Whether it’s a matter of skills, technology, or budgets – or all three – there are many advantages to an organisation outsourcing its IT, including faster technology integration and lower overheads. As SME’s grow, often rapidly, IT must scale too and there are obvious internal indicators that it’s time to outsource. Here we consider what those drivers are.
1.When IT becomes the focus: If your internal teams seem to be constantly consumed with how technology can support them in their business goals and it’s becoming increasingly their focus, taking time and resources away from the core business, then it’s time to consider outsourcing. Your teams should always be focused on their business objectives, not fighting fire, or looking for ways to implement the technology needed to meet their goals. Outsourcing technology leaves your in-house teams to do what they do best in order to meet the goals of your organisations.
2. When you have a skills gap: The skills gap has commanded many column inches, but for organisations struggling to hire IT expertise it’s a very real problem and threatens to slow the growth of companies due to recruitment, retention or the skillsets not matching business needs. Outsourcers have teams of skilled professionals who specialise in many different disciplines within IT support and provide a way for SME’s to tap into the talent they need rapidly. Outsourcing provides access to the best skills available without the time or cost investment to hire new people.
3. When it’s more cost effective: Thanks to the skills gap, hiring IT people is expensive. Full time employees command large salaries, benefits and training, as well as the time and resources to recruit and train them. It may also be the case, that time spent doing both means your organisation loses competitive advantage. Outsourcing your IT means you have a rich experience of experts to deal with, and continuity of knowing they’ll always be there without the huge overheads of staff and the office infrastructure to host them.
4. When you need to upgrade: There comes a point where organisations must upgrade their systems and look at the best, most cost effective options. This often involves moving to the cloud and SaaS platforms, which provides a subscription model for SME’s, simply buying what they need, rather than expensive new hardware and software. CapEx is a large investment, and outsourced partners can offer the latest technology having taken advantage of economies of scale when dealing with multiple clients.
5. When you need to move to the cloud: Digitisation has taken hold in every industry and the rate of adoption thanks to increased home working, has been rapid. Moving to the cloud ultimately means an organisation can work more cost effectively, collaboratively, securely, and efficiently and has been embraced globally. It’s a shift change in working for some organisations, but working with a partner can remove many of the obstacles and provide a new scalable way of doing business.
6. When you need to focus on projects: Outsourced teams can provide the core day-to-day IT skills leaving in-house teams to work on new projects or higher value tasks. Equally where new skills may be required, then outsourcing means faster access to niche skills that would be more difficult and costly to hire, or expensive training for existing employees.
7. To stay ahead of the security curve: The threat landscape changes rapidly and is difficult for smaller organisations to stay ahead of with their existing level of IT resources. It’s often easier, more cost effective and a more successful security strategy to hire external expertise to help manage the risks and the changing issues. Not only does it provide a cost effective solution, but it means that experts oversee your security around the clock, and you can rest a little easier knowing your organisation is safe.
8. When you need flexibility to scale: With rapid growth comes the need to flex your IT resources as fast. Hiring and training new employees is fraught with issues, but outsourcers can flex and scale rapidly either to meet increased or decreased demand and the changing needs of the business. IT support can be adapted to suit your specific requirements, any seasonality or factors affecting your market.
9. When you want 24/7 support: IT outsourcers will provide around the clock support ensuring that problems are rapidly resolved, reducing any downtime, and increasing productivity for your organisation.
10. When you want to know your data is secure: Working with an outsourced partner to back-up your data, provides security and gives you piece of mind. Partners provide an additional layer of off-site data protection in the event of a disaster and can automate back-ups so that the latest data is available. It’s a cost-effective back-up plan and its easy, accessible, up to date and reliable.
If you would like to speak to someone about outsourcing your IT, please contact the team today!
