When many companies first start out, they often try to handle things themselves to reduce expenses. But as they add more people, the need to have a professional handling something as important as their IT becomes apparent.
When your technology isn’t running efficiently, your business can run into multiple problems that cost you money and hold you back from properly serving your customers. Some of these include:
- Security issues due to patches and updates not being applied regularly.
- Lost productivity as employees hit technology bumps throughout their day.
- An inefficient technology infrastructure that’s not serving you well.
- No one to go to that knows your business when you need to add new computers or solve problems like a virus infection.
It only takes a few computers in your network to realize that you need help with your tech. The next question business owners typically face is, “Do I use a managed services provider or hire an inhouse IT person?”
Hiring someone in-house might seem like a good idea at first, but there are multiple considerations when comparing costs and quality of service between one person or a department at your business versus working with a professional managed IT services provider.
How You Can Win at IT with a Managed IT Provider
There’s more than just helping users with software and scanning networks for viruses that goes into daily IT management.
Keeping your technology infrastructure secure, operating effectively, and evolving includes multiple components that work together to make up proper IT management.
Why is it a safer bet to work with a managed IT pro than creating your own in-house IT department? We’ll go through the comparisons below.
Hiring and Onboarding Costs
Any employer knows that hiring the right person for a position can be challenging. It involves not only finding a good candidate, but also agreeing on things like pay and benefits, and then also learning after the fact what their work ethic is.
The costs of onboarding a new employee average $400, and if you find out a few months in that they’re not working out, you’re back to the drawing board and without any inhouse IT in the meantime.
Working with a managed IT provider means you don’t have to do through the hiring process. You also have a promised set of services in your managed services plan, so you know exactly what to expect as to services and cost and the value you’re getting back every month in IT maintenance and management.
They’ll Be There When You Need Them
If you’ve hired an in-house IT person, that person will be out occasionally, either due to vacation or taking sick or personal days. That leaves you without proper IT support during those times.
A managed IT provider has an entire staff to serve you, so you can count on always having someone there for you if you have an IT issue. You’ll also know that your regular maintenance and monitoring are being handled like clockwork, because you’re not just relying on a single person.
Wide Scope of Services
Even the most experienced in-house IT person is going to have their limitations when it comes to the services that they can offer you. For example, they may not have all the certifications that the staff of a Bay Area IT provider have (Microsoft, Cisco, CompTIA) and most likely will not be a partner with a variety of software vendors.
If you need expertise, like migration to an Azure server or the ability to administer Office 365, working with a professional IT provider will give you more scope of services and the benefit of multiple technician backgrounds than an in-house IT person.
Space Savings
If you’re going to have your own onsite IT department, then you have to factor that into your floor plan and set aside space, not only for their desks but also a work area to work on computers and other hardware.
IT providers have their own professional shops set up, often stocked with common computer parts. That means not only do you not have to factor in the additional office space, they’ll often be able to do repairs faster.
24/7 Support That’s Scalable to Your Needs
Most companies can’t afford to have 24/7 IT monitoring if they’re hiring their own internal IT staff. That means over evenings, weekends, or holidays, their network could be attacked, and a data breach occur because no one was around to see what was happening.
When you have a managed IT plan, providers have the ability to monitor your systems 24/7 and have alerts set up if anything looks amiss (like a network attack), which allows them to spring into action right away.
You also have the ability to remove or add on services as you need them to a managed IT services plan, where you may have to hire another employee (more costly) if you want to add services using an in-house tech department.
Learn the Unique Difference Skillo Brings to Your IT Management
24/7 monitoring and proactive cloud-based systems are just two advantages we bring to the table. Learn how much more efficient your IT management can be when you sign up with the Skillio team!
Sign up for a custom managed IT services plan today. Call 1-888-926-1985 or connect with us online.
