The idea of hiring professional services firms instead of employing in-house staff is a compelling topic in today’s business market. Whether your business is outsourcing accounting, recruiting, or others, the bottom line is you need a trusted partner to fill an integral role in your company. There are lots of reasons to contract certain services out, but why would IT be at the top of the list? You may be thinking, “There are countless resumes being sent to our HR department from IT professionals, and they must be qualified… right?”
The reality of the Information Technology industry is that it changes and evolves all the time. If you are not constantly staying up to date on the changes in the IT world (and let’s face it – you are too busy running your company to read about every issue), how do you know if a candidate is truly qualified? The unfortunate answer is for the most part, even brilliant business people don’t usually know how to assess an IT candidate.
Fortunately, there is a solution to this problem and it lies in forming a trusted partnership with a service provider. Not only do companies typically see a decrease in spending when they outsource, but often they also see an increase in staff morale.
The cost to employ the average IT professional in Manitoba is $73,563 according to Neuvoo.ca. This may reflect the median compensation package, but it would not account for training and certifications to keep the employee up to date, nor does the dollar value reflect the fact that people take vacations and sick days, and if they are your only IT resource you are probably waiting days to see a resolution to your problem.
Some of the common frustrations that users experience with their IT department are:
- They speak to me in terms I don’t understand
- They make me feel like I’m asking unintelligent questions
- It can take hours before anyone responds to my request for help
- I work on the weekend, but they don’t and that means there is no support until Monday
- I want to be able to talk to a person instead of typing out my issue by email
Feedback like this is frustrating for senior management to hear. When seemingly minimal issues such as password resets take hours to resolve, staff can grow dissatisfied with internal processes easily. A managed service provider has the motivation and resources to fulfill requests such as these as quickly as possible to meet service level agreements and maintain good customer relations.
Another question that often arises is “Why would we outsource? Our IT Manager knows the business inside and out.” The value of a great IT professional who knows your business is a strong asset. Unfortunately, as an MSP we have had countless situations where for whatever reason that IT Manager is suddenly no longer with the company, and with the loss of that employee often loss of passwords, process, and other issues can arise. Putting all of ‘your eggs in one basket’ as they say, can at times be a risk in itself.
Outsourcing won’t be a fit for every company out there, but if your senior management has experienced frustrations with hiring & managing IT staff, receiving feedback from staff that their internal IT is not able to fulfill their support requests quickly enough, or is simply looking to cut departmental costs and streamline – it may be right for you.
If this article has hit home for you, please feel free to contact us at Clear Concepts to set up a meeting.
