IT Support: In-House or Outsourced

Technology is a fantastic thing. Well, to us it is anyway. And with the exponential growth in the technology and the digital sector, comes massive advancements to how companies go about shaping their IT support and services.

With improvements in cloud technology, businesses of all sizes are all but primed for life in the cloud. With spend estimated to reach £108 Billion on cloud services by 2019, more and more businesses seem likely to eradicate old practices and follow suit. IT spend is shifting to the cloud with an expected secondary boom.

Outsource or In-House

IT outsourcing is undergoing a transformation driven by the advancements in technology. Due to this, more and more specialist Managed Service Providers are cropping up, and with more hands on deck, a deeper pool of knowledge, latest IT trends and around the clock support, it seems logical for companies to seriously look into outsourcing.

With 79% of companies reporting IT frustrations and the struggle to find ideal IT candidates, it isn’t a surprise that these companies are leaning on IT service providers to deliver full support and cover. The average salary for IT staff currently set at £37,010, with a bonus of 8%, hiring two IT staff could cost upwards of £70,000 per year. Business managers now also have a stronger role in IT projects than the IT staff themselves. These people are responsible for determining how the IT budget should be spent and what solutions the company should embrace, whether that be CRM’s, VoIP solutions or cloud based systems to streamline work.

Of course, having the flexibility in being able to walk into the IT department and query issues and get instant answers is always beneficial, but the expertise and hands-on service that managed providers offer nowadays means that they can be just as responsive without the hefty price tag. Like how hosting providers have shaped over the last 15 years, their team of specialists look after your data off-site and monitor everything without you having to physically see it, touch it or worry about the cost of the infrastructure within your premises. Let’s not also forget the worry of staff to oversee all of this and their salaries.

The new era of working is presenting massive changes on how businesses can operate. Sales people can be on the road and ever connected to cloud based systems that account managers can act on from the office instantaneously, speeding up work between areas of a business. Companies that need logistic requirements can connect to a central hub and accurately update job collections eradicating the need for their own fleet or drivers. Everything is being simplified, and the IT sector is no different, if not leading this change. The beauty or being IT skilled and the cross merge between technology platforms means more people in this sector are not just looking after computers and servers anymore, but they are becoming telecommunication technicians, hosting experts, digital consultants and the nest of skills continue. Relying on an internal member of staff to self-learn these ever expanding skills required is a major ask, but for a maintained provider that offer these service to businesses it’s a must. The level of skills involved is what’s attracting IT specialists to work for IT providers.

Still need convincing?

If you have looked at prices for outsourcing your IT and thought that it was expensive, you need to fully strip it all back. How much does it cost to get a fully integrated IT department configured within your business? Cost for advertising the vacancy, the staffing itself, training, tools, computers, new systems etc. When you weigh up the savings to be made by going with an IT service provider, figures suggest a 30% saving.

What to look out for?

If you are thinking of outsourcing your IT support you need to understand what it is you are actually getting. How many hours of support are you being estimated? What does the support consist of? How easy is it to log support tickets and their average response times? Is your data backed up should disasters happen? After you have ironed out proposals given to you, try to realistically compare that with the spend on employees and internal set up fees to see if it is worth investing in.

Technology is constantly freeing up time for us all. Take Sweden for example. They are trialing a six hour work day in order to create a better work-life balance with studies suggesting it makes workers more productive. Toyota in Gothenburg actually recorded profits and a lower staff turnover rates. (see the article by the Independent). Are workers eventually going to offer their skills on an outsource/freelance basis resulting in fully formed cloud based businesses? Who knows?

We understand that some business owners prefer to invest in people to get the best out of them, but there are many partnered IT providers that want to invest in your business interests, and Lumic are one of them. Our training, infrastructure and research never ends and we send it back your way. Hire a company that can grow alongside you.

So if you are the new Elon Musk attempting your first SpaceX manned Mars mission, or a local business in Essex wanting to reduce headaches and concentrate on growing your business, chances are you going to be looking at outsourcing your IT services in the near future.

If you want a company that will become a supportive arm of your business and take full care of your IT, then you should talk to us to find out how we can help.