Today, most businesses are preferring to hire Managed IT services over having the traditional IT department. However, other businesses don’t see the need for having managed IT services, as their in-house IT team is capable of handling the needs of the business. Furthermore, businesses also need an in-house IT department because of the nature of their operations.
But, this brings us one question—the IT department or managed services—which is better? This is a challenging question that most business owners come across. Therefore, we shall help you determine what the right option for your business is.
Questions to ask yourself
Before choosing between IT department or managed services, ensure that you ask yourself the following five questions:
- What are the requirements of my online business?
- Do I have the resources needed to develop an infrastructure with modern hardware, or have professional technicians assist me?
- Does my business have the needed competencies or abilities to provide performant and safe management?
- Does my business have an IT infrastructure that is fully dedicated and present to manage the entire system?
- What are the projections for the growth of online business in the future?
Now, once you answer these questions, it’s time to determine the benefits of these two options—the IT department and management services. You should carefully analyze the benefits to determine which option is right for your business.
Benefits of in-house IT department
If you are thinking of having an in-house IT department, the following are a few benefits of how your business stands to benefit from this option:
- One of the biggest benefits of having an in-house IT department of immediate access to IT supports whenever your business needs it. Having an IT department means that there’s a team ready to handle issues, ranging from minor technical problems to a major IT crisis. Thus, an IT department will ensure that your downtime is drastically reduced.
- With time, your IT department will develop a deep knowledge of your company’s internal IT system and infrastructure. This, in turn, will allow your IT team to perfect their troubleshooting skills, in comparison to outsourcing an IT team, which might not have the same level of experience.
- Having an in-house IT department will make it easier for you to run your business. While there are numerous reputable MPSs out there, you cannot depend on them to meet the requirements of your business.
- At times, most businesses desire to control their IT department, and this something that you can easily do when you have an in-house IT team, rather than managed IT service providers.
Benefits of managed services
Business owners need to evaluate the benefits of managed services before choosing to hire them. The following are the benefits that managed services can offer your business:
- The greatest advantage of managed IT services—and this is why most business owners should choose their services is the availability of specialized entities—and their ultimate goal is to provide unlimited support to your IT requirements.
- ● Most managed IT services normally provide a wide range of services, as well as a broad skill-base. Besides, you can also get access to 24/7 customer service, as well as quality services, depending on your agreement on your SLA (Service Level Agreement).
- Other than the fee that you pay for the services that you receive from MSP, you don’t need to be worried about incurring any additional costs for staff training and certification or investing in your IT infrastructure blindly.
- It’s much easier to replace managed services than replacing your IT department in case their services don’t meet your expectations or requirements.
So, what’s the best option for your business?
Experts from Symple, IT Services Company from Ottawa agree that it’s a challenge to choose between in-house IT departments and managed services. However, business owners must note one thing—these two options aren’t equally exclusive. Thus, you can opt to retain your IT department, but still, hire managed services to handle some part of your IT department.
Also, you must understand your in-house IT staff might feel threatened the moment you choose to bring MSP on board. However, if your staff are professional, and dedicated to what they do, they shouldn’t feel threatened at all. All in all, when considering the right option for your business, ensure that you check how your business stands to benefit from each option.
The following are some of the major points to check before making your decision:
- Performance gaps – typically, we have numerous factors behind this. But the major causes of performance gaps include poor monitoring to check for issues, as well as failing to perform upgrades and patches whenever required. Having MSP will ensure that these tasks are done properly and on time. The company Sumatosoft, which specializes in developing IoT, claims about importance to help the clients in managing requirements on every step. Also about making implement the app development practices from the very initial prototyping stage to mass production phase.
- Application vulnerabilities – most businesses have a challenge in keeping up with the security patches needed by their application. Thus, a collaboration between the IT department and MSP can ensure that these vulnerabilities are eliminated.
- Loss of productivity because of downtime – having an IT department will ensure that there’s less downtime because any issues that arise are addressed immediately.
- Incapacity to keep your IT department trained – this is a major determining factor for most businesses, and this is what drives them to adopt managed IT services.
