Today’s small businesses must find innovative ways to stay up-to-date and cut unnecessary costs while improving products or service qualities. As a small business owner, you have a lot to balance to keep your company relevant, competitive, and secure, and that makes it hard to focus on what’s important — completing the job and achieving your business goals. The solution to your small business challenges starts with implementing the right IT strategy. The likelihood of an upcoming recession has negatively impacted the resources many business owners need to hire in-house IT professionals. While you might be keen on having an in-house IT service that knows your business from the inside, the benefits of outsourcing IT are many.
Is outsourcing IT for you? This guide walks through five of the biggest benefits of outsourcing IT for small businesses.
1. Save Money
One of the myths about outsourcing IT is that it costs too much, and you may be wary of adding another expense to the mix. Of course, you want to save as much money as possible without compromising quality. But, managing your outward cash flow is difficult, especially in your business’s early stages, and paying for outsourced IT might initially raise some financial concerns.
The fact is you’ll likely save more money by outsourcing your IT needs. Even hiring just one in-house IT professional means spending on recruitment, training, equipment, utilities, salary, health care, benefits, and insurance.
When you outsource, you pay for the expert support you need — no more and no less. There’s no need to factor in the extra expenses associated with an IT employee. And when you don’t have to manage additional staff, you can focus on your customers and see a higher ROI
2. Get Dedicated, Expert Attention
If you’re already familiar with the ins and outs of IT, you might believe you’re good to go on your own. But IT is composed of many elements, from coding to cybersecurity. Without dedicated IT support, you’re on the hook to handle issues that may be beyond your scope.
An outsourced IT service is invested in seeing your small business avoid serious pitfalls. You get access to highly motivated and committed experts who will recognize weaknesses, likely before they occur, and work with you to build an effective business strategy. Their success relies on fulfilling your applicable expectations for company growth.
3. Minimize Risk and Increase Security
Without IT support, your business enters a vulnerable state. You risk one or more of the following:
- Gaps in IT infrastructure
- Increased chances of cyberattacks, leading to data breaches
- Wasted money and resources on manual data analysis
- Failure to upgrade or update software and hardware
And this is just a small portion of a long list of risks. You need a recovery and business continuity plan to handle data breaches or software problems. But you may not yet have a firm handle on your technical and cybersecurity goals, especially if your company is still in its early stages.
An outsourced IT solution knows exactly how to devise a security plan that meets your goals and protects your business. They understand how to integrate the right tools, monitoring systems and networks for any signs of malicious activity. They can even help educate your internal team on how to notice scams, such as phishing attacks. Overall, you’ll have a leg up on the latest trends and tactics that keep your business operations secure.
4. Free Up Time to Grow the Business
It’s fair that you want to have a hand in all aspects of your business, from hiring staff to marketing to tech components. However, all these moving parts take up time. The more you divide your time among these elements, the less attention you can devote to each of them. Quality and revenue may suffer down the road.
This is where outsourcing changes the game. There’s no need for you to be overly involved in the daily IT operations. Instead, you trust that tasks are being performed to your satisfaction by the experts you’ve contracted with. In doing so, you free up precious time to improve your products, services, and marketing strategies.
5. Harness a Better IT Strategy
Developing an IT strategy that promotes and protects your business doesn’t have to be a hassle. Maybe you already have one, but is it finely tuned? Are there areas for improvement, but you aren’t sure exactly how to go about tweaking and optimizing your existing strategy?
Dedicated experts can craft a better IT strategy based on holes in your current one, integrating the following components:
- Aligning IT, including its budget, to your larger business strategy
- Setting goals and benchmarks for IT functions
- Investing in the right tech tools
- Outlining key IT workflows and roles
An effective IT strategy is one that can be flexible to business changes in branding, marketing, or even management style. Your outsourced provider will understand this and create a plan for regular updates and evaluation.
Find the Right IT Solutions Provider
Identifying your need for outsourced IT is the first step. Next, define your needs by setting expectations and parameters, including your ideal timeframe and budget. Then, it’s time to find the best solutions provider that can get behind your business’s mission and vision.
ISOutsource is an all-inclusive managed services provider for your outsourced technology support and consulting needs. Our end-to-end services include but aren’t limited to:
You want every advantage you can get to stay competitive, and you don’t have to handle your IT needs alone. Contact an ISOutsource expert today and learn how we’ll help your business build a strong reputation in your industry.