Small Business IT Support, Handle In-house or Outsource?

Business’ IT needs are changing constantly; this is the nature of IT. New services are arriving all the time to help businesses with their productivity, collaboration and customer service. Managing these services can be challenging, especially now that remote working seems like it is here to stay. This raises the question of how businesses should manage their IT; should they task it to an in-house team or outsource it to a specialist company?

This issue is especially important to smaller teams. With fewer resources to allocate, it can be a challenge to know what to prioritise. An in-house department can be expensive, but can you rely on an entirely separate company to put your business first? At Chalvington we’re here to guide you through the process and provide answers to this crucial question.

The Role of your IT Support Team

This will depend largely on the sector that your business operates in and the specialist software that your team works with. It is very likely though that your IT team will have to be experts in just about every aspect of computing and technology. This sounds like an exaggeration, but it really isn’t. 

Your IT team will have to have an understanding not just of the hardware that your business relies on but also the software and online tools that your team uses every day. This can range from your communications, to your customer service platforms and even your security. To have this range of knowledge takes an incredible amount of skill and training. Mastering it all takes time that you might not have.

Outsourcing provides smaller teams with a different option. An outsourced team can draw on a much wider range of experience from many different people. As opposed to an internal jack-of-all-trades, when you outsource you put yourself in the hands of specialists. From communications to security, an outsourced team is guaranteed to have the skillset you need.

Technology is constantly shifting and keeping up with the latest innovations can end up feeling like a full-time job. A specialist team can keep up with this for you, so your team can focus on helping your business to grow.

The Difference Outsourcing can make for Smaller Teams

Outsourcing your IT support can have a range of benefits besides the time saving and professional expertise explained above. A specialist IT service such as ours here at Chalvington comes equipped with not only technical knowledge but long-standing relationships with some of the world’s foremost technology companies.

We’ve worked with telecoms and IT giants such as Microsoft and Ericsson-LG and are fully up to date on their latest offerings, both in terms of hardware, software and cloud solutions. This depth of knowledge means that we have well-established processes to help businesses of any size and scale. Unlike an internal team, outsourced IT support departments have worked alongside many small teams in the past and understand the steps to ensure success here.

There are also the cost-benefits to outsourcing. Supporting a team in-house can be expensive, especially if their main role is to react to situations as they happen. There is also the issue of recruitment. IT specialists with the right experience to support an entire business are hard to come by and definitely do not come cheap. Outsourcing services offer cost-effective financing plans that are tailored to your requirements, providing a different way to support your team.

Can Outsourcing and In-House Teams Co-exist?

You may already have an in-house IT specialist, or may see advantages for both outsourcing and maintaining an on-site staff. This can still be a fantastic solution for your IT issues. At Chalvington, we offer hybrid IT support solutions that work alongside your existing team to give you a truly comprehensive IT service.

Our proactive monitoring can detect issues before they happen through regular health checks, sending alerts to your team. Or if your team has some great expertise with specialist software, an outsourced team can simply fill in the blanks where you aren’t so well-equipped. An outsourced team can also be of great help in an emergency. If you have issues with data loss, or a breakdown in connectivity, our support team can be with you quickly, or provide your team with guidance on the next steps.

So no matter if you’re looking for a new way to support your business or a way to augment your existing services, an outsourced team of IT specialists is a fantastic way to stay on top of things.