Many businesses employ a reliable team of in-house IT engineers. They know your staff and systems well and are part of the business. Completely outsourcing your IT to an external entity may not be the best choice for your business as you may feel you need that business-specific knowledge to stay inside the company.
Many companies think the same but they are looking increasingly to outsourced IT providers to provide assistance for project work. Based on client feedback, we’ve listed the top reasons why they decided to outsource.
1. Solutions Knowledge
Your staff will know your internal business solutions very well, but what do they know about the solutions you do not use. Typically, in house staff have just enough time to look after the systems you have and won’t have time to keep up to date with technology. Even if they are interested in reading about the latest solutions, they’re unlikely to have the time to test and evaluate them fully.
An IT consultant working for an external provider has to carry out a variety of projects on a continuous basis. They’ll have knowledge of what works well for different businesses and how they’ve used them. They’ll know which products meet the hype of the marketing and which products don’t.
Having detailed working knowledge of different solutions is key to helping you choose the right direction for your next IT project and working with an outsourced IT provider will help you avoid making costly mistakes and ensure that you choose the right solution for your needs.
2. Educate Staff
Outsourcing an IT project doesn’t have to be an all or nothing approach. We will work alongside your staff from the start to ensure they’re involved in the decision making process, then right through to implementation and handover. This process has benefits for everyone. The business has staff which are kept up to date and can support your new IT solution effectively. Internal staff will gain new skills and gain valuable industry insights working closely with the consultant.
Educating internal IT staff is often overlooked. Your business can find itself with a long-standing IT team who are stale and not capable of adapting to the developing needs of the business. Ultimately outdated IT solutions and knowledge can hold back a business in a rapidly changing world. We’ve also witnessed renewed passion in demoralised internal IT staff when we’ve been able to work with them and introduce them to new technology.
3. Best Practices
Internal staff often don’t have the depth of knowledge that an IT consultant will. Often once something is working it is left alone for a long period and isn’t optimised. There may be features which don’t get explored which may be able to improve the solution being implemented.
An IT consultant will have knowledge of the best way to configure a solution to get the most out of it. This knowledge will be based on the experience of deploying the same solution multiple times in different scenarios. This best practice knowledge is invaluable and not something that can be learned by an internal team as the experience of multiple deployments of the same technology cannot happen.
4. Complete Projects on Time
Internal IT teams are usually sized based on the day to day support needs of the business. This means that internal project work is often delayed due to day to day pressures.
Working with an external provider ensures that project timescales are agreed and booked in advance. With the project completed efficiently, you’ll have less disruption and the project will have a fixed completion date, allowing the business to get back to its primary function as quickly as possible.
5. Reduce Risk and Cost
Internal IT staff won’t have the experience to avoid risk effectively. An IT consultant will have experience of problems which can occur in different scenarios and will help your business avoid them. They will have specific knowledge of compatibility issues between products. A good example of this is email system migrations.
Internal IT staff may carry out a project like this once every 3-5 years, whereas it’s possible an IT consultant could do this every month. They’ll know where things can go wrong and the most efficient ways to get from where you are to where you need to be. This knowledge can also help you make the correct purchasing decisions when it comes to choosing the right licencing for your next project.
Work with Datek Solutions...
These are just a handful of the benefits you’ll receive when working with Datek Solutions. Contact us today to find out more…
