A lot of companies outsource certain services in order to improve efficiency. A company may send all of their public relations and advertising to an outside communications firm. Or they may use a payroll and bookkeeping service to keep their books in check. There are many benefits that come from outsourcing business process.
Information technology (IT) management is one of these business processes that are often outsourced to a managed IT services provider. Some companies may argue that they prefer to do everything in-house, while others look at an outsourced provider as an added expense. There are advantages to utilizing an external IT provider, but first in order to fully understand these benefits, let’s take a look at some challenges of having an in-house IT staff.
Below are some of the challenges companies may face with only having an in-house IT staff:
Increased Costs
In-house IT staff members are like any other employee; in exchange for their work they receive compensation, which is an expense for the business. However in addition to the cost for an employee’s salary, the company has to pay for associated costs that may include taxes, unemployment insurance, health insurance, retirement contributions, and other fringe benefits. Staff are an investment in a company, and over time, as employees move up the ranks, (ideally) their pay increases – which increases the cost for the employees.
Need to Balance Coverage
Employees are human. They sometimes get sick and have to call out of work. Or they take (well-deserved) vacation time. Your in-house IT staff is no exception to this, and they deserve to have the flexibility to take time off of work as needed. However, you need to have plans in place to make sure business continues as usual should an IT staff member have to call out. Businesses need to have a few IT staff members on hand to ensure that at least one person is working to support IT services. This requires building a team of IT professionals, which also means increased costs for compensation.
Turn Over
Gone are the days of employees joining a company and working for the same corporation through retirement. Our business models have shifted, and as a result, employees move on to different opportunities at a much faster pace. With an in-house IT staff, you have to be prepared for employee turnover. Onboarding new employees takes time and money. You need to bring a new employee up to speed which may require overlapping and having the exiting employee train the incoming employee which means double the salary for that time frame.
Also, when employee exits, their knowledge base also goes with them. So if the only staff member who was trained in a specific program or specialty (say Linux for example) and they leave, you have to find an employee with a similar background or you have to spend time training a new staff member on the technology. Your in-house employees have years of experience in their respective fields and also have experience working for your specific company so they know the processes and procedures. If an employee leaves, you have to invest time and money to bring a new person up to speed, in a relatively short amount of time.
Stay tuned for part two where we look at the benefits of utilizing an outsourced managed IT provider.
