problem with most startups is that they tend to operate on a skeleton crew. The reason behind this is usually not the lack of need for more workforce, but a lack of profit that would justify adding more people to the payroll. In other words, if you had enough money to keep ten people in your employ, you would probably go with one HR, one IT guy and eight people in the sales department. On the other hand, by outsourcing your company’s IT (probably even HR) you could get everyone (all ten of your employees) focus on their core activities and in this way generate more profit (about 20 percent more in this particular case).
2. Reduced cost
Another thing people are somehow unaware of is the fact that the cost of starting your own IT department is pretty steep. First of all, you need to hire people with previous experience in this field. Next, you need to provide them with necessary tools (both hardware and software), which just adds expenses to your already strained budget. And let’s not even mention the effort, time and expense of having your department trained to reach the level of expertise and efficiently deal with cloud security and compliance.
3. Leasing a smaller office
Next great benefit of outsourcing your IT department lies in the fact that it gives you an option to lease a smaller office. You see, getting a new department inside of your office isn’t as simple as squeezing in a few more desks. Each team in your employ needs their own workspace in order not to interfere with others and therefore harm their productivity. Because of this, having your own on-spot IT department would require you to lease a bigger office and therefore pay more.
4. 24/7 Support
One of the most important things you gain from outsourcing is a 24/7 support. Otherwise, your team would either have to work in shifts or be available to clients even when they are at home. Needless to say, this is simply something you can’t expect from your employees (unless you are ready to offer them a significant monetary compensation). Either way, going with IT really helps improve the way in which your customers see your business.
5. Great scalability
Finally, you need to keep in mind that outsourcing your IT gives your business a great deal of flexibility. In a situation where your company undergoes a rapid growth, you can simply renegotiate your terms with your current IT services provider. In a scenario where you handle these things in-house, you would have to expand your office or move into a new one (which can be quite pricey) and hire or train more people (which is both time and money consuming). On top of this, you would need to purchase or rent additional equipment, which would mean that the expenses just keep piling up.
Conclusion
To make the long story short, in a scenario where you have a formidable IT budget and are planning in the long run, it might be worth your while to start an in-house IT support department right away. In any other scenario, outsourcing is a much more cost-effective option. Seeing how most startups, won’t have a luxury of going with the first option, it would seem as if the greatest majority of business world only has one choice.