While outsourced IT support can be an expense which some businesses may not think they need, the benefits are huge. There are smaller businesses which may only have a small network but it is still good to have an IT support contract as you never know when an IT issue can hold back your business. Smaller businesses may have not even considered solutions which are very affordable and would increase business performance tremendously but IT support providers would usually identify where a businesses IT solution can be improved.
If you employ an IT team as highly skilled and resourced as what an IT provider can offer, you will be paying a minimum of £200,000 per year in salaries alone. With an IT support provider, not only do you get access to highly skilled teams for as little as £1000 per month but you also gain quick access to vendor support as the majority of IT support companies are partnered with the worlds largest vendors. This means that any issue can be resolved in an efficient manner and if vendor support is required then your business gains instant access which reduces downtime and loss of money.
Imagine if your IT solution were to fail in the middle of a week where multiple events are taking place that can hugely drive your business forward. Without any IT support provider in place, you would have to pay for the privilege of IT support by the hour which could end up costing £800 for the day. Not only could the IT support provider have placed redundant solutions in place beforehand but they could have potentially seen that a piece of equipment was due to fail through proactive monitoring. This would have allowed your business to avoid downtime and run effectively while not having to pay an unexpected £800 expense.
Some of you reading this may be thinking £800 for one day compared to £12,000 per year for a contract seems to be the better expense as you may only need the support once per year. While this can be true in some instances, you have to consider how much money the business would lose on an entire day of not functioning and how much money would have to be spent on new equipment including installation fee's. Not only would you have been able to avoid this situation with a support contract but you would also have the below benefits:
Proactive monitoring of your IT solution
Advice on how to improve your solution in order for it to be redundant
Advice on how to make you IT solution scalable
Daily IT support for any struggles you may have
Access to senior engineers
Urgent advice for times such as when COVID-19 caused a national lockdown
Equipment/component failure warranties and quick replacements
The above are just a few of the benefits of having an IT support contract. When it comes down to end users you could also include speedy password resets, permission changes and all the other small tasks that can be a huge problem if held back due to your IT team being too busy to handle them. This is a good example of how an IT support provider can be an addition to an IT team, you would only need to employ a small team as the provider could deal with most of the workload in a faster and more efficient manner. It is always good to have an IT engineer employed on-site even if they are a junior engineer as they can liaise with support providers, this allows an issue to be resolved sooner than if a non-technical person was trying to explain and troubleshoot the issue.
