Is Your Internal IT Staff The Most Cost-Effective Option Available?
You’ve already got an internal IT team, so why should you bother outsourcing your IT services? Doing so can save you money, but that’s not the only benefit — do you know what you stand to gain by outsourcing your IT?
Have you settled for internal IT support because it’s simple?
That may be the case – after all, with your internal IT team, you know what the situation is. You’re familiar with who they are, what they can do, and what you should expect of them. It’s easy to just let them be.
But have you considered what more capable, and more cost-effective outsourced IT services could do for your business? After all, it’s your duty to seek new ways to improve the way you operate – have you thought about outsourcing your IT?
Running The Numbers – Internal Or External IT Support?
Internal IT Support
Based on data from PayScale.com, we know that an IT technician will cost you somewhere between $30,000 – $64,000 per year. The range is dependent on how experienced the technician is, what types of certifications they have, etc.
However, don’t forget that this number fails to account for costs associated with health benefits, sick pay, vacation time, and annual payroll tax. You also need to provide your employee with space to work, and resources to work with. That’s not to mention whatever amount of time you’ll spend recruiting, interviewing, training, and managing this employee on an ongoing basis.
To put it simply: beyond the salary itself, an employee requires you to invest in them with a number of resources.
Outsourcing To An IT Company
To start, let’s assume you don’t make the mistake of working with an hourly IT support provider. There’s no need to bother with too much detail, but let’s be clear: being charged by the hour is not the way to go about supporting your IT.
You should be able to find an IT company that will provide support based on a monthly fee. This fee is likely determined by the services provided, the size of your organization, etc. Many IT companies follow a per user/per device model.
An average small business should expect to pay somewhere from $100 – $115 per device per month. Again, that cost can vary – but it can still come in much lower than the $65,000 per year you would spend on a single employee.
4 Costs You Don’t Have To Pay With Outsourced IT Services
- Employee Expenses: An in-house network administrator can cost a lot to have on staff. To be effective, IT service and support require up-to-date skills and expertise.
- Benefits, Sick Leave, Vacation Costs: There are additional expenses on top of the salary to consider. For example, holidays, and coverage while your IT staff member (s) is away. When you consider all of this, just one network administrator can cost you even more than a standard salary.
- Ongoing Training and Certifications: With cybercrime and other threats to your business, you must ensure your IT staff is trained on the latest cybersecurity tactics. In addition, software, hardware, and cloud solutions are constantly evolving. To provide the most cost-effective IT solutions, your IT personnel should attend vendor training and stay up on certifications that expire. These training and certification expenses can really mount up and may involve travel expenses as well.
- Management Expenses: While your business may be profitable, management probably doesn’t want to devote their time to overseeing IT. Do you even know if your IT staff are doing their jobs adequately? How can you unless you stay up to date with today’s technology needs?
Why Is Outsourcing Your IT Support More Cost-Effective?
Despite the general upward trends of growth in IT spending, it’s important to note that CIO satisfaction with IT budgets has never been higher, and is only expected to grow. A recent report found that 54% of IT executives considered their IT budget to be adequate — why?
Primarily because IT ROI has improved in recent years, for one particular reason: economy of scale. Outsourcing both IT management to MSPs and hardware and software hosting to cloud providers has given businesses access to a far more effective cost for generally similar IT resources.
Put simply, it’s becoming easier to do more with the same budget.
The Cost-Savings Offered By Outsourced IT Services
- Reduced IT Costs: Businesses that choose to outsource can convert unplanned IT expenses to fixed, predictable ones. This frees up capital for other aspects of your business.
- Hiring A Company, Not A Person: An in-house staff is subject to business hours, requires full salaries, benefits, and vacation pay, and will undoubtedly call in sick from time to time. By outsourcing your IT department, you leave the managing, training, payment, and other variables that come with actual employees to someone else.
- Reduced Downtime: Downtime is bad for business. And the main cost of downtime is not the fix itself, it’s the halt in your business’ productivity. If an IT-related or natural disaster occurs and takes critical systems offline, employees will be unable to complete their tasks, yet your normal business expenses will carry on.
The fact is that downtime is often the result of poorly supported IT. The best way to approach downtime prevention is proactively – you need to keep an eye out for system issues that can spiral into total stoppages. You need to implement backup technologies and best practices to prevent outages. You need to enhance your cybersecurity to protect against cybercrime.
What Else Do Outsourced IT Services Offer You?
- Develop Confident Security: Security is one of the most important aspects of technology. While technology evolves and data expands, the number of ways your IT network can be compromised increases. For example, cloud services are widely used today. However, to ensure the security of an offsite server, it must be continuously monitored and assessed. Your IT services should offer security services, advise you on the credentials of vendors, and conduct ongoing risk assessments to identify network vulnerabilities.
- Access Modern Technologies: Many businesses find it difficult to keep up with the latest advances in technology. Outsourcing with IT services provides easy access to the latest technology so you can be more competitive in this technology-driven world. In addition, with IT services, these solutions are less expensive than if you purchased them yourself. Most IT companies have partnerships with vendors and can provide new technologies at a reduced cost.
- Scalability and Adaptability: As your business grows, your IT needs grow as well. Keep in mind that new service offerings often come with significant upgrades or new software programs. Your IT services can provide the flexibility you need to change your products/services or add new ones when required.
Verdict: Internal Or Outsource?
When you’re hiring in-house, it’s often less expensive in the beginning. As time goes on, you start to notice the many costs that come along with hiring someone who doesn’t come with a range of skill-sets and in-depth experience.
Making any big change in your business can be a difficult step; but before you decide to stick with what you have, answer this one question – what happens when your in-house IT support person was out sick or on vacation, and you couldn’t get something fixed when you needed it?
With outsourced IT services, you’ll have access to a team of IT experts with a breadth and depth of tech knowledge and experience — something most businesses could never afford with an in-house IT staff. What’s more, you’ll benefit from 24/7 Help Desk Support, to make sure your needs are quickly addressed, and information technology stays up and running at all times.
The PNJ Technology Partners team is proud to offer a comprehensive suite of IT services to meet the specific needs of your business. Our team is dedicated to making sure you’re always leveraging the power of the most effective tools for your success.
