Investing in IT for your business is vital to ensuring your business operates smoothly day to day, while also allowing you to push your business further towards its full potential. However, having knowledgeable personnel accessible to be able to help with these aspects in an instant is essential.
There are two ways that your business can go about procuring IT expertise — managed IT and in-house IT. Both have their benefits and drawbacks and are suitable for different kinds of organisations.
In this article, we’re going to go over each — and the benefits of drawbacks that they offer. We’ll also take a look at which one is right for your business.
In-house IT
‘In-house’ IT is simply a team of IT experts that work within your organisation. They would be hired as employees, and be solely dedicated to your organisation’s IT needs.
Benefits
Constantly On-location
In-house IT teams are employees of the companies that they’re hired by, which means that they’ll be working on-site. With this, they’ll always be physically present to be able to troubleshoot physically and will have office space dedicated to working for your organisation.
Familiar with Organisation
If you hire in-house IT specialists, they will be solely dedicated to your organisation — meaning that they’ll be able to learn the ins and outs of your organisation as well as the very specific needs that you may have.
Employees of a managed IT service will work with multiple organisations every day, meaning that they won’t know the specifics of your organisation.
Faster Support in Office Hours
During office hours, having an in-house IT team is a way to ensure that you can have access to quick support. This is because — unlike a managed IT provider — in-house IT specialists cater solely to your business and don’t need to support multiple businesses in a busy work period.
Challenges
Increased Cost
Every member of your in-house IT team will be a fully paid employee. Especially when considering how expensive IT personnel can be with the ongoing skills shortage, this will be very costly for your organisation.
Furthermore, you’ll have to pay for office space, equipment, and everything else that an employee needs to be able to get their job done. All of these costs will accumulate for your organisation.
Inconsistent Capacity
Hiring a team sets the capability and capacity for that team. If you have five members that are all busy, you won’t be able to have any more capacity — meaning that important tasks might get delayed.
Gaps in Skill Set
Hiring a team means that you’re limited to the skill set of the people that you’ve hired. This means that there will inevitably be some gaps in your team’s skillset, as it’s difficult to cover everything when having to hire multiple people — especially if you’re not looking to spend on employees with a wider range of skills.
Managed IT Services
Managed IT services are when an external provider manages IT within your organisation, meaning that you have access to a team of IT experts right at your fingertips.
Benefits
Access to a Wider Skill Set
A managed service provider (MSP) will have a range of employees that will be able to use their skills to solve problems, meaning that you have access to a wider pool of skills to be able to solve problems within your organisation.
Ability to Scale
When working with an MSP, you’ll be able to scale the amount of support available to meet your organisation’s needs — to ensure that you can easily get access to the correct amount of support that you need without overspending.
Lower Cost
With no need to hire anyone directly, you’re only paying for the MSP’s services instead of paying multiple employees at full salary. You have access to a widely skilled team at a much lower cost than otherwise.
Greater Availability
Your MSP will always be there to help you whenever you need it. No need to account for holidays or paid time off, instead simply working with another organisation and paying for the service provided — which will always be available.
Challenges
Many Options to Choose From
There are lots of different MSPs that are available to work with, so choosing can be difficult. Lots of different organisations will offer different services, so figuring out which is best for you can be a process.
Require Relationship Building
Working with an MSP is building a relationship. You’ll have to work with them over time to build relationships and ensure that you’re achieving what you want with them, and so they can fully understand the long-term needs of your organisation.
Lose Some Control
Inevitably, when an external provider is in charge of your organisation’s IT, you lose some control. This is simply part of collaborating and working with external organisations, as they are going to be in charge of whatever you ask them to handle.
What’s Right For Your Business?
While in-house IT can be a great bespoke solution for your organisation, it can be expensive while also not being as effective due to the limitations of an in-house team’s skillsets.
Working with an MSP for a managed IT service is cheaper, easier, and lets you work with a team that has various skills and experience to be able to solve your problems with ease.
How We Can Help
There are benefits to both managed service IT and in-house IT, with both solutions having challenges too. While there’s no perfect solution due to several factors, the services provided by an MSP can easily be sculpted to your needs for a fraction of the price.
If you’re looking to get started with an MSP, reach out to us today. We’re here to help your organisation, and to ensure that you have support throughout your business’s entire IT strategy. Our team of experts are simply a few clicks away.
Get in touch now and see how we can work with you for the best IT solution.
