How can I gain a competitive advantage? What are my long-term business goals? What are my current IT issues? Do I have a strategic plan for my IT infrastructure to help my business become more competitive and positioned for future growth? Should I consider hiring a managed IT services provider to handle my IT needs?
As a small or medium-sized business (SMB) owner, these are some of the questions that you may be asking yourself during your annual budget planning meetings. Although the size of your company and your organization’s specific IT concerns will determine the best course of action for your business, there are some universal truths when it comes to IT budgeting.
After reading this article, you will learn the advantages of using a managed IT services company versus maintaining an internal staff. With this information, you will gain a deeper understanding of the true return on your investment you get with managed IT support.
Do You Have Sufficient Internal IT Staff Expertise?
How does your business deal with IT issues? Do you hire an external break/fix IT company every time you run into a problem with your technology?
Or, do you have a few in-house staff who are responsible for troubleshooting, repairing, and maintaining all of your on-prem and virtual software and devices, along with handling any internal IT matters that impact your customers, vendors, or partners?
If you’re relying on a few IT support staff, do they have the experience and knowledge to assess whether your IT environment meets all regulatory requirements for your industry and implement any systems needed to show compliance?
If you’re considering hiring your own IT staff rather than turn to a managed IT company, at minimum you will need a network engineer, a security expert, and a service tech to handle day-to-day problems with your printers, desktops, laptops, servers, and other devices and applications.
It would be nearly impossible to find one person who has the necessary expertise in all of those areas. That means you’d have to hire several people to perform all of the responsibilities that go along with each role.
If you have existing staff, are they able to keep up with the sheer volume of IT issues? What if disaster strikes—be it a natural disaster, major system failure, or cybersecurity breach?
Does your organization have an IT disaster plan, and does your staff have the expertise to help you recover from a disaster? These are all important considerations when determining if you have adequate internal IT support.
The Hidden Costs Of Maintaining Internal IT Staff
Onboarding an internal team of IT professionals carries its own unique challenges. For starters, you have to factor in the costs of recruiting, hiring, training, retaining, and supervising these employees.
From a basic financial perspective, if you had to hire a mid-level IT generalist to handle your everyday IT needs, you’d be looking at spending roughly $75,000 to $100,000 a year. If you need two individuals, you’re now close to $200,000.
Beyond salaries and benefits are simple human resources considerations. If you don’t currently have IT staff and you’re not an IT expert yourself, how do you properly evaluate potential candidates?
Once the IT professionals are vetted and hired, how do you accurately gauge whether or not they are using best practices when implementing new technologies or systems? Do these changes satisfy regulatory compliance requirements?
You also have to acknowledge the confidentiality implications of internal staff having access to your sensitive data and proprietary business information.
What happens in the event of staffing turnover or if the person goes on vacation? Who’s going to be responsible for filling those responsibilities while you search for a qualified replacement?
Do you have documentation for the protocols to handle those job functions as well as records of any necessary passwords, software licenses, and required renewals for ongoing support and services? How do you ensure confidentiality of your business data and processes?
If these and other issues about your internal IT staff are causing you to lose sleep, then managed IT services may be an option to consider.
What’s The Bottom Line With Managed IT Services vs In-House Staff?
If you’ve been on the fence about whether to partner with an external MSP or hire your own team of IT professionals, after reading this article you now recognize the true return on investment that managed IT services can bring to your business.
Although we offer a comprehensive suite of advanced tools and services to meet all your IT needs, at Kelser, we understand that managed IT services are not for everyone.
If you’re a small business with fewer than 10 employees, or you’re satisfied with the support level you’re getting from your internal IT team, then you likely would not benefit from using external managed IT support.
We know that you have many options. That’s why we encourage you to do your research before choosing a provider.
We feel so strongly about this that we have done some of the work for you. See how Kelser stacks up against two of our competitors, Cooperative Systems and CompassMSP, based on readily available information from their websites.
Unsure how to choose the right MSP, learn what to look for when evaluating providers. If you already have an MSP and aren’t sure if you’re getting what you signed up for, read this article to learn the steps to decide if it’s time to switch providers.
If you think managed IT support might be the right choice, use our Kelser calculator to see how much IT managed services might cost your business.
Or, if you’d prefer to talk to a human, reach out by clicking the button and one of our IT experts will respond promptly to schedule a brief chat to discuss your IT needs and see if we might be a good fit to work with.
