Outsourcing IT: Why It Can Be More Cost-Effective Than Hiring and Training The Right People

When it comes to managing your business, you have a lot of moving parts to manage. It would help if you made sure that your employees are trained and happy, that the operations are running smoothly, and that you have enough people around at all times in case something goes wrong. And on top of that, you need to ensure that everything is as secure and efficient as possible—even if it means spending more than you'd like every month.

Fortunately, for many organizations just starting (and even those who've been around for decades), there's another option: Outsourcing IT services. In this post, we'll explain why outsourcing IT can benefit companies looking for ways to save money and those who want help with their day-to-day operations.

It's tough to hire the best talent.

It would help if you found the right people for the job. You need to train them. You need to make sure they are motivated and productive, or else you'll have an employee turnover problem on your hands (and even more hiring costs). Even if you hire someone who stays with your company, many hours will be spent training them so they can hit the ground running and contribute to your bottom line immediately.

Hiring a full-time employee is costly—not just monetarily but also in terms of productivity loss while getting acclimated with their new role.

You might not have the budget for a large IT staff.

You might not have the budget for a large IT staff. Like many businesses, you probably don't have the budget to hire a full-time IT professional. Even if you did, there's no guarantee that this person would be able to do everything on your list of tasks—or that they would even want to do them. If you've been outsourcing your data entry and other routine tasks for years, outsourcing IT solutions is likely not as far of reach as it may seem.

Downtime is costly.

Downtime is costly, and a prolonged outage can have a lasting impact on your business.

Lost productivity: The average American employee only spends 50% of their time working productively. When you add up all the hours wasted, downtime costs companies $1.7 trillion each year in lost productivity.
Lost customers: When your company website goes down, potential customers are forced to look elsewhere for what they want or need. And once they've found something better elsewhere that doesn't cost them any more money, most people will never come back and give you another chance to win them over with your products or services again — even if it was just one little thing like having an e-commerce site that didn't load correctly when someone tried shopping on it!

Greater flexibility than in-house

In addition to the cost savings, outsourcing your IT operations can offer you increased flexibility in other areas. For example, you can focus on your core business objectives and services by outsourcing your IT infrastructure and support. This means you can expand into new areas or products without worrying about hiring and training additional staff members. If a particular project requires more attention from your team than expected, it's much easier for them (and their families) if they don't have to take time off from work just because there is an issue with a piece of hardware or software.
Outsourcing allows employees who are not directly involved in managing the IT team more time for their customers or other internal projects that need attention — which can be highly beneficial for businesses seeking growth opportunities but lack the resources required for handling these kinds of responsibilities in-house.

Your in-house team needs as much help as they can get.

In-house teams need help with what they're doing and with what they aren't doing. They need help with what they're not good at and also with what they aren't interested in doing. As a result, outsourcing your IT is more cost-effective than hiring and training the right people for the job.

You need a specific skill set that your team doesn't have, and you don't want to hire an entirely new department.

If you're in an industry where specific skills are essential and your existing team is lacking, hiring an IT consultant can be more cost-effective than buying any software or hardware. This is especially true if those skills are vital to the success of your business.

Some examples of this type of situation include:

An online retailer needs a programmer who knows how to build websites that sell well on Google Adwords. The company has experienced some growing pains recently, with website traffic falling off due to problems with search engine optimization (SEO).
A manufacturing company wants a long-term relationship with its IT provider because they need help implementing a new ERP system but don't want the expense or hassle of hiring full-time employees for their IT department just yet.

You need 24/7 monitoring.

When you're looking at IT infrastructure, there are some aspects of the system that need 24/7 monitoring. This includes things like servers, storage, networks, and applications. If a problem occurs in any of these areas and isn't addressed quickly enough, it can cause a lot of damage to your company's efficiency and profitability.

There are several ways to address this need for 24/7 monitoring:

You can hire staff members or contract with an outside agency to monitor your infrastructure on an around-the-clock basis (this is what most businesses do). However, this approach is expensive because it requires paying people a salary plus benefits for every hour they're working on-site—and usually requires hiring more people when business increases so as not to overload existing employees' schedules too heavily. And if multiple issues arise during those same hours (which they likely will), then it would take even longer than necessary before getting the problem resolved because someone needs to switch gears from whatever else they were doing to solve yet another issue later in time.

Staff on 24/7 monitoring of your tech syste,s

Types of outsourcing

Outsourcing IT comes in many shapes and sizes, from vendor management and data center operations to software development and cloud security.

When it comes to outsourcing, you can choose from various options. These include:

Vendor Management - This option involves working with third-party vendors who provide multiple services, such as payroll processing, HVAC repair, etc., on behalf of your company. This is a good option if you don't have the time or resources to manage these types of vendors.
Cloud Services - Cloud computing is the process by which companies rent out space on servers located at remote locations (often in other countries) rather than purchasing their hardware or building their data centers (which would be incredibly expensive). This service makes things much easier because all you need to do is pay a monthly fee for storage space and processing power—you don't have any additional costs associated with buying equipment upfront since everything's already been taken care of for you!
Software Development - This type involves developing custom software solutions that meet specific needs within your organization; it may also extend into providing maintenance services once those solutions are up-and-running so there are no unexpected issues later down the line.

Outsourcing IT services can help drive down costs and improve efficiency.

Outsourcing IT services to an offshore company can be a cost-effective way to improve efficiency, reduce costs and meet your business goals. You don't have to worry about hiring and training the right people when you outsource your IT needs. You also won't need to manage the day-to-day operations of your technology infrastructure. By outsourcing these tasks, you can focus on growing your business.

To summarize

In short, IT outsourcing is a great way to save time and money. It also allows you to focus on your core business while outsourcing the technical details that can bog down productivity. While there are some risks involved with this type of arrangement, it's important to weigh them against the benefits before deciding what's best for your company.

The good news is SSI offers managed IT services.

Managed IT services are a great way to reduce the cost of running your business’s IT systems, while providing you with a higher level of protection and functionality.