How outsourcing IT support can benefit your business

For a lot of people, IT feels like a major hassle. It’s complex, constantly changing and fraught with potential pitfalls. So if you don’t know what you’re doing, it can be really stressful. And it distracts you from the stuff you’d much rather be doing – the kind of tasks you enjoy, and which will drive your business forward.

One IT solution is to build your own IT support team. But that also creates a lot of extra expense. Not just the usual staffing costs like recruitment and wages, but constant training to keep your team up to date with the latest technology. And for smaller companies, the cost of a full-time IT professional often doesn’t make sense.

So what’s the answer? Well, more and more businesses are deciding to outsource all their IT requirements – software, hardware, staff training, Service Desk support, networking, infrastructure….the list goes on. Specifically, outsourcing to an IT support company who enjoys all this fiddly tech stuff, and is almost certainly good at it. And if you pick a really brilliant one – yes, of course, like Dr Logic – you may even start enjoying technology, and get excited about how it can transform the way you and your teams work.

Here are the top 10 ways that outsourcing could benefit your business. And if you decide to go down this route you’ll discover that there are so many more…

1. Cut your staffing costs

Like we said, running your own full-time, in-house IT team can be incredibly expensive – especially if you want to use genuine experts, with specialised knowledge of the tech you’re using. Outsourcing is the best way to get access to a whole team of technicians and engineers that have expert knowledge and will provide support, at a fraction of the cost.

2. Gain more expertise

IT moves so fast, it’s hard for any one professional – or even a small team – to stay on top of everything: software patches and updates, new products and services, emerging risks and issues. By teaming up with a good IT provider, you’ll get access to the combined knowledge and experience of a whole team of security experts who within hours of hearing about the latest virus or trojan will have put in place measures to protect your network.

3. Give your in-house team a helping hand

Some companies prefer to have their own in-house IT engineer. And there’s nothing wrong with that. But what happens if that person is busy dealing with one crisis when another one crops up? Or when they’re on holiday or off sick? Or how about when there’s an issue they don’t know how to fix? An IT support company can fill that gap so you know that no matter what, you’ll always be covered.

4. Save yourself the hassle of hiring

Recruiting staff takes a lot of time, money and work. And that’s especially true of IT. Partly because there’s huge demand for the best candidates. And partly because the people hiring aren’t always tech experts – meaning they don’t know if someone has the right knowledge and experience. By partnering with an IT support supplier, you can leave it to them to provide engineers with exactly the right skills and expertise. Let someone else plough through the C.V.s for a change!

5. Help your team to focus on their work

Some smaller businesses delegate IT tasks to their most tech-savvy employee. That might sound like a cheap option, but it’s usually a false economy. Because instead of focusing on their core tasks, that person will have to run around fixing everyone else’s IT issues. And because they’re not an expert, even with the best will in the world, there’ll be stuff they get wrong or can’t fix. Outsourcing your IT support frees up your team to focus on the work they’re best at, and which is most valuable to your business.

6. Take advantage of the latest tech

As skilled as some in-house IT teams are, there’s always a tendency for them to get stuck in their ways. Specifically, the ways your tech is already set up – and which they’re already familiar with. So whether through a lack of motivation or time, they don’t always keep up with the latest innovations. An IT support company, on the other hand, isn’t locked into one way of working, so they’ll always be looking out for new products and apps that can take your business to the next level in terms of productivity. And crucially, also in terms of security and knowing the best ways to continually fight the constant threat posed by Cyber Criminals.

7. See the bigger picture

Okay, so your current IT set-up may be ticking along, with only the occasional hitch. But when you’re focused on the day to day, it’s easy to forget the bigger, more exciting things technology can do for your business. For example, do you want to help your staff work better remotely? Or have you thought about moving systems to the cloud, to save money and boost productivity? And how would you cope if there’s a crisis with your office network? An IT support company will be able to look beyond the everyday and come up with solutions to these bigger IT problems.

8. Head off problems, instead of just fixing them

Most IT strategies follow a break/mix model. Meaning when something breaks, someone comes to fix it. No matter how fast your IT support is, that’s never going to be instant, so there’ll always be some delay – slowing down your business and causing frustration. An IT support company, on the other hand, can proactively monitor your network 24/7 – spotting and addressing potential issues before they even emerge, so your staff can keep working, without any disruption.

9. Reduce your risks

Working with an IT support company will mean you experience fewer day to day tech issues and cut the risk of a major crisis. But if disaster does strike, it means someone else will be responsible for getting your network back up and running as quickly as possible. With the right agreement, this can even extend to legal responsibility, so you can seek damages if something goes seriously wrong. So, you can see that an IT Support company has a very strong vested interest in keeping your network running, safe and secure.

10. Focus on your business

In today’s challenging market, you need every bit of time and headspace you can, just to keep your business ticking over. So the last thing you want is to be distracted by a lot of complex IT issues you don’t really understand, but which you know can have a major impact on your business – both good or bad. Outsourcing your IT support gives you the peace of mind you need to focus on your business – secure in the knowledge that your tech needs are being handled by genuine experts.

Need even more reasons to outsource your IT support? Looking to include outsourced IT to support your business growth? Just give us a shout, to find out how we could help your business.