09 September 2020

Why More and More Companies Outsource IT Services

Submitted by: Linda Janse Van Vuuren
Why More and More Companies Outsource IT Services

Technological advancements over the years enables the access to data and information from anywhere on Earth and has increased the importance of the remote worker. Despite this growth, data is no longer safeguarded without IT security systems in place. With a growing competitive market, you need to rely on an IT company to prevent glitches and vulnerabilities from occurring in your servers, network and workstations. Consistent productivity and workflow are important elements in the field of information technology. Therefore, constructive decision needs to be made with complete attentiveness to ensure that you employ the right IT company or IT Technicians.

IT companies have many qualified IT technicians which means that your business will be backed by these certified technicians at any time of the day and night. With IT problems occurring in various parts of the business’ IT infrastructure, it is resources like that that give your business the advantage to stay ahead, lower costs and better utilise your technologies, all because your IT problems will be resolved almost immediately after it arises with a fixed and predictable IT Support Contract.

Whereas having an in-house IT technician means that they will most likely only be working between 8am-5pm to resolve your businesses technology problems, they will likely take off sick, go on leave, have limited knowledge and capabilities of solving complex IT problems that frustrate and hamper your business. Or worst, they may resign and leave you with no IT support when you need it most.Your in-house technicians will need to constantly go on boot-camps and IT training courses to keep their knowledge up-to-date and you will need to ensure that they have the right tools to perform their job adequately.

Looking at some key considerations between an in-house technician and an outsourced IT Company in terms of costs and capabilities:

A team of technicians will be able to combine their knowledge to solve any type of IT problem.

Their technicians will have the professional training to be able to solve any IT problem that a business could face, where the training is provided by the Outsourced IT Company.

The IT Company will have a team of technicians to be able to assist in resolving IT problems at any time. Even if a technician takes leave, there are other IT technicians to assist.

Costs are fixed as recruiting, training, and supplying of equipment will be done by the IT Company.

IT support contract will be customized for the business size such as 10-50 users could cost between R6 000 per month to R21 500 per month at a fixed contract fee. 70-250 users will pay between R35 000 to R95 000.

Structured career paths are highly focused in the IT Company where motivational levels will be high as the IT Technicians are surrounded by each other and are in an IT environment together.

A professional and organised firm should have this already in place to ensure that you can measure the performance of the IT Company and what IT problems they are solving within your business.

 An SLA (Service Level Agreement) will define the expected services that the IT Company must meet and the standards your business should receive, leaving it to the reasonability of the IT Company to meet to the agreement. T

There are various aspects to consider when looking to use in-house technicians or outsource your IT to a professional IT Company but most factors point to outsourcing as the better solution because when it comes to needing an overall IT support plan. It would not make sense to outsource if your business, for example, needs to develop software that requires unique IT specialists to assist in the project. Rather, making more sense when you are trying to grow your company but your IT infrastructure and IT security is holding your business back because you are constantly needing to divert your focus to resolving these IT problems first before moving on.

This is where outsourcing your IT to an IT Company allows you to focus more on growing your business and less on managing your IT infrastructure because your outsourced IT company will most certainly have the team required to maintain your IT infrastructure at a more affordable cost than if you had an IT technician.