More than half of US companies say they plan to increase their technology spending over the next year.
A well-run tech system is indispensable to small businesses. It can be used to improve productivity, track your budgeting, and promote your operation through advertising.
Your entire business can suffer if your tech is slow or unreliable. Many small businesses invest in IT employees who can help improve technology throughout the day.
In recent years, however, it has become more popular for a business to outsource its IT department. What are the benefits of hiring a professional company? Let’s take a look.
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1. Controlled Costs
The most obvious benefit of outsourcing your IT needs is that you are not hiring full-time employees who will require salaries and benefits. And don’t forget about sick days, certifications, and paid time off.
With an outsourced company, you will bring professionals in for assistance only when you need them. Your IT company will be responsible for providing ongoing training.
If you are outsourcing your IT department, you will be paying a monthly fee that will not change. You will also save money on software acquisition, overhead, and turnover.
IT departments are able to offer businesses computer programs hosted by clouds. Here, you can rent programs such as servers instead of buying them. Your outsourced IT professionals can even locate your servers off-site and monitor them regularly.
All of this will lower your total IT investment. Hardware often needs to be replaced, but cloud services enable you to predict your costs and control them. Read here for more.
2. Increased Efficiency
A professional IT company has the resources to begin working on your problem right away. Hiring the right team to attack certain in-house problems will require weeks or months to find the right people, train them, and provide the right support.
Quality IT companies can immediately assign the right people to the job. It will save you endless time and money.
If an employee encounters an issue, a remote IT person can immediately take control of that person’s PC and fix any issues. They will also make sure that complicated issues are resolved immediately, so they don’t continue to snowball.
In smaller companies especially, an IT employee may run out of work to do quickly. There will only be certain times your staff will require help. Your IT person could even spend their time making the network more complex in order to stay busy during the workday.
3. Better Training
An in-house IT person may be quite competent, but they are still isolated from issues outside their everyday responsibilities. The folks at leading IT companies have seen many of the same problems multiple times. Their knowledge base is more broad and in-depth.
Look for certifications before hiring an IT company, such as Microsoft Systems Certified Engineer. This will ensure that your staff is knowledgeable in many areas.
An in-house IT person may require time for research, development, and implementation. All of this gets passed down to customers in terms of time and money spent.
A top IT company will give you immediate access to the latest procedures, techniques, documentation, and methods. Your team will be able to anticipate possible problems, and fix them before your business loses any tech time.
4. A Full Team
As opposed to your standard one-man operation, an IT company can provide you with a full-fledged IT support team. Extra staff will be on standby in case they are needed. Your team will have the resources available to tackle problems quickly, and that will shorten the amount of time you need to spend on projects.
Your IT team can help you to avoid hardware failures, database corruptions, and spyware intrusions. This will minimize the amount of productivity time your business will lose if your tech fails.
5. Minimizing Your Risk
Knowledge of government regulations, financial considerations, and technologies are required in order to lower your business’ risk. Your business assumes a certain amount of risk when it comes to security and compliance issues. If you outsource your IT, the outside company assumes this risk for you.
A third party can help you minimize your risk when it comes to sensitive and confidential data, including credit cards, financial data, and confidential competitive information.
Small and mid-sized businesses especially can benefit from outsourcing an IT department. You will have access to a well-established third-party management structure that can give you an edge over the competition.
6. Focus On Core Competencies
You can spend the time and money that your business would pay to hire a full-time employee on the core competencies of your outfit. Think about gearing it toward marketing, innovation, supply management, customer service, and branding.
Not funneling resources into these areas can cause you to lag behind the competition, and ultimately hurt your business. Knowing that your tech is being managed by professionals will give you more than peace of mind. It will give you extra time and money to spend on growing your business.
Outsourcing Your IT Department
Outsourcing your IT department can help you save valuable time and resources. When you need it, your business will be staffed with a full team of professionals that can increase your operation’s efficiency and lower its risk. Outsourcing your IT department will put a professional third party in your corner that will give you the competitive edge you need.
For more information on improving your business, read our blog today.
