The Real Costs of In-House IT
Scaling in-house IT as your business grows is extremely difficult. Many business owners mistakenly assume that keeping their IT internal is the best way to cut costs. In reality, it leads to less effective operations, greater expenses, and weak infrastructure. Read on to learn the true costs associated with in-house IT and the benefits of outsourcing your IT.
You Deserve IT That is Scalable
Your organization is only as effective as your IT. Weak infrastructure could lead to frequent downtime, vulnerable security, and inaccurate data and reporting. Most business owners believe that the relationship between their organizations growth and IT needs is direct—this is rarely the case. IT becomes exponentially more complicated as your business grows because your systems and processes are increasingly elaborate. While your in-house IT team may be doing an excellent job right now, you may be surprised how quickly they find themselves out of their depth.
A scalable IT model is crucial to organizational success today. Between the growing danger of cyberthreats and dramatic digitalization of the workplace, the best way to make sure that your business is prepared is with the right IT structure.
The Drawbacks of In-House IT
While in-house teams may offer short-term success, they have multiple unique drawbacks:
Limited Skill Sets
When compared to a dedicated team of professionals, your internal IT team simply can’t meet the same level of knowledge. Outsourced IT professionals have experience helping businesses of all sizes across industries take their IT to the next level. An outsourced team is constantly tracking changes to the technological environment, such as emerging cyberthreats, innovative technologies worth incorporating, and changes to compliance and regulations. An in-house IT team doesn’t have the time to constantly track changes to the environment.
An outsourced IT team will also be able to flex with increased demand. Experiencing an IT crisis? An outsourced provider can assign extra agents to get the issue solved. Your internal team has a fixed level of service, where an external team can adapt to unique challenges.
Low Availability
Your in-house team operates off of very specific hours. IT disasters don’t wait for your IT departments 9-5 shift to start—they can happen 24/7, 365. These issues can cost your business thousands. Not only do you have to worry about downtime from issues with your infrastructure, but you won’t have a response team if you discover a data breach or critical error. The right outsourced team will be available 24/7 to make sure that your IT is taken care of.
Additional Costs
There are huge day-to-day costs associated with an in-house IT department. Some of these include:
- Labor Costs
Labor costs of an internal IT team can vary a surprising amount depending on how much they’re needed any given week. Where one week may be pretty smooth, the next can bring an onslaught of challenges that force your team to work overtime. - Downtime Costs
Downtime is devastating—in fact, the average cost of IT downtime is $9,000 per minute! Not only does an in-house team have a lower level of expertise that’ll lead to downtime occurring more frequently, but they’ll probably take longer fixing it as well. - Hardware + Software Costs
You have to provide your in-house IT support with all of the necessary hardware and software to do their job. Depending on the size of your company (and in-house team), these costs can quickly add up. - Training and Onboarding Costs
High turnover is here to stay—has your IT felt the consequences? Training and onboarding employees for IT roles gets expensive, especially if you’re doing it all the time. Avoid these costs with an in-house IT team.
Want To Avoid These Costs?
A professional, managed service provider in Houston, TX can keep your costs consistent.
No Accountability
While keeping the entirety of your IT in-house does technically give you a greater amount of control, this kind of system leads to less accountability. It may be difficult for business owners to regulate their IT department because they’re probably pretty unfamiliar with the ins and outs of IT themselves.
In addition to minimal checks and balances, it’s easy for an unsupervised internal IT team to develop a myopic, siloed approach. Instead of looking to the outside environment or having other industry experts to offer suggestions, they get laser focused on keeping the organization stable. This narrow vision could lead to poor organization, outdated technology, dangerous cybersecurity practices, and overall funky IT infrastructure. The best way to make sure you’re getting a team that understands the full scope of your cybersecurity is with outsourced IT support.
High Dependency
One of the most serious concerns involving in-house IT comes from the high level of dependency required. There is a single point of failure when you entirely rely on your internal team. A team member falling ill, getting overwhelmed, or deciding to leave can cripple your operation. Your operation’s IT is too valuable to depend on a single individual.
Poor Scalability
An in-house team isn’t going to be able to easily flex to your needs. If you need additional equipment, resources, or manpower, there’s going to be an intensive process involved with locating and securing it. Furthermore, an outsourced provider is going to have a wide skill set that will be able to quickly adapt to any of your business’s changing needs. An internal team is fixed—the only way to get more knowledge is by hiring outsiders, which is an expensive, time consuming process. Comparatively, an outsourced team is dedicated to easily adjusting to your needs. Overall, an outsourced team will have the resources and expertise to more quickly solve your IT needs, resulting in overall lower costs.
Looking for an IT Service Company? Virtual-Q Can Help
Staking the entirety of your IT success on an internal team is risky. Your internal team has a limited skill set, operates on fixed hours,often lacks oversight, and comes with costs that can vary a huge amount month to month. The best way to make sure that your IT is set to handle any challenge is by partnering with an outsourced IT service company.
Interested in outsourcing but don’t know who to partner with? Look to Virtual-Q! We have unmatched expertise, with over 150 years of combined experience in the IT space. Based in Sugar Land, TX, our help-desk services are 100% U.S. based, and we have an average response time of 5 minutes. Day or night, we’ll be here to fix your IT. Contact us today.
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