Getting The Right IT Support
Running your own business requires you need to know a lot on just about everything. From filing your tax returns to managing your staff, IT Support, and of course the product or service itself, being the boss isn’t easy.
But if there’s one area where your expertise might let you down it’s with your IT networks. Unless you’re a computer whizz, you’re likely to know how to do the things you need to on your machine and not much else. Why should you? After all you’re too busy keeping the business afloat to learn a new skill. But when you do have an IT or network problem, it can spell disaster so you need to have help from a team you can trust. The question is, do you go in house or hire in from the outside when you need it?
In this blog we look at the advantages and disadvantages of both.
Outsourcing
No IT team? No problem. When you sign up for IT Support Services you will have someone at the other end of the phone 24-hours a day, 365-days a year. The vast majority of IT and networking issues can be solved remotely, with your IT support engineer accessing your computer and server from their own offices.
This has several advantages for your company. For a start you don’t have to create extra office space, provide desks and computer equipment and any other specialist tools an IT might need.
However, if you hire remote software engineers you’ll have access to a much larger support team and top of the range resources, perhaps more than you might be able to invest in setting up your own support network.
But you might also feel worried about not having a physical presence on site, someone to do daily checks and just talk to for advice.
In House
Which is why having an in house IT support team may work better for you. When they’re not solving technical issues with hardware or software they can help maintain the overall health and the security of your networks, run diagnostics and upgrades.
Having the peace of mind that someone is just a desk or two away can pay off, even if they may not be able to solve the issues right away.
They are limited in scope only by your own budgets. A one-person team may not be enough to handle large-scale network issues and they may not always have the necessary resources to get the job done as fast as you would like.
When you need help with an IT problem fast, consider how your in house team will cope with the demand. Whether you choose to build a team from the ground up, think about how much you can invest in making that happen. Consider too, whether recruiting some outside help might just be the better option if your needs are more than a small team night be able to cope with.
Give your business the support it needs with an IT support system that works for you.
8 Comments
Mary Gardner
IT is definitely not in my wheelhouse so for me this is something that is a must to outsource.
Rosie
I’m laughing because I don’t have a business, but had a basic question or two about my laptop. Yikes, it turned out to be a strange journey, between googling, calling the manufacturer, the store I purchased, google community, and so on, and never got an answer. If it was a business and I had to waste that much time, I’d be really concerned, you need a service you can rely on and doesn’t give pretend answers or send you off on a wild goose chase.
Tamra Phelps
I would definitely have to have someone else doing IT. That is not my forte.
Kate Sarsfield
Even little things can help staff when it comes to IT, like always backing up and updating security software regularly. It doesn’t have to be difficult.
Rosie
I think many small businesses don’t think of getting good IT solutions, until they have gotten started and then realize oh oh. But they may not have anticipated the costs associated with purchasing help either by contract or employee. Many try to tough it out themselves, but it would be holding them down. Nothing is worse than having a system that isn’t set up efficiently or safely from hackers, etc!
Crystal K
This is good advice – even for people with IT training, technology changes so rapidly that it can be hard to keep up!
Tamra Phelps
I’m definitely not a computer whiz. I’m not the person to ask about IT support.