Outsourcing IT Services Could Be The Smartest Money Decision for Your Minnesota Business
Key Points:
- As technology continues to reshape industries and human experiences, most businesses outsource their tech to stay on top of their IT game.
- More organizations than ever are embracing technology, which has ignited a new era of outsourcing tech as a better business choice.
- For unusual requirements, budgetary concerns, or other reasons, sometimes it’s in the organization’s best interest to outsource IT services.
- When a company outsources, it frees time to keep its eyes on the prize — focusing on business operations and growth rather than the technology that runs it.
Technology is rapidly changing how organizations operate. Companies increasingly rely on technology and automation to survive, keep up with the competition, and thrive. Many are turning to digitization to allow employees to work remotely, get more done with a few hands, and create a competitive advantage.
However, keeping up with the ever-evolving technological landscape is challenging and time-consuming. The rapidly changing pace of technology requires organizations to constantly adjust their business culture to stay current with tech trends.
Most organizations outsource part or all of their IT operations to reduce the burden associated with IT. While outsourcing has several benefits, we want to focus only on the four most important ones your Minnesota business can leverage.
1. Expertise Without the Challenges Associated with Hiring
Skilled tech staff is necessary for every business’s IT department and IT needs. However, businesses face multiple challenges in recruiting quality tech staff, from hiring the right talent to budgeting for specialized expertise whose full potential they may never exploit. In addition, investing in hard-to-retain talent puts your company’s short and long-term goals at risk.
Outsourcing from IT service providers provides businesses with tech expertise without the hiring headache. Businesses that outsource IT services enjoy the benefits of:
- Cost reduction from hiring and training a new employee
- Lower operating costs such as employee benefits packages or renting workspace
- Getting an exceptional high-skilled workforce to close your IT talent gap in your organization fast
Outsourcing IT will eliminate all the cost and administration challenges of having tech staff. You’ll address all your IT problems without dealing with all the baggage of an internal IT Team.
2. Easy Scalability
One of the biggest problems of having an in-house IT staff is scaling. When the need to scale up or down your IT team arises, many businesses don’t know how to proceed.
For instance, if your business usually needs extra IT help during peak seasons, outsourcing allows you to hire all the help you need only when you need them and resume normal operations during the off-peak season. This eliminates the need to hire a dedicated staff only to fire them during low season or keep them even when you don’t need them.
You can simplify scaling with outsourcing. Depending on your usage, you may only need to reach out to your service provider to add or reduce the workforce.
Your expenditure will go hand in hand with the services you receive. This means you’ll never reach a point where your IT needs outweigh your staff to an uncomfortable degree or vice versa.
3. Lower Operational Costs
Outsourcing your IT, even when you have an in-house IT team, can save your business money in many ways, such as:
Reducing Overhead Costs
When you outsource, your tech partner will take on the overhead costs. Typically, an in-house team can get very expensive because it demands:
- Quality hardware such as computers and server
- Software subscriptions
- Regular hardware and software maintenance
- Regular hardware and software update
- Tech staff salaries and employee benefits
All these will increase your overhead costs, which all go away when you outsource. Your service provider is responsible for software and hardware updates and any miscellaneous expenses required to provide IT services and keep your operations running. Your tech partner can charge you an annual fee to use their hardware, software, and IT expertise, ultimately reducing your expenditure while getting updated tech solutions and skills.
Minimizing Downtime
Downtime is a money pit for all businesses. A simple downtime of a few hours can cost your business thousands of dollars and hurt your customer relationship due to delayed delivery. In addition, downtime may affect employee productivity even if their work is not entirely dependent on tech. Every second of downtime costs you:
- Wages
- Revenue
- Productivity
- Reputational damage
Outsourcing IT services to an MSP allows you to monitor your network and system 24/7/365 to address potential issues before they can escalate to downtime. Depending on your tech partner, you’ll have monitoring software and a response process to immediately correct minor tech issues before they can turn into downtime-causing problems.
Lowering The Risk of Cybersecurity Breach
Cybersecurity attacks are extremely costly to your business. Besides the associated downtime, an attack comes with great reputational damage, which can result in a huge loss for your business.
One challenge most organizations contend with is the constantly changing landscape of cyber attacks. Hackers are getting more aggressive with their techniques, making it increasingly challenging for an internal IT team to keep security tight.
Outsourcing cybersecurity to an MSP allows your business to tap into cybersecurity professionals exposed to the latest changes and can reinforce your security before the worst happens.
4. Meeting Compliance and Regulatory Standards
Outsourcing to an MSP can deliver significant ROI using modern technology. Nearly all MSPs deliver modern tech solutions while keeping compliance, security, data management and integrity, and regulatory standards in mind.
Your tech partner will ensure your business meets all these requirements without affecting productivity, customer satisfaction, or user experience. While staying up-to-date with compliance and regulatory requirements is challenging, outsourcing with the right service provider will help you address all issues and avoid legal penalties.
Outsourcing Gets You Resources and Expertise To Impact Operational Efficiency and Customer Experience
Outsourcing lets your tech partner shoulder the burden of IT operations and lifecycle management. You can then focus on core business capabilities to drive efficiency and customer experience.
With the right IT service provider, you can overcome the hurdles of finding, training, and supporting non-core tech staff by getting immediate access to a wide range of specialist expertise and experience, which can lead to a potential competitive advantage.
