If your small to medium business is growing, chances are you’re thinking a lot lately about IT. There’s no longer enough time in the day for you (or someone else in the office) to take care of all the day-to-day IT tasks without compromising your real job, and larger IT issues are becoming too complex for someone who isn’t a professional. It’s clear that you need some kind of IT service, but which kind? How do you know if you need to outsource IT services or if you can hire internally?
Reasons You Should Outsource Managed IT Services
Well, the truth is, for many small to medium businesses, outsourcing managed IT services is the right choice. Why? Well a big consideration is budget, but there are a few other reasons like responsiveness, scalability, and more. Here’s some more information on each:
Cost of IT
Every business has a budget, and when you own a small business, staying on track with that budget is more important than ever. Many people worry that the outsourcing their IT services might be too costly for their business but, the truth is, you can actually save money by outsourcing vs hiring internally.
According to Indeed.com, the average salary for an IT professional is anywhere from $52,000 to $84,000 per year depending on their level of experience. That’s not including benefits, vacation time, sick days, and all of the equipment and technology they need to do their job.
With an outsourced managed IT service, you will end up paying significantly less – and for a service that doesn’t need benefits, vacation days or sick time and already has all of the tech they need. Plus, with managed IT services, you don’t have to worry about turnover or suddenly losing your IT. We’ll always be there.
If the cost of the service is a big deal to your business, then you probably want to consider outsourcing IT services rather than hiring someone in-house.
Response Time
It might seem like hiring someone internal to do your IT would give you the shortest possible response time – after all, they are right there in the office with you. But remember, when you hire an internal IT manager, you are hiring someone one who is “only human.” A single person can get sick, they can need days off, and they can experience other issues (some through no fault of their own) that delay their response time to IT issues.
You don’t want to be facing a serious IT issue and realize there’s no one around to help because your manager is out sick or on vacation. If your business needs IT response time to be as fast as possible, you should consider outsourcing instead. With managed IT services like ours, you can expect a short response time (we are committed to a 5-minute window) all the time (that means 24/7).
Scaling Up (or Down)
Businesses grow (and sometimes they downsize) and that means the services they require need to be able to scale with them. If you have an internal IT manager, they are always going to be the size they are.
If you need more IT services, you would have to hire a whole other person, which could not only be very costly, but you could end up with more services than you need. If you want to scale your services down, your options are pretty limited – either get rid of the person altogether or don’t scale down. Neither of these are great choices.
With managed IT services, your service can scale up (and down) to meet your needs, without breaking your budget. You can get only the additional services your business needs, and take away only the services you no longer want.If you think your business might grow or change in the near future, the right choice for you is probably outsourcing your IT services.
Other Reasons to Outsource
While these are the most common considerations to be made when deciding if you should outsource your IT, there are other reasons why your company might want to consider doing so. These include planning, training, help desks and more.
If you’re interested in learning more about how managed IT services can work for your business, and what kinds of options are available you to, the best thing to do is to book a consultation with us. You can do that quickly and easily at the link below:
