What IT Can You Outsource?

article used with permission from HTS

Outsourcing your IT (often called managed IT services) has many benefits for small- to medium-sized businesses. Businesses without large IT staffs or the necessary tech skills or infrastructure often choose managed services to take the place of or supplement their own IT professionals. This allows for

• Flexibility when growing or moving: A managed services provider can give you temporary resources when upgrading your infrastructure, for example
• Specialized resources when necessary: For a flat recurring fee, you get access to the managed service provider’s entire staff and their specialists, whereas for that same cost you could hire only a single part-time person with a single skillset
• Cost savings: By outsourcing your IT, you can realize significant savings, as IT providers can arrange services and hardware at a lower cost

There are many benefits to outsourcing your IT, but what exactly can managed IT services cover for you? What can you outsource? If you think managed IT services is just about getting IT phone support during afterhours or having someone else create new email accounts for you, then think again!

• Data Processing and Storage: The space, maintenance, and power required for processing and storing your data can drain your time and resources. This can be outsourced to a provider’s data center.
• Hardware: With the rise of cloud computing, not only can your data be outsourced to a data center, you can often remove your on-site servers entirely and run your applications in the cloud, from a virtualized server. Such solutions and contracts are a form of outsourced IT.
• Planning and Management: If you need a CIO (Chief Information Officer) or a project consultant, a managed services provider can do this for you. Managed services is proactive rather than reactive: strategic planning, project management, and consulting can be outsourced so that the growth of your IT infrastructure and your future projects benefit from expertise you may not have on staff.
• Monitoring and Maintenance: Regular IT support can be outsourced with a managed services contract, giving you continual monitoring of your network to make remediation of problems faster and reduce downtime. This type of monitoring can also include running security updates, patching, and everyday-type work to keep your hardware, software, and devices running smoothly.
• Email Management: Outsourcing can also cover managing your email – from your spam/anti-virus software to a complete unified communications system.

If you have questions about whether outsourcing some or all of your IT is right for you, we’d love to talk to you!