Medium to large operations face a tough decision when choosing how to provision IT support, either  internally or by means of an outsourced provider . Both routes carry costs, benefits and disadvantages.

The stand-out benefits of IT outsourcing

After many years of providing outsourced IT support to countless businesses, HTL has come to see the specific areas of a business which benefit most from outsourced support, and why outsourcing is often the better choice. As a result, we think you should evaluate these five benefits when considering outsourced IT support.

1. A broader, better understanding of security

   

   Everyone reading this blog will be aware of the growing threat posed by cyber security risks and the importance of actively mounting a defence. Internal teams can tackle cyber security risks to some degree – installing patches in a timely manner, making sure networks are sufficiently protected and ensuring that staff members are educated about cyber security risks. Yet, though an internal approach to IT security can mitigate risks to some degree, IT outsourcing can provide far better risk mitigation.

   Your outsourced support provider will possess greater ability to protect your business against cyber threats. Outsourced providers work for a wide range of businesses and can observe cyber risks from a wider perspective. IT service providers also have more concentrated knowledge. Security is what we do, and, as such, an outsourced IT provider can mount better defences and offer more potent responses to breaches.

2. Out-of-hours support

   

   In modern cities like London, employers are offering increasing flexibility to workers. Many businesses no longer operate strict 9 to 5 working hours, meaning that internal IT staff are not necessarily available when employees need assistance. For important requests, this can mean that work stops until assistance is available and this can result in decreased productivity and disgruntled staff members.

   An outsourced IT provider can, in contrast, offer support around the clock. Contract an experienced outsourced IT provider that has the scale to provide 24/7 support and your business will enjoy non-stop, smooth operations no matter the hours your employees keep.

3. A reduction in down-time

   

   For a mix of reasons, outsourced IT support can reduce the amount of down-time your business experiences. We mentioned earlier how an IT support provider can service outages and support request around the clock – no need to wait for your IT guy to come in on Monday. Outsourced providers can reduce down-time for other reasons too.

   IT providers exist to a large degree because businesses need help to fix problems. As a result, your outsourced IT provider will have the experience and knowledge to provide quick and lasting fixes that reduce downtime and the associated financial losses. In comparison, in-house teams may take much longer to restore services as they diagnose problems and find solutions.

4. Draw on innovative thinking

   

   Just as outsourced IT providers have a broader background in IT security thinking, your outsourced IT provider can also apply its deep customer experience to the innovative application of technology to business and enterprise applications. With a wide client base, an outsourced IT provider can easily identify the areas where information technology can improve organisational performance.

   Though an internal IT team will have a deep understanding of your business, your team members will not have the equivalent breadth of experience. Furthermore, Internal IT teams are often so tied up in fixing day to day issues that finding innovative solutions to business problems simply isn’t on the agenda.

5. Reduce costs, improve cost control

   

   Scale and costs are often inversely related: greater scale means lower costs and many businesses simply do not need to run large-scale IT operations. In running a small-scale IT operation, the cost for work done per labour-hour may be comparatively high: without the specialist knowledge contained in large teams, smaller teams take longer to perform a broad variety of tasks.

   IT outsourcing allows your business to benefit from the productivity and cost gains delivered by teams that have extremely high levels of expertise. Your outsourced IT provider can also make use of its procurement prowess to get better deals on hardware and software. Finally, moving the provision of hardware and software solutions to an outsourced IT provider can help ensure that costs are better controlled by making use of fixed-priced contracts.

Choosing an outsourced IT provider

One clear theme in the points have we mentioned is scale: only choose an outsourced IT provider with the experience and organisational scale to deliver cost-effective, intelligent solutions.  It is this scale that brings intelligent, fast-acting solutions that save money, and which are often able to outperform internal teams in terms of both cost and capability.