As businesses become more reliant on their computing resources, the costs of unscheduled downtime are rising all the time. That’s why you probably already have someone you can call when something goes wrong. But this begs the question of whether they’re able to respond to every request and resolve issues before they start eating away at your profits. All too often do internal IT departments find themselves swamped with support requests, many of which are for trivial problems that have been encountered and dealt with before. If that sounds like a familiar situation, then it’s time to start thinking about outsourcing.
Here are five benefits of outsourcing your IT support:
#1. Reduced operational costs
With many IT specialists commanding six-figure salaries, maintaining a fully staffed in-house IT department simply isn’t an option for most companies. Understaffing often leads to overworking the people who are there, resulting in high churn rates that make the company spend more on recruitment and training costs. Other costs associated with running an internal IT department include electricity, internet connectivity, and specialized hardware and software.
In contrast, outsourced IT support is available for a fixed monthly fee, with response rates guaranteed by the provider’s service level agreement (SLA) so there’s less risk of unexpected costs.
#2. Freed-up internal resources
It’s a situation most office workers are familiar with: they encounter an issue with a computing platform they rely on every day, but they don’t want to involve the IT department for fear of unnecessary delays or communication issues. Instead, they often end up trying to find their own workarounds, which might not always be the safest of options. At the same time, the IT staff spend most of their time working on otherwise trivial tasks.
By outsourcing IT support, your employees can stay focused on their core competencies while your IT department can focus on more strategic tasks.
#3. Improved operations outside working hours
You might be lucky enough to have a fully fledged IT department that’s operating at maximum efficiency. But chances are, they won’t be working around the clock. While this wasn’t much of a problem back when most businesses followed a 9-to-5 schedule, today’s mobile workforce choose their own hours and places of work.
To accommodate this change, outsourced IT support services are typically available around the clock every day of the year, which also means they’re ready to solve problems in advance of peak times.
#4. Ability to scale during periods of high demand
A successful new product launch or marketing campaign is an exciting time for any business, but growth can quickly fall flat if your current systems can’t keep up with demand. That’s a risk no business can afford to take in today’s fast-paced world. If there’s a sudden peak in demand, you’ll need to be able to accommodate it without a hitch, otherwise any new product launch or operational change can end in disappointing failure.
With outsourcing, you can augment the capabilities of your existing IT department or even replace it entirely.
#5. Improved response times and remedies
When your internal team is overburdened with support requests, the backlog will quickly rise, downtime will increase, and employee productivity will plummet. Common issues will end up repeating themselves over and over, but the lack of a clearly defined remedy might see these turn into more serious problems. To ensure smooth business operations, you need excellent response times and remedies delivered by those best-equipped to deliver them.
IT support companies are legally bound by their SLAs to respond to support requests within a specified maximum amount of time.
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