As a business, you want to stay abreast with technological changes that may affect your operations. These changes can be compliance-based, data management, or cybersecurity measures. As such, you can either have an internal IT team to ensure this or contract a network specialist to take on such tasks.
In the market today, you’ll find various companies that offer managed IT services, and you only need to search and click to find one. Once you know your business’ IT needs, it’s easier to identify the scope of support you require from these companies. Even though you may argue that initial contract pay-out may pinch, the long-term benefits far outweigh the costs.
Some of the major benefits your business may get are better cybersecurity, compliance, 24-hour IT support, among others. For this and more, read on below.
-
Ease Of Scalability
Your business IT needs change from one period to another. If you were to hire an IT team, it means you need to factor in any future growth prospects in the current period. This can mean incurring costs now for some expertise you will need in future. Whether it’s software, hardware, or personnel-related, this can rack up your costs and reduce your returns on investment, especially if your forecast is not realized.
However, when you outsource the IT services, you only need to request support for what you require at a particular time. You can then ask for broader support services as your business grows. Alternatively, if you have decided to discontinue a specific service, you can advise your service provider (SP) to scale down the support once the period lapses.
As the SP also provides support to other companies, any hardware, software, or staff don’t get obsolete on their end. This is because the SP can channel these resources to their other clients. Thus, giving you lesser worries to think about.
-
Full-Time Monitoring
When you have in-house IT staff, they may only cover and monitor your network when at work. If they clock out for the day or the weekend, you may not get effective support in case of emergencies or downtime.
Your managed IT service provider, on the other hand, ensures that you get coverage and monitoring 24/7. This can put you at ease, for example, over the weekends, as you don’t have to worry if your network is at its optimum operations. This constant monitoring means network safety and stability for your business.
-
Improved Cybersecurity And Compliance
Being specialists in their fields, managed IT service providers constantly stay updated with emerging cybersecurity threats and new compliance regulations. They can then easily pass this down to the relevant customer base. This means that, as their client, your business can always receive the latest cybersecurity measures as well as comply with mandatory industry regulations.
Keep in mind that the safety and compliance of SP clients translate to good business for IT service providers. Therefore, the effort to stay cyber-safe doesn’t fall on you. In addition, the SP would usually know when and how to perform any security updates or compliance measures.
-
In-House IT Team Can Focus More On The Needs of The Business
You can have your IT team monitor data back-ups, cybersecurity, software updates, and other network maintenance services. However, this can take up their time and may not be at hand to provide efficient ground support. But, when you outsource these time-consuming tasks, your IT team can focus more on the important IT resources of your business.
For example, your IT team can a lot more time to work on issues that require internal troubleshooting. Additionally, they can look at the company’s advancing technology and any internal training needs for your staff.
-
Lower IT Staffing
Network monitoring may require more personnel to ensure everything runs smoothly. This means that you may need to hire more IT staff to avoid lapses. But when you outsource these services, you can maintain a skeletal IT department that can run the crucial internal IT issues. This means that you can minimize costs related to salaries and other benefits payable to team members while ensuring continuity of smooth business operations.
-
Reduce Your IT Costs
As mentioned earlier, the scalability of outsourcing network support means that you can take what your business needs at a particular time. This means you can only pay for those services you procure. You may not get this cost flexibility when managing and running all your IT services internally.
Additionally, to adequately support your business IT needs, you must purchase and install various software and hardware. However, if you outsource your IT services, you use existing support channels already with the service provider. This means you don’t have to budget for certain IT equipment you require to host the services you need.
-
Wider Expertise And Experience
While you may hire the best minds for your IT team, their areas of expertise may limit their abilities. However, outsourcing companies employ experts like software specialists, cybersecurity experts, and networking gurus. Therefore, your business can benefit more from this vast sea of experts without the need to spend more.
Conclusion
To conclude, having an internal IT team can be good. But, with the array of benefits – from cost flexibility to better cybersecurity – you can gain from outsourcing your services, you may be better getting the support from an outside SP.
