5 reasons to outsource your IT support

When businesses grow to a certain size, their IT requirements can often get to the stage where problems can stop progress dead in its tracks. Drafting IT experts into your team is the best way to ensure that systems run smoothly and problems are rectified quickly, but with more people comes more cost and responsibility. Luckily, there’s a world of outsourced businesses out there ready to take the reins on IT problems within businesses of all sizes.

However, there is often (and correctly so) an aversion to using a third-party provider as opposed to solving problems in-house for a number of reasons including cost, control and time. In reality, dodging outsourced IT support can actually be counter-intuitive, and here are five reasons why it can actually make more sense to hand problems to someone else.

You’re paying for expertise

Sometimes solving an IT problem isn’t a hard task, and knowing how to do it is half the battle. The next time you look at the ‘extortionate’ fees for helpline support or IT services, just realise that you’re paying for access to knowledge and not just someone spending 5-10 minutes fixing your PC. You’ll also have access to your service provider’s entire collective expertise too, allowing you to get way more in terms of help, advice and support as opposed to a quick fix.

You don’t need to recruit anyone

Bringing in your own IT staff in what is an exceptionally competitive market is a double-edged sword. Yes, you’ll have salaried IT experts at your disposal, but you’ll need to devote time and money to find them in the first place, then ensure they aren’t tempted by a more lucrative offer elsewhere. With a service provider, the hassle of bringing in skilled staff is left to them, and you won’t be left in the lurch when your support staff hand their notice in and head elsewhere.

You can hand over your cybersecurity headaches

With GDPR now in full effect and more pressure on businesses to have robust digital security strategies, cybersecurity is yet another cost to factor into the IT budget. So why not put the pressure on your service provider instead! By working in KPIs and contractual standards that cover your security requirements, you can leave the difficult part to them, letting you focus on strategy and planning without the worries of falling foul of security legislature.

You’ve got a helping hand when it all goes wrong

From contingency planning to backup and recovery, IT can be a minefield that throws up extra costs and wastes time at the worst possible moment. By leaning on a service provider, you can draft them in to clean up the mess when things turn upside down, and spend your time on figuring out how it won’t happen again, rather than sweeping up the mess.

You can bring your business into the 21st century with ease

Migrating emails, setting up virtual private networks and implementing Office365 may all seem daunting tasks for organisations who haven’t carried out an IT upgrade for a long time, but this kind of work is bread and butter to a good IT service provider. With way more experience when it comes to improvements and upgrades then your business will ever be able to muster, it makes total sense to leave an important and often complex task to someone who knows exactly what they are doing.