Nowadays most businesses have some form of IT support, whether that is an in-house team of experts or an outsourced team on hand to help. With IT support comes additional costs to your business so it is important for you to understand whether your business would benefit more from in-house IT support or outsourced IT support.
Your IT team is responsible for one of the most important aspects of your business, your website. That’s both in terms of developing your website and keeping it updated and backed up. This goes for any other online presences you have as well. In addition, your IT team will be responsible for hosting your company’s emails – one of the most important communication tools both internally and externally.
So, will in-house or outsourced IT support be more beneficial for your business? We have weighed up the pros and cons of both to help you decide.
Pros of in-house IT support
Having an in-house IT support team means that you employ IT experts to take care of all your IT needs within your office. There are many benefits to this including the following;
- Your costs will stay the same when using in-house support as you will be paying the same salary regardless of how much work is required
- Personalised training can be provided to your staff, reducing the number of IT issues that occur in the future
- Your system is the only one your internal IT support team will be working on meaning that they will be focused on that system and develop a deep understand of it
- The response time will be quicker as your support team are on-site at all times, making them more accessible to you
- You can handpick your internal IT support team to ensure they gel with your company.
Cons of in-house IT support
- It can work out more expensive to employ in-house IT support if you don’t require a lot of work, or if you’re employing highly skilled members of staff. If you only occasionally require IT support, then paying someone a full wage can work out more costly.
- Finding the right members to be a part of your internal IT team can be challenging, time consuming and costly.
- Depending on the size of your business you may have limited resources due to the scope of your internal IT team’s skills.
Pros of outsourced IT support
- You can save money by outsourcing your IT support if you only need certain amounts of work done as you are able to pay per job or per month.
- Outsourcing your IT support can lead to increased expertise as they will be a company full of IT professionals all of whom can assist your business
- Your security risks will be lowered as outsourced IT teams will typically have certifications and industry standards to prevent any security breaches.
- You will receive 24/7/365 support
- Outsourcing is a perfect short-term investment when your business is beginning to grow.
Cons of outsourced IT support
- A large amount of trust is required when you outsource your IT as you’re relying on people external to the business with your entire IT infrastructure
- Lead times aren’t always what you need as even though you will have 24/7 support, they won’t be available to just “quickly do that one thing” that you need
- You don’t have face to face communication, instead you operate via a ticketing system which can sometimes lead to misunderstandings
- You will have a certain lack of control.
Want to find out how our telephony solutions can help you increase your productivity and reduce your costs, or just some friendly, impartial advice on the best tools to make comms a breeze? Contact us today via our live chat, 0333 3603 723, or email enquiries.uk@enreach.com.