These days it's unlikely that any business can survive and succeed without technology. When companies look to expand technologically, they will have two choices, do they take on the burden of implementing, heavily investing and managing their IT in-house, or do they choose to outsource this task to a trusted Managed Service Provider? Whilst both can be viable options the needs and size of your business will play a big part in which option would be best for you.
In-house IT vs Outsourced IT, there is always an eternal debate about which one is better. Some business owners still believe dealing with their IT in-house is the best option. For large organisations, due to their economies of scale, this may still be a viable option, for SMEs on the other hand, attempting to manage their IT in-house can be expensive, stressful and unpredictable.
In this blog, we will address the unseen expenses businesses deal with when it comes to in-house IT departments and break down what makes outsourcing, easier, cheaper, and more adaptable for SMEs.
The Problems That Come With In-House IT
- Downtime costs
Unlike businesses that run their services in-house, MSP’s have a 99.99% uptime. A study has found the average cost of system downtime for SMEs is an average of £4600 every minute which if not fixed quickly can become a significant amount of money.
Downtime can drastically disrupt and decrease productivity when a system or business goes down there is also the risk that important data may be lost. Files not saved, being transferred, or uploaded will all be at risk.
- Hardware and software costs
Hardware is expensive right now, but some businesses still feel that making one large investment into hardware is a worthwhile and one-time cost. Unfortunately, this is not the case, hardware not only needs to be purchased but you'll also have to maintain, refresh, monitor, and repair it throughout its life. In addition to this licenses that are used on your hardware usually require a monthly or annually reoccurring payment that may increase over time.
These expenses can quickly add up and you may find opting for a managed service provider who can deal with all these tedious tasks as a bundled service can be a more cost-effective and scalable option.
- Recruitment costs
It’s not a secret that the price of hiring staff, and especially IT staff has drastically increased. Many businesses have found that the cost of hiring someone with the same skill set as they had pre-pandemic is costing approximately £3000 to £4000 more annually according to a study conducted by the office for national statistics. Larger businesses are sweeping up these talented employees with offers of pay that most SMEs just can’t match, this makes hiring new and reliable staff an increasingly difficult and expensive task.
Many businesses overlook the fact that having employees costs more than just their annual salary. The process of recruitment, onboard training, retraining, and certifications will cost you time and money. In addition to this, there are also the costs for employee benefits and each new employee will require their own hardware, furniture, software licenses and more.
These costs are also then repeated any time you have staff turnover, which is becoming increasingly common as recent studies have shown.
- Cyber-Security
Businesses that handle their IT needs in-house are much more susceptible to cyber-attacks. Not all businesses have the resources needed to guarantee the safety of their data, secure servers, monthly password amendments and system health monitoring all play an important role in keeping your business safe. On the other hand, when you partner with an MSP like ourselves we would store your data in secure ISO 27001 servers, implement mandatory password resets and can monitor your systems up to 24/7 to guarantee that if a cyber-attack was to emerge it can be quickly addressed and removed.
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Benefits of Outsourcing Your Businesses IT
'71% of businesses say cost reductions are their main reasons for IT outsourcing'
- Infrastructure management becomes easy
IT infrastructure also includes costs such as licensing, consulting, training and monitoring all of which can be dealt with by your MSP, saving you time, stress, and money.
- Expert level support
It is always surprising how often little IT issues creep up that can completely stall projects. Efforts spent solving these minute problems are an easy way to quickly burn through time and money.
Most business that chooses to outsource their IT usually have at least one in-house IT manager. Menial tasks like password reset, updates and new user creation are usually dealt with by your IT manager giving him less time to work on important long-term planning and projects. These tedious tasks can now be dealt with by your MSP freeing up time for your IT manager allowing them to focus on their core role.
Having an outsourced partner allows you and your colleagues to have instant access to a whole team of IT experts who can deal with everything from something as simple as a password reset all the way to disaster recovery (and everything in between).
- Scalability
Partnering with an MSP removes any IT worries concerning the scalability of your business, up or down. As successful and growing businesses know their IT needs can increase very drastically and having the ability to easily scale your hardware, software, and staff can be extremally difficult.
Managed IT Services allow your business to have flexibility, especially in your business's early years where there is significant growth and circumstances can change at a moment’s notice.
As small- to medium-sized business owners, you want to make sure that you’re getting the service you pay for. With entrust IT Group as your partner, you will get proactive support, improved security, the latest software, technology, and more.
Outsource Your IT to The Right Partner
Every company has their own needs and depending on its situation different options will make more sense. Whilst for larger businesses, choosing to go in-house may be a viable choice as their economies of scale will allow them to easily invest in the necessary hardware, training, licenses, and maintenance costs. For SME’s choosing to partner with an experienced MSP looks to be the most cost-effective, stress-free, and scalable approach.
It is an unavoidable fact that everything from the cost of recruitment and hardware, to licenses and security, is increasing; this makes for unpredictable costs and low flexibility. Partnering with a managed service provider would allow you to leverage an entire team of IT professionals and equipment without the big investment.
Our team is headed by IT professionals with decades of experience in small as well as large companies between them. They not only understand the importance of getting results, but the bottlenecks bad IT and support of it can create. So, whether you’re a company without a dedicated IT team, a large organisation that requires tried-and-tested solutions to beat off the competition, or a company seeking to implement a flexible working strategy, the support you receive will be cutting edge no matter your businesses needs. Please get in touch with a member of the team on 0330 002 0045 or email enquiries@entrustit.co.uk if you think you too could benefit from our help.
