Outsourcing IT vs. In-House Solution

What Makes The Most Business Sense?

Outsourcing IT Solutions

The term "outsource" has garnered a negative connotation throughout recent memory, due to the fact that we assimilate the word with taking away jobs in our country and hurting our economy by doing so. The fact of the matter is that could not be further from the truth! Let's take a look at some of the pro's and con's of choosing to outsource your company's IT needs and solutions.

One benefit of outsourcing your company's IT needs and solutions would be for the use of special projects or tasks that will need to be done once. With these types of projects, you want to make sure that you have an expert in that field, which is exactly what these outsourced IT companies are built and trained for. This allows you to have the most qualified person taking care of your project without the hassle of finding the talent yourself, hiring them with benefits, having them complete the project and then trying to find a role for them once the project is finished.

Outsourcing your company's IT will allow you to only pay for the hours that you need and free up internal resources to focus on other aspects of the business. Hiring full-time employees is more than just the cost of their salary, as you need to factor in the cost to recruit the talent that you need, employment taxes, benefits, office space, proper equipment, and more. On average, a full-time employee who gets paid $45,000 per year will cost the company upwards of $98,000 per year. Taking all of that information into account, hiring a contractor who comes in only when needed or who garners a retainer for all-inclusive service paid monthly is much less expensive than taking the time to locate, hire, and develop home-grown employees.

The whole reason that you went into business for yourself was to have something that was yours, to grow something from the ground up because you had a vision on how you could revolutionize or provide better service than what is already available. Outsourcing your company's IT needs allows for you to bring someone in that has had the chance to work on different systems and procedures that have been put into place. That may not mean too much to the average person, however, when it comes to a working and growing network, it will mean the world. Now, imagine that you have 20 employees and an in-house tech person. If you want to continue to grow your business and keep your network running as it should, you will need someone that knows what they are doing. That in-house person that has worked on your system which manages 20 people, is now obsolete. You would need to let that tech go and find another one that can come in, learn your systems and culture, fix any issues that the last person left, and then complete the growth step. Outsourcing your IT solutions will be the only thing that can help prevent the headaches and hassle of cycling through techs like paper plates on the 4th of July.

In-House IT Department

Building an In-House IT Staff provides company's with the security of knowing that there is always someone, onsite, that can help with technology problems that tend to go wrong. Your company can also make sure that the in-house IT staff is trained in the needs your environment and made aware of your vision for the company so they can implement projects to make sure that when it comes time to grow and move business forward, that you are ready to do just that. With an on-site IT staff at available, you can easily reach anyone from the team and you eliminate time between the problem(s) occurring and the time it takes to fix them. This can be extremely invaluable, especially in instanced that deal with security breaches.

The ability to find and groom talent is a major plus for any company. For instance, if you have a cyber security expert or someone who is amazing at website design, you want to make sure that they are working for you and you alone. These skills, although not your company's main focus, are marketable assets that will differentiate you from your competition and allow you to show potential clients/customers that you are better equipped to meet their needs.

With an in-house IT staff at your company, you have the ability to find the best talent to fit the exact needs of your organization. For instance, if you need someone who specializes in Mac-based products because your company uses them, you can make sure that you hire someone who's expertise is based around that knowledge and experience.

So, Which Option Should I Choose?

Often times, companies will follow the flow of events throughout their company to decide which option (outsourcing or developing an in-house team) is best for them. According to Forbes, more than half of the most successful businesses in the United States, in recent years, have started with an outsourced IT solution.

These companies started with an outsource IT solution while they focused on the work that they were doing and building their brand and company. Once they started to gain momentum and acquire clients and/or sales, they started to staff their organizations. Once those staffs hit approximately 30-50 people, the companies felt that it was time to start building their internal IT department. Over time, with a continuing increase in sales as well as organizationally, companies would implement more of a Hybrid scheme to their IT solutions. They would keep an IT staff internal for all day-to-day activities and lower-level engagements, however, would continue with a Managed Service Provider (MSP) to make sure that all of the "heavy lifting" would be taken care of.

Many of the tools that MSP's use to protect companies from cyber attacks, company breaches of security both internal and external, and more are usually not sold directly to clients because the developing company would make less money selling that way, rather than selling to a company that will be able to distribute amongst many clients. This way, your company will get the best of both worlds where you take the time to develop your own talent and have a small team on the premises while also utilizing tools and functions that allow you to remain secure.