You’ve hit your stride in 2022, business is looking good, there’s an opportunity to grow and now it’s time to tackle the task. Business growth can be scary but extremely rewarding if successful. There are a large number of things to consider and IT should be one of them.

Ensuring IT is scaling with your business is vital to its growth because as your business grows, so does the demand for IT resources. If IT is not able to scale to meet the demand, it can halt the growth of your business and its ability to take on new opportunities. You will need to handle larger volumes of data, more users, and more complex processes.

Without proper scaling, the IT infrastructure can become a bottleneck that slows down operations and reduces efficiency. Therefore, making sure IT is scaling with the business is essential to support the growth and success of the organization.

We will go through three different methods of IT support that businesses use when scaling up. I will cover In-house IT, Ad Hoc Support, and Managed Services, being the most popular ones. I will discuss the pros and cons of each and the circumstances they are best used for.

In-House It

An in-house IT support team is an internal department within a company that manages and maintains the company’s technology infrastructure. This includes providing assistance to employees through help desk support, managing computer and network systems, and developing software. By having an in-house IT team, a company can have greater control over its technology and respond more quickly to employee needs.

Pro’s

• Quick support
• Physically see equipment/issues
• One IT infrastructure = inside-out knowledge
• Hired to fit company culture
• training tailored to company IT needs

Con’s

• Higher cost
• No IT support during annual leave
• IT support only cover business hours, not evening or weeks ends

Is this best for my growing business?

This is hard to recommend for a growing business but it can have its purpose. If you highly value company culture/values and want to ensure your IT people reflect that, then having a full-time in-house IT team may be appealing. If your business is upscaling at a rapid growth one IT person may not cut it and hiring another will dramatically increase the costs (double the salaries).

Another consideration is if it’s vital your business stays online over the weekends. If you have an online store and something breaks over the weekend, not allowing customers to make purchases, that could have a catastrophic effect if support isn’t available until Monday.

Ad Hoc Support

Ad-hoc support is similar to calling out a repair service to fix something like a car, they are common in almost every sector. They only operate after the issue arises and their sole function is to offer a solution and ultimately fix the problem, on a one-off basis.

Pro’s

• One-off charges
• No monthly costs

Con’s

• No monitoring of your systems
• No forecasts of potential issues
• Disruption to business continuity
• Unable to clearly quote the cost due to having to diagnose the problem first
• Ongoing call out
• Possible system downtime

Is this best for my growing business?

This may seem like a cost-effective solution for a growing business but may end up causing more damage than good. This method is best suited for a business with an extremely small IT infrastructure, very little staff, and little online presence. If you (or the owner) are tech-savvy and can handle yourself when it comes to technology then you might get by. But it’s not the recommended option for upscaling as IT infrastructures can dramatically change and it’s best for a professional to oversee the entirety of the operation.

Managed Service Provider

The concept of Managed Service Providers (MSP) can be quite overwhelming, they cover a lot. It covers the entire management of your business’s IT infrastructure and upkeep. On top, they offer technical support to staff, manage clients’ accounts across all systems, hardware outsourcing, and cybersecurity. They are basically your one-stop IT shop. MSPs work with your business to address its individual needs and make sure the tech is in place to prioritise those needs.

Pro’s

• The benefit of experts any day, any time. Experts that you actually know
• The company knows and understands your business and the systems within it saving time to diagnose issues
• Saves you time and worry
• Ensures updates are carried out on workstations and servers
• Will set up all of your security requirements
• Education and training for your staff
• Backup and Disaster Recovery planning
• Consistent costing each month
• IT consultancy
• 24/7 monitoring

Con’s

• A growing business needs to incorporate IT support into its yearly budget planning and sometimes the full cost of this can feel daunting.
• Some IT Companies can try to tie you into unnecessarily lengthy contracts

This is best for my growing your business

The other two options absolutely have their time and place, but for a growing business like yours that wants to put its best foot forward, a Managed Service Provider is the winner here. Their focus on making sure your company is equipped with the most vital & necessary tech is a huge advantage when upscaling.

MSPs are now putting a greater focus on integrating seamlessly into each business’s culture, so you don’t have to worry about making the wrong choice. If you decide on going for an MSP there’s still research to be done. To help guide you on the way, check out our article on 5 things to consider when hunting for an MSP.

Here are 10 reasons why you should be considering an external IT department over a single IT person looking after your companies essential systems and IT.

1. Because Time Really Does Matter

When it comes down to it, downtime on your IT systems will equal a loss of control and possibly money for you.  Research has found that internal IT people often don’t have the necessary experience to be able to contend with every question, let alone, problem they have to deal with on a day to day basis.

This equals downtime, and downtime is going to equal losses for you.

Using an external IT department allows you the flexibility to grow slowly or quickly and know that whatever the problem, someone on their team will know about it.

2. Enhance Overall Security With An External IT Department

Relying on a single tech person to be totally up to date with all that happens in the tech world is going to leave you exposed.  The tech world is changing so quickly, with both new technology and software coming out daily.

When you use an external IT department you have access to the hive mind.  A mastermind group of technicians who all have differing interests in tech.  When they come together in a team the result is multitudes better than what a single person can do.  It is much easier for a team to be up to date with the latest upgrades to both software and hardware.

Secondly, having experts in separate fields help an IT team be across a larger section of the whole industry.  They are dealing with different clients with different problems which often shines light on your problems.

3. Get The Service You Deserve

Our experience with most internal IT departments is that the IT guy or gal becomes friends with everyone.  Although this is a lovely scenario in the workplace, it often does not pan out well for giving you the best service.

An external IT department is always working on being the best.  The whole concept of being external takes away the “friend” element and only leaves the work.  All of an external department’s work is only measured by the data of what they do.  This almost always gives a much better service than an internal IT person.

Ask the questions that get you the right answers.  Are you IT problems addressed within 30 minutes?  Are they normally solved within a few hours? If not, why not? Don’t let friendliness stop your business being efficient.

4. Business Growth Isn’t Possible Without The Best Technology

By using an external IT department you have access to the latest technology.  Since they have to run multiple clients to make their business profitable, they need to use the latest technology to be able to keep costs down and efficiency up.

This of course passes on to you as a client.  Where as a single client could not justify several of the advanced systems needed to protect your company, when you use an external IT department they have all those systems up and running so they can be as efficient as possible.  Since they need to use those those systems on your company to make it manageable, you get the results without incurring the overall cost.

5. Spend Your Valuable Time Working On What Makes You Money

When it’s 3am and you get a call from your tech person that the system is down and they don’t know how long it will be to fix, you won’t be going back to sleep.  The problems with this will multiply for every hour that the system stays down.  Are the back ups ready?  Are they safe?  Will they work?  Where will you be restoring to?  How much data have you lost?  And worst of all, will everything work properly today?

This is not your job.  You job is to stay focused on the things that make your company money.  When you use an external IT department these problems listed above become their problems to solve.  More importantly, to a good external team, it is a challenge and interesting.  They will apply themselves like a sportsman trying to beat their personal best.  To them, there is honour involved.  Their whole business works and relies on them being able to solve these problems without any major disruption to you.

So you get to keep on track.  Continue with the plan you had yesterday, knowing that the team will solve the problems as fast as humanly (and technologically) as possible.

6. Tech Is Changing Faster And Faster

No matter which way you look at it, tech is growing at an almost unfathomable pace. According to Hostingtribunal this is how fast Tech is growing in 2020.

Telling Stats:

• By 2020, 50 billion smart devices will be collecting, analyzing and sharing data.
• The web hosting services market is to reach $77.8 billion in 2025.
• 70% of all tech spending is expected to go for cloud solutions.
• There are 1.35 million tech startups.
• Global AI market is expected to reach $89.8 billion.
• There are 4,383 million internet users.
• Solar energy adoption has grown with around 50%.

This unprecedented growth is now actually outstripping Moores Law. See this Intel article for a brief explanation about Moore’s law.

And here is the problem. With all this exponential growth, a single tech guy or gal is not physically capable of keeping up. There is just not enough time in the day for them to stay current on the developing tech and how to implement it. So what normally happens is that they fall further and further behind and slowly settle into a bubble of what they know and understand. As time goes by they become less and less relevant to the point that they fall out of the loop and your business is now at risk.

When you contract an external IT department, they will often have a designated employee who monitors full time the changes happening in the real world and how to apply them to all their clients. This system works much more efficiently and allows you the business owner to keep your eye on the things that make you money.

7. Be On The Tech Cutting Edge

Most small to medium companies are way behind on their tech. Almost always when an external IT department comes into a medium business the first order of the day is to update several of the systems. These can range from Data Storage to Security to Communications. Even simple things like using the latest Chat systems can make huge differences to companies that have not been using them before.

Imagine coming to work in the new week and looking around and seeing everything in your office being run on the latest, most efficient systems. What would that do for your bottom line?

In the business world where every 1% adds up, this is a super way to move your company into the future and outstrip your competitors.

8. Get Customised Service

Every company has a different set of needs. They can be a little different or sometimes they are extremely different. Using an external IT department allows you access to the complete set of systems and knowledge available and they will help you shop for exactly what you want and need.

It is similar to going to a Hospital as opposed to a small corner Medical Centre. The Hospital has everything that you could ever need. It has the qualified staff, doctors and nurses, the latest technology, medicines and room to apply everything in perfect systems that always deliver reliable results.

Get the customised solution your business deserves for less money than a single Tech person.

9. Increase Company Efficiency

Let me ask you a question here. Why do you use technology? It is a simple answer isn’t it? Because it makes certain tasks more efficient.

So why would you limit that efficiency? Why would you take a race horse and then put shackles on it, stopping it from running at its full pace?

When you have a single Tech person in house, you run the risk of severely shackeling your companies IT. By using an external IT department you allow all the goodness into your company that comes with technology.

10. Agility defines competitiveness

No business can afford to adjust slowly, or they risk losing their market share to more nimble competitors. With shortened product lifecycles and accelerated digital advances, being able to update methods and technology quickly is crucial to success. Business.com reports that “Technology systems will need to be more lean and flexible to fully take advantage of new opportunities.

This means being able to rapidly develop solutions and infrastructure to explore a problem space, then rapidly ramp up if the opportunity turns out to be significant.” Gone are the days where product testing and development took years instead of months. The swift pace of today’s market requires agility at all levels.

Summary

Technology is changing at an ever increasing rate. A single person running an IT department can’t physically keep up. An external IT department is like shopping at a Hospital rather than a Medical Centre. Better tech makes everyone more efficient.

If you have any questions please feel free to drop us a line at Pronet.

Have a great day.

Cheers,

Jonathan.