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Top 8 Reasons Why You Should Outsource Your IT Services

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Written By Lance Waterly

As your business grows, your IT needs grow.

Managing your own IT services can be costly and complex. You need to purchase, house, and maintain servers and other hardware, constantly update software, and hire and train staff to monitor system health and security.

Should you continue to invest in scaling on-site IT services or should you consider outsourcing your IT services to a managed services professional?

When you outsource your IT services to a managed services company has many benefits. It can free up resources, space, and more.

Here, we’ll cover a few of the most beneficial aspects of outsourcing your IT services.  

1. Control IT costs

Outsourcing your IT services

Perhaps the most common reason to consider outsourcing your IT service is the cost.

Outsourcing effectively lowers IT costs for most small businesses. In fact, moving your IT off-site can save your company thousands of dollars per yearThat is partly because you no longer need to invest in hardware and hardware storage.

Servers, climate-controlled server rooms, connective cabling, and other storage requirements take a considerable bite out of your budget. On top of that, housing and maintaining servers can eat up a lot of costly real estate.

The cost of outsourcing your IT is lower than the cost of purchasing, housing, and maintaining on-site servers. Outsourcing your IT frees up space and resources you could invest in other areas of your business.

2. Control labor costs

Outsourcing your IT services allows you to lower labor costs. As you know, hiring and training staff is a lengthy and expensive task.

It can often take months before you know if a new hire is a good fit. What is more, as your business grows, you’ll need to hire more staff to ensure your IT services run smoothly day and night.

A managed service provider employs an entire staff of experienced IT professionals.

Instead of paying salary, benefits, taxes, and other associated costs for each member of your IT staff, you can consolidate those costs with an IT company for a fee that includes hardware, software, and labor.

3. Experienced, professional help

One of the biggest benefits of outsourcing your IT services is access to the experience and knowledge of a dedicated managed services company.

That is because managed services providers dedicate time and resources to hiring and training skilled IT professionals, after all, it’s the one service they provide.

IT companies employ IT, specialists, with years of experience facing all kinds of IT issues. In other words, you get all the benefits of an entire team of highly trained experts when you outsource your IT services.

4. Updated technology

One of the biggest drawbacks to on-site, in-house IT services is the cost and complexity of updating software and hardware.

New servers and software updates for an entire company can be cost-prohibitive and can impact the functionality of your system during updates.

The challenges and costs of updating technology are some of the reasons so many companies still run legacy systems. 

As you know, legacy software is often the most susceptible to hacks and security breaches. In order to avoid security breaches and provide up to date technology for your staff and your clients, you simply need to update your technology.

Updated technology

IT service providers typically offer the latest hardware and software options for security and business reasons.

After all, managed service providers want your business and need to compete with other IT providers for it. As such, most IT service companies offer the latest software options.

That means you get all the benefits of up to date technology without the hassle and cost of updating it yourself.

5. Cloud migration

One of the biggest benefits of outsourcing your IT services is cloud migration. Migrating your system to the cloud gives your company the flexibility it needs to compete in the modern landscape.

Cloud services enable you to access your systems from virtually anywhere. What is more, cloud migration helps your business take advantage of the latest cloud and edge computing benefits.

As the Internet of Things (IoT) grows, more and more computing will take place in the cloud and at the edge of networks. Cloud computing allows you to access and benefit from big data analysis.

6. Better security

Security is on the mind of everyone in the IT field. With so many hacks, breaches, and other data thefts these days, it’s also on the mind of consumers, customers, and clients.

You need to ensure your security measures are up to the task. If you manage your IT services in-house, you need to ensure the security of your system is fully compliant and constantly monitored.

That can be incredibly difficult for smaller firms, especially if your business accepts credit and debit cards or stores personal data.

Outsourcing your IT services to a managed services provider ensures you’re protected with up to date, compliant security measures, and protocols.

What’s more, many IT service providers offer employee training to ensure your staff is following best practices to secure your system.

Outsourcing your IT not only provides better security for your hardware and software, but it also ensures your staff understands their responsibility when it comes to safeguarding the sensitive data housed in your network.

7. Focus on business

Like every business, your company has limited resources and time.

Outsourcing your IT can help you focus the attention of your staff and management back to the core aspects of your business.

IT issues can be a major source of distraction for your company. Instead of spending valuable time and energy dealing with non-vital IT decisions, you can reallocate that time and energy into new ventures that drive revenue and growth.

8. Improve competitiveness

Large businesses with vast resources are able to invest heavily in their IT. For many smaller firms, difficult decisions must be made when allocating resources.

Outsourcing IT services can help smaller firms compete with larger companies.

That’s because outsourcing gives you access to the same up-to-date hardware and software as bigger companies, but without the associated costs of managing them in-house.

Competition

Outsourcing your IT services ensures you have access to the latest, most effective technology. Meaning you can focus on aspects of your business that help you compete.

To outsource or not to outsource?

Outsourcing your IT services is an important decision.

Outsourcing gives you access to up to date hardware and software, provides greater security, helps lower costs, grants access to IT specialists, and can even improve your competitiveness.

Keep in mind what your goals are, and clearly communicate your needs and concerns with potential managed service providers.

All things considered, the decision to outsource often carries fewer potential liabilities than investments in staff & hardware required for in-house management.

It’s worth carefully looking at the cost, liability, and benefits for your company to make the best possible IT management plan.

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