An important consideration for all companies as they grow or develop their business and workforce is that of IT support. As systems, users, and business needs change and develop, the relationship with IT deepens. For many small companies, the first option is to hire an IT Support engineer with the hope of growing the team as the business expands. For small and growing companies this often proves to be the costliest and least beneficial choice. To help provide a measure of clarity for businesses in this position and highlight the benefits of each option we have created this breakdown of In-House vs Out-Sourced IT Support.
What are the advantages of in-house IT support?
Institutional Knowledge
In-House IT teams have a deeper level of knowledge and awareness of existing quirks and processes. Common issues can be addressed quickly.
Presence
Maintaining an in-house IT function puts a face on the IT support and users will be aware of who they need to go to when something goes wrong.
Trust
In-House IT teams generally hold a high level of trust throughout the organisation, as they are members of the overall business. As such, they are privy to a higher level of trust from the users.
What are the advantages of outsourced IT support?
Cost Reduction
From the cost of the employees to additional training, equipment, licensing, and HR costs, outsourcing to a team of IT professionals will be considerably cheaper than hiring the team and managing them in-house.
Outsourcing IT will allow the business to redistribute the existing IT budget in other areas of the business requiring additional financial support or can be used for greater IT investment to keep ahead of the competition.
Experience and Wisdom
Qualified engineers can demonstrate aptitude, knowledge, and skill, however wisdom and awareness are gained from experience to which limited in-house teams will not be exposed at the same rate as an outsourced team. Institutional knowledge and awareness can result in acceptance of issues which have not been resolved fully, as well as lack of awareness of larger trends.
Outsourcing your IT support function to a team gives access to a wider range of experience that can be relied upon by your business to resolve every issue.
Focus
The root cause of business growth is excellence and success in their field. As businesses grow, this focus is diluted as the additional concerns, hires, functions, and tasks to be completed increases.
Outsourcing the IT function and reducing IT consideration allows the business to focus more resource back on their successful “core” business operations and teams.
Reduced Risk
Consolidating your business’ reliance on the experience and wisdom of internal IT resource introduces a great deal of risk. With larger, more complex, projects or implementations the individuals may not be experienced or well-versed in the processes required to achieve success.
Outsourced teams deal with a variety of clients, allowing them to build the experience and document successful processes for future deployment.
Project Work
As companies grow their processes and procedures develop, and in the modern age the reliance on technology and tools to achieve growth is only increasing. Moving to a Customer Relationship Manager database or implementing a new Line of Business tool can absorb the entirety of an in-house IT function’s time and resources, reducing the availability of support to the rest of the team.
An outsourced IT support function would be able to delegate project teams to manage this for the business while maintaining the same levels of support.
Issue tracking
Businesses face issues big and small every day with their IT, most aren’t perceived by users on a surface level.
An outsourced IT support function will have invested in appropriate tools which will track and maintain records of issues faced by the business. This will enable them to proactively resolve issues by addressing any root cause as well as identifying trends and reporting on these to prevent relapse.
The appropriate solution for most businesses may not be as cut and dry, and they will need to work with internal and external resources to create and maintain their optimal environment. Whilst most Out-Sourced providers will prove combative with internal resources, demanding an “all or nothing” approach to support and management, utilising on-site resources can reduce the engineering resource required to support the client. The appropriate solution will vary from business to business.
Texaport work with clients as their trusted partners; regular service review meetings allow for future planning and developments as well as potential issues to be proactively addressed. Working with clients in the capacity of support engineer, project planner, IT Manager and CIO, Texaport ensures that clients are fully catered for, supported and empowered. Texaport will always meet with prospective partners to identify the needs and pains of the business to ensure both parties are aligned in understanding, goals, and expectations.
