Outsourced IT Services: Is It Time For Professional Help?

You’re in charge of leading a dynamic, growing business. This means proper scaling is key to your success. It also means that with all you’ve got going on, you may be missing some things. Trying to manage your IT processes while you’re running a business, expanding upon what you’re doing, supervising employees and pursuing innovation, can be daunting. 

Often, business owners or their employees aren’t naturally geared toward handling IT functions. Spending considerable time on IT tasks is vital to your business. But without the right training it’s easy to get bogged down by the requirements. It’s also common to lose focus of the primary goals of your business while you’re chasing down IT issues. 

You may be unknowingly losing productivity, tiring yourself or your staff out, and not getting the most out of your technology and programs. It may be time for outsourced IT services. Let’s take a closer look. 

The Right Foundation

Much of the viability and long-term success of any business depends on the quality of your foundation. What makes up the strongest stones in that foundation? Is it strong leadership? Creative thinking? Innovation and technology? Research & development? Top-tier talent? Besides these, one thing that can’t be overlooked in our day and age is our utilization and management of information technology (IT). 

We count on technology and processes to streamline our workflow, simplify repeated tasks, keep us organized, help us communicate, power our designs, and inform our customers. What we can’t afford is technology and data that aren’t being put to use the way they should, IT that’s always playing catch up instead of helping us lead the pack. 

It’s easy to overlook IT. We sometimes assume we can handle it all without a specialist or we do hire someone but they quickly become overwhelmed by the sheer volume of responsibility and system requirements. This leads to merely chasing emergencies instead of freeing them up enough to plan ahead, manage your network and programs with confidence, and help you create more efficient ways of doing things. 

Depending on your organization’s needs and the quality of your current IT, it may be time to consider professional help in this department. 

In-House vs Outsourced

Some business owners choose to employ a dedicated in-house individual or team to handle IT. This is a great idea for many organizations. It allows owners to focus on management now that they have someone else looking over their IT. It means they can focus on the core of their business with less time given to overseeing IT processes. And it provides them with a person they can work with to implement better solutions to existing problems. 

However, hiring someone or a few people means paying full-time salaries and benefits packages. It means you’ll incur all the costs of training, investing in new equipment, and setting up an office space for them.  

On the other hand, outsourced IT service providers can manage all your IT functions off site. This means full support at an affordable cost. No need to hire and train, pay benefits, or build out an office.

IT service providers have their own equipment and infrastructure. They have loads of training and experience, and they survive and thrive by being awesome at what they do, which is keeping your network humming, your data safe, your communications fast, and your media presentations as strong as they can be. 

Both in-house and outsourced IT professionals provide a high level of service. But outsourcing your IT processes allows you to unburden yourself completely from any direct oversight, and put it on someone else who really understands IT on a deep level. We’re going to take a look now at a few benefits that outsourced IT services can bring to your organization.

Better Efficiency and Productivity

Outsourced IT services provide you with countless solutions to data and tech problems, offer superb hardware and software options, develop new ways of doing things, establish greater organization, and keep communications buzzing along smoothly. 

Great IT means productive team members, projects that finish on time, a memorable online experience for your customers, a better connection with your audience, and a stronger brand in your market.

Information technology isn’t just about behind-the-scenes tech support. It’s about harnessing the incredible power of data, media, technology, and communication to empower your business toward greater levels of excellence. IT specialists don’t just look after your computers, they lay the technological and informational groundwork that helps you accomplish everything else you do. 

More Satisfied Employees and Customers

Upping your IT game doesn’t only remove your stress and make your job a bit easier, it does the same thing for everyone else in your organization. Strong IT support gives your team the tools and time they need to accomplish everything you ask of them. Without that support, they’ll be chasing problems and attempting solutions to things many of them aren’t geared for and finding themselves becoming less and less interested in the job with each passing day. 

Without a smooth running system, their work will slow or even stop at times. Important projects will get delayed and vital communications will get missed. This leads to frustration, low employee morale, apathy, and the eventual loss of serious talent. 

Poor IT also affects your customers and your audience. If you aren’t presenting yourself right because your network, website, ad campaigns, media channels, brand communications and customer service, are always suffering from inefficiencies, outdated applications and hardware, and a lack of focus, you’re likely to lose the faith, confidence, and loyalty of your customers. This means lost revenue and possible damage to your reputation. 

Stronger Security

Something else that outsourced IT service providers do well is network security. Each year, businesses across the world lose billions of combined dollars because of cybercrime. Whether it is malware or ransomware, or any number of other attacks, you absolutely cannot afford to roll the dice on this one. One attack can leave a business so devastated as to be beyond repair. 

We might think that all we need is good software to protect our business. But that’s not enough. As great as certain security programs are these days, there’s no substitute for the unique, comprehensive approach to security that IT specialists provide. No two businesses are alike. And each one needs a different plan to protect their digital assets and customer data. 

You can collaborate with your IT service provider to create the perfect plan. Talk with them about your biggest concerns, your greatest needs, and your ultimate goals and allow them to assemble a strategy to protect every level of your data and network. You’ll be able to breathe easily, knowing you aren’t leaving security and your customers to chance.  

Innovation

We know that our creative teams, our marketing department, and our executive staff all care and are working to be innovative. But we often overlook the ways in which our IT provider can help us be more creative and more innovative in everything we do. They give us the foundation of tools we need to build, design, share, and present our products and services. They ensure smooth access to the right information channels as well. 

But that isn’t all. IT specialists can work directly with you to come up with new ways to use technology, existing information, unique applications, and refined processes to make every aspect of your organization stronger, faster, more productive, and more satisfying. 

Their work can help you reduce spending, save money, capitalize on new opportunities in your market, create new products, sharpen your image and message, and ensure that you always look and sound your best.

In Closing

Information technology is too often overlooked or relegated to a back burner as a secondary concern. All the while it holds the potential to refine every process and piece of data we use every day. 

Allowing our IT processes to suffer from poor oversight, inexperienced management, or outdated ideas, is a quick way to stifle innovation and productivity. Consider partnering with an experienced IT service provider to handle all your IT needs. And see the difference it makes on your bottom line. 

Tech Masters helps businesses maximize the power of their technology and information. We provide individually tailored IT solutions to help you move your business to the next level. Contact us today for your free IT assessment. 

For more information about outsourced IT services, check out our frequently asked questions and answers below. 

FAQ

Why is IT important for my company?

IT isn’t just about keeping your computers functioning and your internet connection going. It’s about putting together a complete system and plan that allows you to harness all your technology, data, communications and media to its highest potential. 

Strong IT support gives your business an informational foundation that everything else can rest on and draw energy from. IT support helps you share your brand and your vision without the pain of interruption, confusion, or worse, security problems. It equips your team with the tools they need to create, accomplish and drive your business forward. 

Can I just handle IT myself?

Well, on rare occasions certain business owners can handle their IT alone. But this is so rare it almost never happens. IT gets complicated and it requires considerable professional training and years of experience to master. 

Attempting to handle it on your own, especially when you’ve got so many other things to take care of will stress you out, slow you down, and damage your product and message. 

I’m worried about hackers and cybercrime. Will my IT services provider help with this?

The short answer is yes, definitely. Your IT specialist is your first line of defense when it comes to network and data security, they’ll bring the right programs on board, update vulnerable software and hardware, help you initiate new policies and practices for employees, and create rock solid solutions to existing and potential threats.