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How to Make IT Outsourcing Work for Your Business

By June 16, 2021No Comments12 min read
IT Outsourcing Work for Your Business

Small startups or organizations can start out by managing and handling their own IT functions. However, for a medium and large-sized business, it is very difficult to handle IT-related tasks. The IT needs of your company will become more specific and advanced with time. Due to this, most business owners are going for IT outsourcing. In this article, we are going to talk about the importance of IT Outsourcing for your business.

Definition of IT Outsourcing

Companies can work with specialized IT firms for fulfilling their IT-related service needs. This can include network monitoring, help desk support, IT security, and cloud management. These services are billed at a fixed monthly cost. If you are hiring a company for some project again, then you will be billed according to your project needs.

Working with a MSP

IT outsourcing is one of the best ways to support your IT needs. You need access to IT, staff, for managing your IT infrastructure. It is difficult to monitor your IT systems 24x7x365. MSPs will use remote infrastructure monitoring tools for monitoring your network and systems.

You also need experts in business technologies, disaster recovery, cybersecurity, desktop, networking, storage, virtualization, and servers. Due to this, it is very difficult to build a complete IT team. Experienced MSPs like Bleuwire will help you in outsourcing your daily IT operation. There are various benefits of working with an MSP.

 Why you should outsource your IT

Many companies are still using an internal IT team for managing their IT needs. Thus, it might be difficult to choose between the internal IT team and MSP. Some of the benefits of outsourcing IT support are:

  • 24x7x365 Coverage: If you are a global company, then your employees will need regular IT support. It is very difficult for your internal IT staff to meet the demands of your remote staff. If you are working with an MSP, then you don’t need to worry about this problem. Your MSP will provide you 24x7x365 support.
  • Cost Savings: IT talent is becoming more expensive with the time. You need to spend a lot of money on hiring and maintaining the skill sets that you need for supporting your IT needs. This cost can be avoided if you are working with a good MSP. Experienced MSPs like Bleuwire have access to a large team of IT professionals. If you are working with them, then you don’t need to worry about hiring your own IT team.
  • Your IT staff can focus on core work: If your IT team is dealing with end-users issues, then they won’t have time to work on your core services. Thus, you should consider outsourcing IT help desk support.

You can customize your service according to your needs if you are working with an MSP. This will ensure that you are only paying for the services that you are using. Your IT team might be wasting a lot of time in solving your end-user issues. Thus, you can forward these queries to your IT partner. This will ensure that you will only pay for the help desk support.

MSP can also help you in performing IT asset management. Your IT partner will first perform an IT assessment of your network. They will identify all the IT resources that you are using. This will ensure that your MSP can easily manage your IT assets.

When should I outsource IT services?

Your MSP will help you in avoiding issues by proactively looking for issues in your network. In case of a problem, then they will help you in solving the problem quickly. Most companies will consider IT outsourcing only after meeting a certain threshold of growth. Outsourcing your IT needs will ensure that you can focus mainly on your business strategy.

Every business will have a different need for IT support. It may be specific to your business only. MSPs can help you in handling these devices:

  • Servers
  • Network devices
  • Storage
  • Wireless devices
  • Mobile Devices
  • Desktops
  • Laptops

Most MSPs will provide you these services:

  1. Manage your IT network: Your IT network will include your workstations and servers. It will also connect all the devices that are connected with your network. Your MSP will help you in managing your entire IT network.
  2. Data Backups: In case of data loss, your data backups can help you in recovering your systems. However, you have to make sure that your data backups are actually working properly. This will ensure that you can actually restore your data in case of data loss.
  3. Protecting your systems and network: You have to ensure that both your endpoint devices and network are protected. Bleuwire will help you in installing anti-malware and anti-virus software in your systems. This will ensure that your systems are protected from intruders. They will install the latest SIEM systems and firewalls for protecting your network. In case of a network breach, these tools will help you in minimizing the harm.

Different types of IT Services that can be outsourced:

  1. IT Help desk

This is the most important popular method of outsourcing IT. You will get access to IT to support 24x7x365. This will ensure that your internal IT employees can focus on doing core projects.

  1. Monitoring

Your MSP will help you in monitoring your IT network. They will automatically update your software and tools from a remote location.

  1. Cybersecurity

Cybersecurity is the most important IT domain now. Your MSP can help you in maintaining a secure IT infrastructure. They will help you in creating an IT security strategy. This will ensure that you don’t need to worry about maintaining your infrastructure.

  1. Migration Projects

Some projects can be typical for your business. It is better to outsource a third party for these projects. For example, migrating to MS 365 is a perfect task that you can outsource.

  1. Tests

Penetration testing can help you in finding security loopholes in your network. These tests are generally done by an MSP.

  1. Compliance Projects

Most companies need to follow compliances like PCI DSS and HIPAA. MSPs already have experience with these compliances. Thus, they can help you in meeting these compliances.

These services will generally require special skills or 24-hour IT support. Thus, you should consider outsourcing these services.

You can get maximum benefit by outsourcing IT help desk services. This will ensure that all the common issues will go to your MSP. Your IT staff can focus on doing their important work. Bleuwire will follow a reputable and consistent process for handling all the issues. They will respond to your end-users requests quickly. Your IT staff will also be freed up from this boring task.

How to outsource IT?

IT outsourcing will help you in reducing your IT costs. If you are outsourcing IT, then it will ensure that you don’t need to hire internal staff. You only need to hire developers for your core projects. You should ask yourself these questions before you start working with an MSP:

  • Which tasks can be handled by your IT partner?

There are certain tasks that your IT partner can help you with. They will help you in monitoring your systems and software patch updates. However, it is not a good idea to outsource your main projects. Thus, you should look for tasks that can be efficiently handled by a third party.

  • Which projects should be handled by your in-house IT team?

Your IT staff should be focusing on your core projects. You can seek IT consulting services from MSPs. They will help you in quickly building your projects. If you don’t have an internal IT team, then you can outsource the entire project to an MSP.

  • What are the compliances that you need to follow?

This will mainly depend on your industry. There can be several compliance laws that you might need to follow. These laws might require outside expertise. Thus, you should consider working with a good MSP. Experienced MSPs like Bleuwire can help you in following HIPAA, NIST, and PCI DSS compliance.

IT Outsourcing Costs

The costs will ultimately depend on your business needs. Most MSPs will offer you monthly recurring services. Thus, you will be billed every month for using their service. They can also charge you per device. If you have more devices in your IT infrastructure, then you might need to pay more. However, this is important as you need to secure all the devices present in your network.

If you are outsourcing IT help desk services, then costs will depend on the number of users supported. It will also depend on the number of devices and type of devices. Your plan might also depend on the level of expertise you need. There can also be a threshold on the number of hours spent on the issues. If you are exceeding this threshold, then you might need to pay more.

You also need to think about how you will redirect queries from your company to your partner. This will also increase the impact cost.

How do get the best results?

You can follow some guidelines for getting the best results from your MSP.

  1. SLAs are important

Service Level Agreements or SLAs are very important for this deal. These are written agreements that will describe the minimum level of services provided by your MSP. Your MSP should maintain this threshold level. Every service will have its own SLAs. Thus, you should look for different SLAs for every service.

The SLA is a very important document. It will mention all the responsibilities of your IT partner. SLA will also include the metrics used to determine if your MSP is meeting the standards. It will also mention the penalties that your MSP needs to pay in case they don’t meet the SLA standards. Your MSP should have a monitoring system. This will ensure that they can track outages in your system. They will quickly report the downtime to your internal IT team. Thus, you can focus on fixing your network.

  1. Visit the MSP facility or office

You should check the facility of your provider. Make sure that their data center is secure. If they are using NOC, then you should check it. You can also check the IT team employed by your MSP.

MSPs that monitor the security events and performance of networks will have built-in redundancy. This will help them in protecting your systems from attacks and downtime. You can review the facility of your provider. This will help you in understanding their work culture.

You are going to directly deal with your MSP. Thus, it is important to ensure that you are on the same page. You should have a meeting with the team before you start working with them. Make sure that your company values actually match with them.

  1. Determine how IT support is delivered

You should also check how your partner is delivering end-user support. They should report back to you on a regular basis. The report should contain the type and number of issues that your MSP is solving for you. This should also include the average time to resolve your issues.

Your partner should provide you with 24×7 support to your end-users. This will ensure that your end-user will always get support from your partner.

How can Bleuwire help your business?

Bleuwire will offer you all the IT managed services that you need for running your business efficiently. You don’t need to worry about hiring your own in-house IT support team. Bleuwire will provide IT support to your business and your end-users. They will also provide network monitoring solutions. This will ensure that your IT team doesn’t need to worry about manually monitoring your network. You can also opt for IT security services. Bleuwire will help you in creating a customized IT security plan for your business. You can use this plan for protecting your network from attackers.

Contact us today to learn about Bleuwire™  services and solutions in how we can help your business.