How Businesses Should Outsource IT

Small businesses

Small businesses find it difficult to justify the cost of hiring one or two technical people to support their ICT needs. This is mostly to do with the lack of work load available for the full time employee. Which leads to boredom, unnecessary technical evaluations (techy playtime) and often staff retention issues.

The average salary for fulltime experienced IT support is in the region of £35,000 to £50,000. For a small business it would be very difficult to justify the salary. As well as the workload required for the employee would be limited especially it being a small company. IT people usually want to work with latest technology; they have a thirst to try cutting edge technology. This is not always appropriate for your business. Small businesses would therefore find it to be cost effective if they choose to outsource IT.

Responsibility for Information Technology (IT) is one of those functions, keeping the office applications and network running and giving IT support to colleagues when they need help with their computer. Although you work for a small company, your IT services are just as critical to your business as they are essential to a larger company. IT systems are complex and it is unreasonable to expect a single person, such as the office manager or IT support manager, to be able to support, operate, administer and manage your whole companies' needs.

IT systems are complex and it is unreasonable to expect a single person, such as the office manager or IT support manager, to be able to support, operate, administer and manage your whole companies' needs.
Many SME’s (small and medium enterprises) choose to outsource IT support as it offers them the benefit of a reliable service that is not reliant on a single person.

Medium sized businesses

When a company reaches around 100 employees then there starts to be a case to hire in-house IT support. A mid-sized company may require an IT manager on a part-time basis. An IT manager service who is assigned to your business will work closely with senior management and acting as Head of IT for your company. To avoid waste of your precious time on managing technical people and providing guidance to them, some effort is needed to define your business needs and then select an IT services partner who will deliver against their service commitments.

Large businesses

For large businesses outsourcing means that can pass the essential everyday operations over to the outsource IT partner, such as network management and server operations. They can use the outsourcer for specialised skills that they do not have in-house and need such skills occasionally.
Being the manager of an IT department brings many challenges.

These may include:

1. The business wants you to provide an increased level of service but you can’t employ more people to deliver that service.
2. The IT budget is being cut, but you have the same demands for service from the business.
3. You need to deliver more innovation to the business, but your team has no time to focus on these projects as they are tied up with support.
4. Your team lacks current technology skills, you need this new technology, but you can’t wait to train them and allow them to learn on the job.
5. Once you’ve chosen to outsource IT the partners are able to supply resources on a short term basis to your business. This may be for Desktop engineers, Server engineers, Security, Exchange, SharePoint, SQL Server or VMware skills. Perhaps you need interim IT management or a Project manager for a specific assignment.

Schools & Education

For schools and education that choose to outsource IT means that Schools can either pass the essential but routine operations over to the outsource IT partner, such as network management, server operations. They can use the outsourcer for specialised skills that they do not have in-house and need such skills occasionally. Alternatively, schools can outsource the whole IT department, and choose the right outsource IT partner that allows them to move from a fixed cost model to variable costs, that is particularly beneficial in the current economic climate. Technical employees also benefit because suddenly they are working in a technical company who place a high level of importance in their technical development and exciting new projects.

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