What is outsourced IT support?
Outsourced IT support is like having a team of tech wizards on call for your business, ready to be summoned whenever you encounter a problem. But outsourced IT support services goes beyond just solving your tech problems. A good outsourced IT partner will help you with anything technology related, helping you use technology as a tool to help your business processes.
Managed service providers take care of more than just tech support for you; they’ll help with onboarding and offboarding, cybersecurity, cloud migration, and network security, all while keeping you and your business running efficiently. It’s a great way to ensure you’re covered on the tech front without worrying about hiring, training, and managing your own IT team. Plus, it can save you some serious money in the long run to outsource tech support.
The main benefits of outsourced IT support
1. Cost savings
Outsourcing IT support will save money. It is more cost-effective than maintaining an in house team, as you aren’t responsible for paying employee benefits, training, and equipment. Outsourcing your IT support is often cheaper than hiring even a single full-time employee.
2. Scaling
An outsourced IT service provider can quickly scale up or down their services to meet the changing needs of the business. This is perfect for startups and newer ventures who anticipate growth and need a partner who will not only grow with them, but help them scale the right way.
3. Expertise
Outsourcing IT support gives a company access to a team of experts with specialized skills and knowledge. When hiring a single person internally, it’s unlikely they’ll have deep knowledge of all the specialized aspects of IT, and rather have a general knowledge of each topic.
4. Increased efficiency
Outsourced IT support companies can handle routine IT tasks more efficiently, and odds are this isn’t the first time they’ve run into the problem you’re facing. A good IT service provider will have SOPs (standard operating procedures) for routine tasks, guiding them efficiently through almost every tech issue you run into.
5. Access to the latest technology
Outsourced IT support companies often invest in the latest technology and software (MDM software like Jamf or monitoring software like Watchman), which your company can take advantage of, often at discounted pricing. You can trust that your outsourced it support team is on top of all the latest trends and software in the industry and is keeping you current with all of it.
6. Flexibility
Outsourced technical support companies can provide services on a flexible schedule, including after-hours and weekend monitoring, ensuring your systems are working as intended, and often fixing and resolving issues before you’re even aware they exist.
How does outsourced IT support work for different kinds of businesses?
Startup ventures
When your venture is just starting out, you likely don’t have the resources or funding to hire your own in house IT team. And even if you did, those resources are better spent in other areas. At this stage of the game, finding an MSP (managed services provider) to partner with is crucial to your success.
Not only can they function as a fully staffed IT department for you, but they can also help you plan for your technology, so you get it right from the beginning. Then, as you grow, you will have systems in place that are designed to scale with you. It’s much easier to design your systems to grow with you rather than stopping everything downstream by revamping and implementing new policies.
Small to medium-sized businesses
As your company grows and changes, so will your relationship with your outsourced IT company. When companies hire more and more people and transition from startups to small businesses to mid sized businesses, it’s not uncommon for them to hire their first internal IT employee, or begin to delegate some of the more routine firefighting tasks to an internal team.
As this happens, your MSP partner can begin to specialize in certain areas of IT that you’d like to keep external, such as the onboarding/offboarding experience or disaster recovery, operating in more of a co-managed approach. In a co-managed IT relationship, your outsourced IT support team will work directly with your internal IT team, finding solutions that effectively use the strengths of both teams.
Enterprise-level organizations
For enterprise-level organizations (thousands of employees), the scope of a managed service provider is going to look very different than with a startup. Organizations of this size will usually have a fully staffed internal team with experts for support services, cybersecurity, monitoring and day to day operations.
But that doesn’t mean they won’t hire an MSP or benefit from outsourced IT support. At this level, an MSP will focus more on strategic planning, long-term business strategy, and system audits. While you could have your internal team focus on this as well, it’s often helpful to have an outside team help you with these tasks as they can provide unbiased and objective suggestions.
Getting the most out of your outsourced IT partnership
To get the most out of your outsourced IT partnership, it is important to maintain clear and open communications with your IT provider. They’re not just there to fix things when you run into problems. From the beginning, set clear goals and expectations for the partnership, and make sure that both parties understand the responsibilities and expectations of each other.
It is also important to establish a regular schedule for check-ins and progress updates to ensure that the partnership is on track and that any issues are addressed on time. A good managed service provider will set these up for you and want to meet with you often.
Feedback and suggestions
It’s also important to be open to feedback and suggestions from your IT provider, as they may have valuable insights and expertise to help your organization achieve its goals and manage its business needs. You may have software you prefer or a method you’ve used for years, but it’s important to remember the suggestions they’re making aren’t to make things easier for them, but are based in your best interests.
The changes they may be pushing could help your business efficiency or bolster your security. The key to a successful outsourced IT partnership is to build a strong and collaborative relationship.
How do I find outsourced IT support near me?
No matter where your organization is, if you’re ready to bring outsource IT support to your business, we’d love to chat. We’ve been providing IT support to dynamic Boston-based ventures for over 30 years now. If you’re ready to get your technology right and grow quickly, Tech Superpowers right choice for your organization.