As new technologies are developed and accepted, more and more businesses are realizing the benefits of offloading IT operations to a managed IT services provider. Once reserved for Fortune 500 companies, now even small to medium sized business can utilize professionally managed IT services to benefit their IT teams, the bottom line, and so much more.
Below, we will discuss the key benefits of outsourcing your IT operations, and which ones you should consider outsourcing asap.
Scalability
Professionally managed IT services have the skills, experience, services, and scalability to tackle anything your growing business throws at them. Whether you need to add a new service, or scale up your storage level, a simple phone call or email is all it takes to get them started.
Save money on equipment and maintenance
While any IT request or upgrade will incur additional costs, these costs are far below what your business would have to expend attempting to tackle the job internally. By using a third party service, you won’t need to take on the costs of purchasing and maintaining equipment to keep your digital network operating as projected.
Stay focused on your core industry
Your managers and staff only have so much time each day to conduct business. Managed IT services allow your employees to focus on the core activities of your business and not get distracted by complicated IT affairs. Depending on which IT tasks you outsource, you may be able to keep higher-level IT tasks in-house while outsourcing smaller-order tasks to a third party provider.
The best technology
Can your firm afford to implement the IT services used by the big boys in your industry? Outsourcing IT services allows you to access the newest and most advanced technology and services, usually reserved for bigger firms. For example, you can access things like universal database backup, a 24/7 hosted copy of your server, and data recovery even in the event of a data-hijacking virus.
Keep business up to date and secure
Is your company firewall current? Do you consistently audit firm workstations and servers? Does your IT department keep PCI security up to current industry standards? Managed IT services allow you to reduce the risks involved with keeping customer data, information, and documents safe and secure.
Access to certified, professionally trained IT staff
Managed IT services give you access to certified staff with the experience and skills required to keep digital networks operating efficiently. You don’t have to spend money hiring and training IT workers and ensuring they have the necessary skills and experience.
Reduce IT labor costs
How much did your firm pay for IT labor costs last year? Outsourcing IT services allows you to change fixed IT expenses (things like salaries and benefits) into variable ones. Using this strategy, firms only pay for what they truly need to conduct business on a daily basis. Ultimately, this strategy results in an organization that is more flexible.
Getting started – which IT services and tasks should you outsource?
There are numerous ways to outsource your IT tasks and take the burden of internal management off of your company. Below are a few time and money saving IT tasks your company should consider handing off to a trusted third-party.
Data backup – is a critical business need for any business concerned with data loss, company downtime, compromised records and financial setbacks. When data loss occurs, whether by human error, natural disaster, or malicious intent, getting it back can not only be lengthy, downtime-ladden and frustrating, it may not be able to be restored at all. This is where data backup comes in. Unlike hard drive and other physical backups, by backing up your data to a secure offsite location in the cloud, you can ensure that no matter what incident strikes, you’ll always be able to recover your data. Here are a few, secure cloud backup plan options for you to consider.
- Why outsource cloud backup? – Rather than having to build and maintain your own data center in a secondary location, implement security measures, schedule backups and monitor them, you can have an expert backup company handle it all for you. Best of all third-party cloud backup providers automate your backups and are always abreast on the latest technology, so you’ll never have to worry about your data remaining whole and available. You’ll also have access to assistance from your provider should you need to restore a backup.
IT audits – are designed to find vulnerabilities in your business’s IT policies, infrastructure and operations. Businesses should undergo audits at least once a year to ensure business assets are safe and secure, and that the integrity of data is being upheld. This is especially important as technology advances and digital threats become more prominent.
- Why outsource IT audits – IT audits are always best performed by a third party. When you do your own audit, it’s easy to miss things simply because you’re too close to it. It’s always good to have a second pair of expert eyes. Your auditor may also be able to suggest new repairs and protocols that safer and are more up-to-date, keeping your data and your network safe from attacks and data loss.
Infrastructure – building your IT infrastructure can be time consuming and expensive, not to mention labor intensive. And while some businesses may opt to do this in-house, for most, the advantages are few. If you hire the right thirdparty provider, you’ll have the access to expert resources and technologies with which to build your infrastructure and maintain it.
- Why outsource infrastructure – labor costs are one of the biggest IT expenses within a business. By outsourcing this job to a third-party, you can avoid having to hire new techs just to build and maintain your IT infrastructure, and you won’t be overwhelming the techs you currently employ by adding on a giant project. Equipment is another expense you’ll avoid by outsourcing your infrastructure. You’ll save money on the upfront cost of purchasing the equipment you need to operate, and you won’t have to spend money for new equipment and repairs as the broken and legacy equipment goes.
Bottomline, if the projects are outside of your scope and expertise, could save your business money, will save your employees time, or will keep your business data on safer footing, it’s always a good idea to outsource your IT services.
To decide which IT services will make the most sense to outsource, get your current IT managers and technicians in on the discussion. They should have an accurate idea of internal capabilities and which tasks would be better suited to a managed IT service.
