Ever heard of IT outsourcing services? Sounds pretty boring, huh? Ok, we get it. Managing the needs of your business technology might not seem like the most exciting thing to learn.
However, did you know that IT outsourcing services are one of the best things you can do for your business and employees?
IT outsourcing manages your business's day-to-day tasks and information technology needs simply by outsourcing these needs to experts.
When it comes to your business and the goals you wish to accomplish, outsourcing your technology not only frees up time to focus on more important and pressing tasks but also helps support the growth and sustainability of your business.
A Managed Service Provider, or MSP, can quickly and efficiently supplement your in-house IT department or even become your IT department, depending on your business goals and budget.
An MSP is essentially your IT department, which can proactively manage your company's information technology assets. This differs from traditional IT, which is more of a reactive service built around a break/fix model.
By the way, what is a break/fix model?
When your IT systems break, your IT department stops what they are doing and fixes them instead of proactively managing your systems, preventing these issues from occurring in the first place.
There’s nothing wrong with that, but many small—and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) follow this practice.
Follow along as we go through how IT outsourcing works by learning about the best types of services that benefit your specific business technology needs.
The Challenges of Managing Your Network
Many companies, probably similar to yours, manage their IT infrastructure daily, and there’s nothing wrong with that. However, there are some profound benefits to look into when outsourcing your IT needs.
We first want to start by listing out some of the most common challenges of in-house network management you might be familiar with:
- Network: Reducing network overhead costs while increasing network infrastructure services
- Growth: Supporting dynamic business growth with restricted budgets and staffing levels
- Agility: Quick response times to time-to-market demands
- Compete: Implementing new technologies to maintain a competitive business
- Strategy: Supporting new business operations and markets or integrating acquisition
- Maintenance: Managing, maintaining, and upgrading network infrastructure and management systems
- Uptime: Delivering high-quality, high-availability network services to meet 24-hour demand
- Voice: Ensuring voice traffic and call quality have sufficient priority
- Security: Securing data, transactions, and communications to keep up with the latest security threats
- Compliance: Meeting privacy and security regulations, such as HIPAA
- Virtual: Delivering and maintaining services to remote offices and workers
- Experts: Finding, recruiting, and retaining certified network professionals who understand all of your technology systems
- Knowledge: Keeping staff current with new and upcoming technologies and skills
Do any of these challenges sound familiar? If so, this might be the first step in understanding IT outsourcing services and how they can significantly help you and your employees.
Before you give up on IT outsourcing, it’s worth a shot to learn what challenges your company faces by using an in-house IT department. Some of these challenges might be ones you aren’t even aware of, which is even more essential to understanding your business needs.
Interested in learning more about your business's risks without outsourcing your IT? Read our article, Is Your Business at Risk Without Managed IT Services?
What’s Included in IT Outsourcing Services?
What are the most common IT services your business needs or utilizes daily? Take some time to list the most critical technology assets your company currently uses or services you wish your business utilized.
Think of IT outsourcing as a partnership or an extended arm of your business rather than a vendor you pay each month but rarely see. Partnering with the right outsourcing company allows your business to form a trusting, reliable, and professional relationship.
There are a lot of different services that make up IT outsourcing, but here’s a summary of the services most businesses benefit from the most.
- Helpdesk Support: An IT outsourcing helpdesk troubleshoots your IT issues as they occur and can help boost your business. A help desk can simplify management, reduce costs, increase productivity, provide tracking and reporting, and allow you to communicate with you as needed.
- Data Backup, Recovery, and Security: Data loss, accidental or by theft, is one of the most significant concerns for businesses. IT outsourcing services offer complete protection with a secure firewall, servers, malware, and virus protection. Intensive data security service stops thieves, hackers, and criminals. Proactive security and 24/7 monitoring of your network help eliminate attempted cyber-hacks, anti-virus patches, and other software updates that need to be done quickly.
“The Future of Things” published an article on the importance of data backup and recovery that you might find interesting. You can read it here: The Importance of Data Backup and Data Recovery.
- Technical Support: A business, department, provider, or staff offering help managing computer technology. Technical support can be in many forms: desktop, application, mobile, networking, hosting, website, and IT security. Many businesses build an in-house team of experts to handle IT support for their company in these areas. By identifying the right outsourcing vendors, you can off-load these duties to take advantage of the cost savings with minimal capital outlay. This is especially true for small to medium-sized businesses (SMBs) managing growth. Also, outsourcing IT allows businesses to tap into more substantial business technology resources and expertise while staying focused on their core business objectives.
- Technology Road Mapping and Planning: With the help of an IT outsourcing services team, you can create technology plans to future-proof your business. Make sure to focus on your business goals with the technology you’re using and how you plan to grow with new technology as it emerges.
- Application and Database Development: The more up-to-date your software and computer applications are, the easier your life will be. An IT outsourcing service can provide the right software applications to ensure your business uses the most updated technology. It can also develop new software specific to your business needs and job duties.
- Virtual CIO (vCIO): A vCIO, also known as a Virtual CIO (Chief Information Officer). The vCIO may be a consultant, third-party, or business that offers a service (part-time person) to fulfill the role of a current CIO. This service helps companies that can’t afford the salary and benefits of a full-time executive. A vCIO usually works remotely and supports developing a technology roadmap, reviewing and maintaining IT infrastructure, vendor management, new technology, and recommendations.
- Reporting: Detailed reporting allows you to see the applications taking up most of your network resources. Monitoring also provides insight into traffic bottlenecks and peak periods so that you can add more capacity when needed and prevent your employees from becoming frustrated.
Learn even more about IT outsourcing services and what’s included in your partnership with a service provider by reading our article, What are IT Outsourcing Services?
Business Advantages
Once you find the right IT outsourcing services company, you’ll immediately see the business advantages that come with it. Look for IT outsourcing companies who can back up their guarantees of:
- Predictable budgeting means a set fee for your services.
- Access to leading network technologies and management expertise, without high capital expenditures or ongoing investments in upgrades, IT staffing, and maintenance resources.
- One point of contact for vendor management.
- Proactive management of your network, allowing preventative maintenance on all your equipment.
- Service level agreements (SLAs) which guarantee predictable response and resolution times for network problems.
Understanding whether or not your business will benefit from IT outsourcing services is as simple as looking at your existing IT department or IT services provider and asking yourself the question, “Am I satisfied with my company's technology?”
If you have many unexpected costs, lots of downtime on your computers, or are unsure whether or not you have the right IT systems in place, it's time to seek out a new partner—an IT outsourcing services partner.
The Final Say: IT Outsourcing & Business Success
Our goal at AIS is to educate you and your employees on the best business practices to ensure business growth and success. We believe in helping our current and future customers make the best decisions regarding office technology.
If there’s anything we didn’t answer regarding the benefits of IT outsourcing or you’d like to learn more, contact one of our business technology consultants.
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