The best times to insource and outsource your IT

The best times to insource and outsource your IT

As far as sourcing IT for your company is concerned, you may be thinking about hiring full-time staff and buying your own hardware and software. Or, you may be considering getting a managed services provider (MSP) instead. When your business grows and needs to build or expand its IT infrastructure, how will you know which solution is best?

Enterprises must carefully review the advantages and disadvantages of any available options so they can cut costs. Technology continues to evolve at a rapid pace, and more businesses are investing in them, increasing the demand for IT support. In cases like these, insourcing may be a good idea. But your daily IT requirements and short-term projects may be more efficient if they are outsourced instead of managed by an internal department.

What does insourcing IT mean?

This simply means acquiring and keeping in-house IT resources. Full-time employees can comprise your very own IT department, while having your own servers, routers, and networking equipment can constitute your very own IT infrastructure.

Having internal resources means being responsible for these yourself. Building a new department requires the crafting of new business processes and transitioning towards their adoption. Keeping IT professionals entails providing continual training in addition to the regular benefits that all your employees receive. And having your own machines and software systems means repairs, maintenance, and compliance with data regulations fall squarely on your shoulders.

What does outsourcing IT mean?

When your enterprise hires an outside contractor to work on some or all your IT-related workload, it is outsourcing technology services. It can be infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS), software-as-a-service (SaaS), or business processes. Outsourcing your IT can help your organization accelerate the time to market, increase efficiencies, manage its IT budget, and ultimately give customer satisfaction a boost.

When is it best to insource IT?

The choice to keep some business activities in house isn’t just influenced by cost. Other factors such as the overall vision of your marketing department and the current and future needs of your company would come into play. It may make sense for your firm to hire internal staff if:

  • The capability or skill your business needs is key to giving it an advantage over the competition;
  • You need the skilled individual to serve more than one purpose in your organization;
  • Hiring a new employee with the ideal skills would complement your company’s present IT resources; and
  • The demand for the resource or skill will be sustained for a long time, and interruption of the said resource or skill will negatively impact your business.

When is it best to outsource IT services?

Your enterprise may quickly develop a scope of skills while saving some money if it outsources IT resources instead of investing time and funds on training in-house employees. MSPs like Complete Technology already have experienced professionals with the skills that your business needs, and it makes sense to outsource your IT if:

  • Your organization needs specific skills or assets for a particular deliverable, objective, or initiative that is limited in scope and time;
  • Budget limitations force your company to cut costs just to support the resource (e.g., hiring contractors without any taxes or benefits);
  • Demand for the resource or skill may fluctuate over time, and is not enough to justify hiring a full-time employee or team; and
  • Your need for the resource or skill is immediate, so there’s little to no time for recruiting, hiring, and training employees for the desired role.

To insource or to outsource? That is the question.

How much of your IT must you keep in-house, and how much must you turn over to third parties? It's rarely ever an either-or situation. Rather, it's about striking that balance that'll mean the greatest cost and operational efficiencies for your business.

Talk to the experts at Complete Technology so we can address the points mentioned in this article. Our company redefines IT services for businesses in Kansas City by allowing them to focus on their business, not IT distractions. Give us a call today and we’ll give you a free consultation to help you make the best business decision.

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