The Decision to Outsource IT
Getting ahead in business is about having the right product or service and getting it to the right customer at the right time for the right price. Finding that special formula is going to be different for every company but there is a common ground – technology.
And, like most commonalities in business, technology can be outsourced.
Outsourcing IT
More than 60 percent of the sourcing market comes from IT outsourcing specifically – and the demand for outsourced IT support continues to grow. While some people argue, “true innovation results from IT professionals being tightly aligned with the company’s strategy, and that is difficult to pull off when IT people work for a different company” – outsourcing IT support does work for many companies.
“Data-center operations and end-user support are perhaps the last frontiers for outsourcing, and indeed these have become commodity activities,” explains industry expert Tom Davenport. “Keeping servers and networks running, as long as it is done in a reliable and secure fashion, doesn’t offer many opportunities for competitive advantage. And does it matter who helps a user recover a lost password?”
Technology as a Competitive Advantage
However, technology is indeed a competitive advantage and, for many companies, IT can be strategic. While technology is the “cost of doing business,” it is so much more.
Information technology has the power to change the way companies do business by altering the rules of competition. Technology offers another way for a company to stand out and provide value to its consumers. Using good IT and, by extension, having good IT support helps differentiate a company from its peers, allowing it to charge more for its goods and services.
Growing Companies
Of course, some larger corporations may prefer to keep IT in-house. In-house IT departments are often small and can only do so much in the time allotted. That said, keeping IT in-house does mean more control over the system. Customer complaints could inform new product development and proprietary technologies stay as cloistered as possible.
But, most companies are not large corporations.
Smaller companies, growing companies, and agile companies need outsourced IT to be as efficient as possible. Hiring outsourced IT means hiring expertise. The costs are often far less than hiring a dedicated IT staff. Plus, many IT outsourcing firms have solid track records of service that allow them to respond more effectively to customer issues.
Moreover, IT support can be available well outside the company’s business hours and scale to suit its needs easily. Any server downtime is minimized, customers get support all hours of the day, and the company can focus on making money instead of taking calls.
The Customer Experience
Outsourced IT support lets the company free up resources, like time and personnel, allowing it to focus on revenue-generating activities such as product development or marketing.
“When you’re handling all of your IT support internally, your focus is often divided by a bunch of different technical priorities to keep your site, product and/or application up and running,” explains Heidi Murphy, the Principal, and VP of Finance, Warwick Communications. “Outsourcing IT lets you focus on what matters: growing and supporting your business – not troubleshooting software, hardware, and user issues.”
The decision to outsource IT really all comes down to providing the best customer experience possible for the least cost, and outsourcing IT makes it easy to do so.
If you are ready to take your company’s IT to the next level, Bleuwire can help. We offer managed IT services that help take the stress out of business technology. Bleuwire is more than technical know-how, we are your virtual support.
