There is usually a sweet spot before you start thinking about needing outsourced IT support. You know, that time when your operations are running smoothly. Life is productive. Blissful. Serene. Until suddenly it’s not. So here are a few ways to recognise the signs that you need to bring in some external help:
1. Productivity has dropped
It starts with a team member getting locked out of their system. Then your printer stops working properly. Or someone’s emails aren’t sending. Or the programme won’t work because the system is too slow. These problems have become a major drag as the team and responsibilities grow. The more lost working hours stack up, the more cost-effective it becomes to bring in some outsourced IT support.
2. Your outsourced IT is actually Jane from accounting
Jane from accounting has been your go-to IT expert since forever. But she is paid handsomely to be an expert accountant. And frankly, she’s getting pretty sick of dealing with the niggly problems that everyone keeps bringing to her desk. So now you can let Jane get on with the job she’s paid for and live with the problem, or pull her away and have two people out of commission until the issue is solved. But by really outsourcing your IT, you get the equivalent of a fully managed IT service desk, complete with the right expertise, better response times and a much happier accountant.
3. You’ve got data compliance concerns
Depending on your industry and the expectations of your customers, there can be a LOT of hoops to jump through when it comes to compliance. They range from the basics of making sure your data protection processes are in line with GDPR, to demonstrating that you’re adhering to specific security rules within a highly regulated industry.
But even if you’re extremely knowledgeable about the expectations, delivering the business IT solutions are an entirely different matter. That is unless you have the right outsourced IT support service.
4. Your competitor has already outsourced IT support
It’s weird. You were pretty much neck and neck. Now they seem to be providing a smoother customer experience. Their systems and processes are more robust. They have more time to work in the business, instead of trying to make the business work.
Unless your competitor has suddenly become an industrial genius, then there’s a chance that they have outsourced IT managed services to an external provider. One who knows how to support companies like yours.
5. Outsourcing IT becomes more cost-effective
It takes a lot of resources to stay on top of the latest IT developments. And within six months, everything you learn could be redundant. That means more training, more time, more money. By outsourcing skilled IT experts, the burden of staying up to date falls on them. This means you can reduce costs and fix problems faster by an account management team who already know what they’re doing.
To learn more about how you can make the most of cloud services to support, enhance or protect your IT infrastructure, contact us for a free trial or demonstration.
