On staff or outsourced IT?

When it comes to managing your IT, you have one major decision to make: are you going to hire your own IT team? Or, would you rather outsource? Both options come with their advantages, but how strong those advantages are will depend on your business and what it needs.

Maintaining control

There’s a strong case for saying that having your own on-site team allows you to maintain control. The IT person (or team) who works for you is on your payroll. That means you have a big say in how they operate and you can be sure they’re focusing solely on your business.

Although maintaining control is an enticing thought, can you be sure that the team or person you use can meet every task? You may find that, in addition to their designated role, they become everyone’s go-to help person. As a result, they may find themselves spread a bit thin and they might struggle to maintain a high quality of work.

Round the clock care

One of the biggest advantages of outsourcing your IT tasks is that round-the-clock care is achievable. During 2018 alone, the cybercrime world was worth $1.5-trillion. With criminals standing to make such large amounts of money, it makes sense that they’ll never rest. 

Unless your IT person is superhuman, you can’t expect them to deliver the round-the-clock protection your systems need. In contrast, managed IT services are able to respond to breaches rapidly. Depending on the provider you choose, you may benefit from assets such as ongoing vulnerability management. So not only will your team address problems as they arise, they’ll work constantly toward stopping them from happening in the first place. 

Consistent IT support

Did you know that 59% of businesses surveyed believe that human error is the number one cause of downtime? When you consider that each hour of downtime has the potential to cost you thousands, the thought that your employees could cause it is worrying. And when they do cause such problems, they’ll need someone to turn to for assistance. 

Both in-house IT teams and managed IT solutions have the ability to provide support. The type that works will depend on the size of your business. You can have lots of employees, but still not have a large budget to dedicate to IT staff. When that’s the case, you should prioritize using a managed service. Managed services have more resources, which allows you to achieve more consistent levels of support.

Access to experts

There may come a time when you need to implement technologies that require expert attention. For example, if you want to replace your telephone lines with VoIP, you may need a telecommunications expert. Unless this is your IT team’s niche, you may find that transitioning into using such services is difficult.

There are two ways you can use managed IT services to overcome a lack of expertise. You can either use them as an adjunct to your existing IT team, or you can make the switch entirely. Either way, if expertise is what you’re aiming for, make sure you choose external services that can provide it.

With both managed and on-staff IT services having advantages, it’s worth examining each option closely. Either way, you need to do what’s best for your business.