Having a reliable and strong IT team is one of the key components that can make or break a business. When you have competent IT infrastructure for your employees to work with, you know they will be more productive and face less technical issues that may impede their progress and work. Keeping all this in mind, the natural choice that may come to mind is to hire a well-qualified and capable in house IT team to oversee everything tech related in the business. However, when it comes to running a start-up or a small to medium sized enterprise (SME), outsourcing an IT support team would definitely be the better and more viable option for your business.
Decreased IT costs
When you have an inhouse IT support team for your business, it’s important to invest in the right equipment, servers, networks and other technical components to enable your IT team to carry out their daily responsibilities. Especially for an SME, these costs can be extremely high and take out a massive chunk of the business budget. This doesn’t include the costs for any necessary updates and upgrades to both hardware and software when they get released. However, if an SME outsources an IT support team, all IT associated costs are presented at a fixed rate that does not fluctuate while the outsourced subscription is ongoing. What’s more, upgrades and maintenance costs to the outsourced teams’ IT infrastructure is not imposed on their clients. Overall, it’s an easier, straightforward and stress free alternative than bearing the responsibility of an inhouse team.
Heightened Cyber Security compliance
Cyber security threats are still one of the main reasons that cause SMEs to shut down, simply because the cyber attack was too damaging to the business and they couldn’t recover from the loss. No cyber security safeguards can gurantee a 100% secured business, but updated cyber security protocols significantly helps lessen the risk of a successful cyber threat. Business owners must always ensure their IT team has the latest and most proficient cyber security safeguards under their belt. Will the current IT infrastructure be up to the mark to pass any surprise audits? How much would it cost all together for the complete installation for the security compliance? These issues wouldn’t be a concern if a rightfully qualified managed service provider is hired. These service providers are required to always use the latest technology for their clients which includes the highest level of cyber security compliance.
Updated IT infrastructure
When running an SME, it’s imperative for business owners to think carefully of where they invest the business capital. When starting a big new project, the owner may have to invest and buy new IT technology for the sole purpose of the new project. In the unfortunate case that the project turns out to be a flop, the entire business venture will result in a huge loss due to the new technology that has been bought and barely used. On the other hand, some business owners may not have the money to purchase and maintain the new IT technology overnight and may have to make several payments over the course of a couple of months. This could lead to unnecessary delays in the project. However, outsourcing an IT team from a third party will allow SMEs to access to all the high tech infrastructure for their project without the need of buying or planning their own.
Risk is reduced
When working with an outsourced IT team for your business, you will be introduced to many professionals with extensive experience working with multiple clients. With this in mind, we know that these IT professionals would be able to offer insightful advice on business ventures and advise your SME of the best risk reduced decisions to make. With their expertise at your disposal, you can make better and more informed decisions for your business, while having the correct IT infrastructure to back your decision. Also, in case a project yields unfavourable results, he managed service provider will always have market best practice contingency plans available to help mitigate the any loss that may occur in the business.
Around the clock availability
Most managed service providers have an on call team that’s available 24 hours around the clock. Whether it’s a data breach, ransomware infection or even a natural disaster, there is always an IT team available on call to assist employees with all their technical difficulties and to ensure all business data is secured in the outsourced servers or online cloud. Even if it is to provide remote assistance, there will always be a proficient IT expert available to assist to the fullest extent.
In conclusion, when looking for an affordable IT option to efficiently run your business a third party managed service provider would be the way to go. Their extensive expertise, around the clock availability, and use of updated IT infrastructure allows your business to have access to a plethora of technical options without being restricted by the limitations of a budget for your in house IT team.
