Why outsourcing IT is becoming a priority for businesses

October 23 2020

The coronavirus pandemic has put a number of new and unexpected pressures onto IT departments worldwide. Many have had to move quickly to provide support to a workforce that has suddenly become geographically dispersed. Some departments have struggled more with this than others, prompting some business owners to accelerate the outsourcing of their IT functions. So, what are the main benefits of outsourcing IT support?

Expertise

In-house IT teams are often under severe pressure to perform a huge range of IT tasks with minimum resources. As a result, their staff are usually jacks-of-all-trades. In contrast, members of outsourced IT teams are likely to have advanced specialisms as well as a wide range of knowledge and experience gained from working on many problems for many clients. Outsourcing can give you to access to this wider range of resources and expertise. Even if your engineer does not have the knowledge themselves, they can likely get assistance from a colleague who does.

Reduced employee workload

Employees work better when they aren’t overburdened with too many different responsibilities and distractions. Therefore, by outsourcing some IT functions you can help your in-house team become more productive and creative. Allocating specific tasks to dedicated outsourced personnel also makes for clearer workflows and procedures.

Cost effectiveness

Outsourcing IT support gives businesses more control over their technology expenditure because it makes it easier to scale IT resources to fluctuating demands. The result is greater agility, cost-effectiveness and predictable budgets. Outsourcing means you only need to pay for what you actually use, whereas traditional methods often leave equipment idle, licenses unused, positions vacant or incumbent personnel entitled to redundancy pay. Most outsourcing firms offer a range of IT support plans, with set monthly/annual rates plus optional add-on services you use and pay for only as required. Although it varies with the nature of each business, the lower cost of labour and IT infrastructure can make you more competitive.

Improved security

Cybercrime is increasingly prevalent in today’s world and businesses simply cannot afford to ignore the threat. Fortunately, this element of IT is often ideal for delegating to a specialist external IT support company. They will have expertise in all elements of security including data encryption, network management, information law, firewalls, VPNs, intrusion detection and conducting security audits.

Allows you to focus on the business

Outsourcing benefits most businesses by allowing them to focus on their core aspects and spend more time improving other critical functions such as marketing, logistics, and sales. When you no longer have to worry about your IT systems failing the reduction in your stress levels allows you to focus better on important strategy decisions, and concentrate on improving your products and services.

Shared risk

When IT is dealt with internally the responsibility and the risk is borne entirely by you. By outsourcing IT you can pass some of those risks to a third-party security specialist. This helps you demonstrate compliance with statutory data protection requirements.

Quicker response and complete support

Often, outsourced IT support is not confined to traditional office hours so it is always there when needed – day or night. Many IT support providers guarantee quick response times just as good as having someone onsite. They can also provide system monitoring to proactively anticipate the difficulties that may arise. This all combines to help reduce your corporate risk and keep any downtime or disruption to a minimum.

Does outsourcing give greater agility

Outsourcing is one of the key ways in which businesses can achieve the agility that is clearly needed in order to deal with periods of uncertainty, like the one we are currently faced with. IT support is one of the easiest elements to outsource and the benefits can be felt immediately.
Overall, outsourcing IT services can boost your technical efficiency, provide agility and flexibility, and reduce your overheads.

If your business hasn’t yet explored the full potential of outsourcing, then give Cloudworks a call and try us out. We are specialists in cloud technologies, cyber-security and support. In addition, we continuously monitor our clients IT cloud infrastructure to ensure they are secure and protected against the latest threats. Give us a call to find out more and we will find the best strategy and solution to fit your business.

Call Cloudworks on 0115 824 8244 or email info@cloudworks.co.uk

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