In-house vs. Outsourcing IT Support in the UK
Technology plays a huge role in every business, from the laptop you use for business accounting, to the anti-virus software you use to keep that information safe. The need for a robust IT infrastructure grows with each business and eventually they reach a point where an IT professional is needed. At this stage, the main question is whether to hire in-house IT staff or outsource to a managed IT support service.
In this article, we compare the two options by looking at expertise, cost-effectiveness, scalability, risk mitigation and compliance, and training. We’ll also share some of the benefits outsourcing your IT support has for established internal IT teams.
What’s the difference in expertise levels?
In-House Hiring
The experience you gain with hiring internally is dependent on what qualifications, skills, and experience that employee has. They may have a limited knowledge of many aspects of IT, or an intimate knowledge of specialised areas, but one person isn’t able to cover the entire IT spectrum and complex issues may require expertise beyond their scope.
Outsourcing Advantage
Outsourcing provides access to a more diverse range of expertise including network administrators, cybersecurity experts, cloud architects, and hardware specialists. As well as the day-to-day IT administration and tasks, an outsourced IT team can carry out more complex assignments like cloud migration projects and security audits.
Which one is cheaper, in-house or outsourced IT?
In-House Hiring
Employing a full-time member of staff involves salaries, benefits, training, and the infrastructure and resources to support them in their role. More than one employee may be needed to cover sickness, annual leave, and large projects which means additional expenditure.
Outsourcing Advantage
With outsourcing, you pay for the services provided and avoid the overhead of full-time employment costs. The price plan can be flexible, adjusting to the needs of the business and providing the number of experts the business needs at that time. More often than not, the cost per month for managed IT services is less than the monthly salary of one person capable of doing a similar job.
How do both options scale up and down with business needs?
In-House Hiring
As your company grows, so does the need for additional IT staff but scaling up internally can strain budgets and lead to inefficiencies if the workload fluctuates. Hiring additional staff, even part-time or temporary employees, leaves additional workloads with other teams and adds another layer of complexity to scaling down when needed.
Outsourcing Advantage
Working with a managed IT services provider gives you access to the expertise when you need it, and they manage staffing behind the scenes. As they are experienced recruiters of IT professionals and partner with multiple clients, you won’t need to worry about keeping their cloud architect busy for example.
Is in-house or outsourced IT support better for risk mitigation and compliance?
In-House Hiring
It can be a full-time job in itself just to stay up to date on security protocols, compliance, and industry standards. Additional responsibilities as a full-time employee can, and do, end up taking priority and oversights happen, leading to data breaches and devastating cyber-attacks.
Outsourcing Advantage
Outsourced IT providers specialise in compliance and cybersecurity, with people dedicated to keeping your systems secure, adhering to regulations, and proactively addressing vulnerabilities. This means that the risk exposure is much lower than when relying on in internal staff.
Keeping up to date with training and knowledge
In-House Hiring
Keeping abreast with new technology and learning new skills and techniques is crucial for IT professionals. The IT industry as whole, including elements like cybersecurity and hardware, is a rapidly changing landscape and new threats are evolving and causing havoc for unprotected businesses every day. Relying on internal employees alone to access that knowledge and develop new skills can have a knock-on effect to workloads and resources. Passing the relevant knowledge onto the non-IT staff is a further hurdle.
Outsourcing Advantage
Assimilating knowledge and skills as they emerge is an engrained part of how managed IT support services operate, and they manage their time and resources effectively around that. Furthermore, many outsourced IT providers deliver training and workshops to their client’s that is tailored to their individual business needs.
How do outsourced IT providers support existing internal IT teams?
Outsourcing IT isn’t just for startups and businesses with no in-house IT teams, they are a beneficial partnership for established businesses with internal IT teams too. Outsourcing complements the existing team and provides backup and scalability whilst remaining cost-effective.
Scalability
During busy periods, annual leave, or major projects, outsourcing fills the gaps and keeps operations running smoothly.
Specialised Skills
There are occasions when you will temporarily need a niche skill set and instead of hiring internally, outsourcing delivers, without the long-term commitments.
24/7 Coverage
Outsourcing your IT to a provider that handles out-of-hours support improves risk mitigation and ensures smoother operations. No nasty surprises on a Monday morning after a weekend where something went wrong and consequently unnoticed.
There are benefits to hiring an IT professional internally however when comparing the two options of in-house vs. outsourcing IT, partnering with a managed IT service that provides a comprehensive and holistic support package, is the more cost-effective and flexible option.
About the author
Fuse is a Microsoft Partner, based in Northampton. We help organisations of all sizes to maximise IT efficiencies through the use of Microsoft cloud computing solutions.
