In-House IT vs. Managed Services
Hire an “IT Guy” or Use Managed Services?
As a small business owner you wear many hats – and if you’re reading this article there’s a good chance that one of your many titles includes “Default IT Administrator”. But once your company has grown past a few PCs, managing your IT systems can simply take too much of your time – and it is probably time to consider a professional solution.
Here we discuss the differences between hiring an in-house IT administrator and using “managed services” from an IT firm such as Intrepid IT. You may be surprised to find that managed services are cheaper than you think!
Cost Savings of Managed Services
Obviously hiring an IT person can be a good solution – if you have enough work to justify a full time IT professional. And if you can afford one. But with IT professionals in high demand, their salaries are definitely not cheap.
Managed services provide only the IT services you need – when you need them – at a flat monthly rate. In most cases managed services will be less than the salary + benefits + workers comp insurance + taxes; etc. of hiring a full time IT professional.
And, even if you already have an IT Administrator, managed services can free up your internal IT staff to focus on core business initiatives rather than diverting them to break and repair activities that can consume so much of your in-house IT person’s time.
24 / 7 Availability of Manages Services
Of course, even the best IT guy or gal isn’t going to be available 24/7. A serious limitation to an in-house IT administrator is what happens if you have an IT crisis after hours, on the week-end or when they are on vacation.
With managed services you have 24 / 7 technical support 365 days per year.
And, even the best IT professional doesn’t know everything about everything! But with managed IT services you have a team of IT professionals – each with different areas of expertise and knowledge – so that no matter what happens, you have the answers and support you need.
Managed Services Provide Proactive Monitoring
In-house IT administrators typically repair what goes wrong – but often do not have the time, knowledge or equipment to proactively monitor your IT systems to anticipate and prevent problems.
Managed services provide 24/7 remote monitoring of systems, software and applications – to let you know when something is at risk to fail BEFORE there is a problem. Managed services can notify your business when there is problem before a system outage, data loss or other disaster occurs.
Managed services can also include regular vulnerability assessments, patch management and asset tracking – something many in-house IT administrators don’t have the time to do. So even if Even if you have a great in-house IT professional, managed services can cost-effectively supplement his or her duties, so he or she can focus on your business initiatives.
Managed Services are Scalable
When you hire an IT administrator you pay his salary no matter how much or how little IT work you have for him or her. And when everything is running smoothly, you may just be paying him to play solitaire on his desktop computer!
Conversely, when all hell breaks loose and you need more than one pair of IT hands on deck, all you have is one IT person trying to put his finger into several damns at once!
But Managed IT services are completely scalable. A business can purchase as many or as few IT services as they need, and they can add levels of service as their IT needs grow – or scale them back if their needs reduce.
Intrepid IT Offers Complete Managed Service Solutions – Macomb County
In a recent study conducted by Dell, it was determined that offloading (outsourcing) routine yet vital IT infrastructure duties to a managed services provider reduced small businesses’ IT operational costs while at the same time provided higher levels of IT service and support.
With managed IT services, small business owners can take the worry out of IT administration and focus on running their business. And flat monthly managed service fees keep your IT costs contained and predictable.
If your small business doesn’t have an in-house IT person – or if your IT person is already up to his eyeballs dealing with pressing business initiatives – consider managed services from Intrepid IT. We will help you determine if managed services are a good fit for your small business. Chances are we can both save you money and provide you with an additional level of service that will help propel your business to the next level.
