Information technology connects businesses with their clients, provides the data required for strategic management, and – increasingly – handles marketing. Excellent IT service provision is high on everyone’s budget agenda. However, what’s the most cost effective solution? Read on.
A managed IT service company is a team of experts who provide, maintain, and update IT infrastructure on behalf of a client. This forms a collaborative partnership. IT outsourcing solutions ensure that the technology infrastructure is safe and secure – such as being designed to withstand cyber-attacks. A crucial element of this provision is 24-hour support. In other words, it is like having your own IT department, but one that is located off-site.
Internal IT support services are – and always have been – expensive. The main cost is having the required number of staff on the payroll, although training and development is also a significant financial investment. IT evolves rapidly, and keeping up-to-date is an on-going effort. In the past this was less of an issue. However, in the cyber-crime era it has become a major consideration. If an attack is launched, the tech team has to be able to deal with it proficiently and instantly, and internal IT units can find it challenging to keep ahead of the game. Therefore, regular training is a very necessary element of the IT budget.
Running an internal IT department means trying to predict the level of service that you will require. This can result in wasting money on having too many IT employees, or finding yourself in deep water when you discover there are not enough. With IT now being at the heart of the way organisations do business, these calculations really matter. When IT is outsourced, companies simply use what they need. Scalable and efficient, this flexibility means there are no unnecessary costs.
Managed IT services invest in the latest technology. They put it to the test, gather feedback, and then make it available to their partners. This means that a managed IT service will continually offer the best, and companies benefit from this in the form of increased productivity and efficiency.
To find out whether your company would benefit more from an internal IT department or from outsourcing, why not try a free IT audit? Email info@tmb.co.uk today and we’ll let you know what’s involved.
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