Joint Managing Director, Olly Duquemin explains why outsourcing IT is a smart decision for businesses
Outsourcing your IT to a Managed Services Provider (MSP) has multiple benefits for your business. Not only is this a cost effective solution, but your business and staff benefit from the highest levels of expertise. An outsourced MSP can become your full-time IT department, taking over all day-to-day IT related tasks and responsibilities, leaving your staff able to concentrate on your core business.
An MSP will have the existing infrastructure of a full IT department, so every process has been tried, tested and refined. Proactive monitoring tools, fast response times and process driven practices ensure efficient servicing whilst maintaining a personal touch.
Personnel is costly for any business and outsourcing eradicates this whilst delivering highly skilled and qualified engineers and consultants.
A good MSP will have scouted out the best possible talent because the skills and service of their staff are the essence of the business. MSP’s have naturally gained exposure to multiple customer issues and technologies which enable them to understand new security risks and identify new phishing scams as just one example.
The quantity of issues encountered on a daily basis through using different applications means skills are kept up-to-date. Therefore, the staff in an MSP are usually more knowledgeable than the average in-house IT technician who may only be dealing with one specific aspect of IT. An MSP consultant is generally able to provide a more holistic viewpoint due to this wider knowledge.
The most vital aspect of IT management is having the right tools to do the job. Monitoring applications, ticketing software and other management tools are expensive but are already in place when you appoint an MSP. The investment into heavily testing and assessing the right tools has already been done.
IT management tools mentioned above cost thousands of pounds so not having to make that initial capital investment is a big deal for many small to midsize businesses (SMBs).
Add to that the efficiency and experience of a team of IT engineers and consultants and savings from both a productivity and training perspective are made. Employees are also not being paid to sit in an IT department waiting until other staff need them for something.
Clients of an MSP are able to maximize on their established relationships with suppliers. MSP’s work with vendors all day long building strong relationships with the world’s most renown software and hardware providers. This means that orders can be pushed through faster, better deals are negotiated on contracts and there is a closer point of call with the vendor when a client is having issues.
In addition to all the procurement and personnel savings, let us not forget that an outsourced service flexes with your business, with no unnecessary costs. As your business grows, or declines so does your IT service without any hassle.
Finally, it is a business partnership with trusted advisors and this should never be forgotten. Outsourcing has so many benefits but these are only achieved when a strong partnership is formed and this is what any business looking to outsource should look for. Download the article published in Contact Magazine here.
Five reasons why outsourcing IT services benefits businesses
1. Stay focused on your core business and not get distracted with IT issues.
2. Access to a highly skilled team at the forefront of the industry.
3. Access to existing infrastructures to save on expensive capital expenditure.
4. Control your IT costs.
5. Benefit from MSP business relationships with suppliers.
