Every company must have an IT support department for several reasons. One, customers rely on the IT support staff to get their inquiries answered. Two, the IT support department can be a reliable backup to employees in case they need it. But most importantly, the IT support department is responsible for implementing security measures to safeguard the company from cyberattacks.
Unfortunately, establishing an in-house IT support department in Australia can be costly. Furthermore, as the owner, you’ll be responsible for managing the department until they can operate independently. If you’re not up for the challenge, then you’ve probably considered outsourcing IT Support Melbourne and others instead of establishing one within your company. While it’s a terrific idea, there’s no guarantee it’ll work for your organization.
On that note, this guide will go over six things you must consider so you can determine if outsourcing would be ideal for your company’s current situation.
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Time Constraints
One of the main reasons companies outsource their IT support department is they can’t afford to spend time onboarding new people and managing the team. Before you outsource, you must first ask yourself whether you have these time constraints.
If so, then you have to go through with your plan. However, if you don’t necessarily have anything scheduled for the next few weeks or months, it might be best to create your IT staff within the company. Taking your schedule and time constraints into consideration can also help you determine the perfect term for the contract, whether it be a 1-year or 5-year term.
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Budget
A tight budget is another reason why companies tend to look for remote IT support services rather than establishing an in-house IT support department. After all, outsourcing requires you to pay a flat fee each month to the agency. Meanwhile, creating an in-house IT support department means setting aside a budget for the team. Generally, the former yields a lower overall cost than the latter.
Therefore, if your company’s finance is currently in the red, you should push through with outsourcing. Of course, you have to make sure the pricing is reasonable, and you’ll save money at the end of the day.
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Existing Technologies
When creating an IT support department, you have to prepare a few things. These may include hardware such as laptops and routers and software like accounting, billing, or communications apps. These things are a must for an IT staff to operate appropriately.
Normally, you wouldn’t have any of these unless you already have an existing IT department. But if you do, outsourcing might not be necessary as you already have the necessary tools. If you don’t, then proceed with your plan to outsource your IT department. However, you must look for agencies with an assortment of useful technologies.
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Work Efficiency
If you think your company is experiencing a drop in work efficiency, creating yet another team for you to manage would only lead to more problems. Hence, outsourcing your IT support department would be the ideal course of action in this scenario.
Not only does it not put pressure on your existing employees, but you can also spend more time working on other matters such as improving work efficiency. Until you can do that, outsourcing your IT support services would be your best bet.
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Security Measures
Most security measures like firewalls are only capable of protecting against external threats. If you intend to outsource IT support services, you’re essentially leading them inside your company. If it turns out they have malicious intentions, they may end up causing a lot of mess with your computer systems.
On that note, before you outsource IT support or any other services, you have to make sure your company has security measures in place to protect sensitive information from intruders. There are several ways to do this such as encrypting data and implementing access control, among others.
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Control
If you intend to outsource a portion or all of your IT operations, you must first hand over operational control to the outsourcing agency. By doing so, you’ll lose control over certain business functions. If you’re not comfortable with this, then outsourcing may not be for you. But if you can get used to losing control over a facet of your business, it should work fine.
Besides, when discussing the terms and conditions of the partnership, you can talk about how much governance or control you’re willing to hand over to the agency.
Closing Thoughts
Outsourcing might be popular, but that doesn’t mean you have to jump on the wagon without any deliberation. Since you’re essentially handing over a part of your business to an agency you’re not familiar with, it’s an incredibly crucial decision. By considering these six things, you should be able to make the ideal course of action given your current scenario.
