If your business is yet to take advantage of IT outsourcing, you’re missing a trick. Research shows that the IT outsourcing market reached a huge USD 245.91 billion in 2021 and is expected to surpass USD 261.9 billion by the end of 2022.
Outsourcing is popular among businesses of all sizes. Huge businesses like Google, Facebook, Nice and Coca-Cola all outsource part of their processes to third-party IT providers.
What Is IT Outsourcing?
IT outsourcing is the process of handing some or all technical and cybersecurity responsibilities to a third-party that operates separately from your business. The third-party is typically a dedicated IT and cybersecurity specialist, who handles the outsourced IT processes for several companies at once.
Top 10 Outsourced IT Functions
What you choose to outsource is dependent on your needs. Some of the most popular outsourced IT functions are:
- Application development: The third-party provider will develop, manage and update bespoke applications on your behalf.
- Application maintenance and support: The service provider is responsible for maintaining your applications.
- Datacenter operations: The provider will operate your data center on your behalf.
- Database administration: The IT company will manage and secure your databases.
- Device support: The third-party provider will install, maintain and support devices like laptops, computers, PCs and VoIP systems.
- Disaster recovery and business continuity: The provider will support incident response, recovering from unplanned downtime and security incidents, and preserving business continuity.
- Helpdesk support: They can support phone or email responses to employee requests.
- Cybersecurity and compliance: The provider will implement and manage cybersecurity solutions to protect the business’ data, systems and infrastructure from cybersecurity threats and data loss.
- Network operations: The service provider maintains and monitors the network.
- Web hosting and cloud support: The service provider will manage, monitor and support with web hosting, applications and cloud platforms.
Why Outsource IT: The Benefits
There are numerous reasons organizations outsource IT. One of the major benefits is that you gain access to fantastic IT expertise that you may not be able to find independently. Given the current digital skills shortage, IT skills are hard to come by and, even when you do find a skilled professional, the cost of hiring them full-time means that having a dedicated IT team is often out of reach for most SMBs.
But that’s not the only reason to consider outsourcing, as our list of benefits below shows:
Cost efficiency
Cost efficiency is one of the major benefits of IT outsourcing. With outsourcing, you get access to skilled professionals at a fraction of the ghost of hiring someone full time. Moreover, IT outsourcing is an investment with a great return. A great provider will help you to reduce costs by uncovering new efficiencies through IT.
Enhanced Efficiency and Innovation
That leads nicely onto our next point: better efficiency and innovation. IT outsourced teams are real experts in cybersecurity and technology. They know about the latest and greatest digital tools, and will use this knowledge to advise you on ways you can boost productivity, improve efficiency and unlock innovation in your organization.
Improved Compliance and Security
As cyber-attacks become more common and more successful, improving cybersecurity resilience is paramount for organizations, but many SMBs don’t have the internal skills to achieve this. Again, here, outsourcing is a great idea. Look for an IT provider that also has cybersecurity expertise, so you can improve your cybersecurity maturity and meet compliance obligations like HIPAA, GDPR and the CCPA.
Grow Your Business
Instead of worrying about IT, cybersecurity and the cloud, you can turn your attention to strategic business activities like sales, marketing, research and branding. In fact, all of these tasks will be even easier. Your IT partner will help you to use technology to improve these processes!
24/7 Support
While a full-time IT staff member will likely work Monday to Friday, your IT provider should offer 24/7 support, 365 days a year. This means that, if there’s a problem or a cybersecurity threat, they’ll respond immediately, so your business is up and running, and secure, all year round.
Improved Productivity
With your technology working better than ever, your employees will undoubtedly be more productive. In fact, research shows a huge correlation between technological sophistication and productivity. Moreover, tech that works better will reduce employee stress, and 41% of stressed employees state that stress negatively affects productivity.
Better Customer Relationships
In the attention economy, your customers want fast, responsive communications with the businesses they engage with. They expect to be able to contact you over email, social media or the phone instantaneously. If you don’t have the right digital tools in place, you could easily end up with dissatisfied customers. Luckily, your MSP will enhance your communication platforms for you, so you forge better customer relationships.
Ready to Unlock the Benefits of IT Outsourcing?
Need a cost-effective way of getting the IT service your business deserves? Then you need PartnerIT.
Reach us via our contact form or call us at 519-772-2525 (Kitchener) or 519-672-0900 (London).
