How to successfully outsource IT (How, When & Why)

Are you looking to outsource your IT support? It can be a smart move for businesses. Outsourcing IT support can not only help save time and money, but it can also free up resources and give you access to expert advice and specialist knowledge.  

However, successfully outsourcing IT support requires careful consideration and planning to ensure a beneficial outcome. With the growing reliance on technology, your business IT is a highly valuable resource. So, we’ve written this blog post to cover how and when to outsource IT support, the benefits of outsourcing, and tips for finding the right IT support partner.  

When to outsource IT support: What are the signs your Business is ready?

It can sometimes be difficult to pinpoint when your business is ready to partner with an IT Support company. Here are some signs: 

Your business is growing 

As your business grows, your IT infrastructure will need to be scalable. You want your IT to empower your business’ productivity, allowing easy onboarding of new employees, communication between teams and easily accessible data. Outsourcing IT support can ensure that your systems are able to scale with your business needs. 

You and/or your team are spending too much time on IT issues 

You may find yourself or your colleagues spending a significant amount of valuable time troubleshooting IT issues, with an outsourced IT support team, you can free up your time to focus on other important tasks while the IT support company solve the issues. 

You’re looking to improve your security/cybersecurity 

Do you find yourself worrying about your business’ cyber security? Outsourcing IT support can help improve your business’ cyber security. IT Support providers are often able to provide more secure measures that businesses can implement on their own, and in the event of a suspected cyber-attack, you can have a team of professionals to prevent or minimise any damage.  

You don’t have the expertise in-house 

Outsourcing your IT support can be a cost-effective way to manage your IT needs. Whether you have no IT specialists, one IT specialist or a small IT team who are looking to free up their time to work on larger IT projects, outsourcing to an IT Support company provides your business with a whole team of professionals with specialised knowledge.  

What are the benefits of outsourcing IT support?

Scalability 

When your business is growing, you don’t want your technology requirements to slow you down. Outsourcing IT support will allow your business to scale your systems as your needs expand, quickly adapting to your changing requirements so your team always have access to the resources they need.  

More security 

Outsourcing IT support can improve your business’ cyber security, and in the event of a cyber security attack or threat, your IT support provider can quickly minimise and/or prevent any damage.  

Access to IT expertise 

IT Support companies have a team of experts who work on IT issues for multiple companies, everyday. So they are well-versed in a multitude of issues and problems that may arise in business IT. Outsourcing your IT means you can have access to and benefit from the knowledge and experience of these experts, without the costs of hiring and training in-house IT staff. 

Free up time 

You can free up your time and improve productivity by outsourcing your IT support to a service desk ready to help with any issues you and your team are experiencing.  

How to Outsource IT Support: Choosing the Right Partner

When looking to outsource your IT support, it’s important you take careful consideration and planning. To help you on your search, we’ve created a handy checklist in our Geeks Guide: What to look for in an IT support and service partner, you can view it here. 

This guide covers what we believe to be the most important considerations for SMEs when outsourcing IT support: 

Technology

The first thing you’ll likely consider is their services and solutions, do they provide solutions which will suit your business now and into the future? 

People 

Behind every great IT support company, is a friendly and professional team. When looking to outsource your IT support, it’s important to consider the people behind the business, can you rely on them in an IT crisis? Do they care about solving your IT issues? 

Service 

Nowadays, businesses rely heavily on technology, so it’s important your outsourced IT support can provide quick, reliable service. 

Prices and contracts 

Another key consideration is the price and contract, do they offer great value as opposed to the cheapest price? Are they being fully transparent? 

The Geeks Guide provides many useful questions to ask any potential IT support company so you can move forward knowing your IT requirements are covered. 

Ensuring a Smooth Transition: Communicating with Your IT Support Team

Whether you’re transitioning from one IT support team to another or you’re partnering with your first IT support company, you want to ensure a smooth transition.  

It’s important to understand the onboarding process and what to expect in your first few weeks of transitioning onto their IT support. It’s useful to have a contact who you can go to with any questions while you are onboarding. 

Here at Computer Geeks, we put a lot of effort into the onboarding of new clients. We’ll assign one of our Onboarding Engineers as your key contact while you are transitioning to our IT Support, this Engineer will work closely with you to understand your business systems so that they can ensure a quick and smooth onboarding. Your Onboarding Engineer will keep you updated with progress, and when the onboarding is nearing completion, they will present your business to our Support Team prior to you and your team contacting our Service Desk with any IT issues or questions, so our team will know how your systems work.  

Ultimately, outsourcing IT support is a great way to streamline your technology systems and improve your business’ overall efficiency. However, how, when and why you outsource your IT support will depend on your business’s unique needs and goals.  

Looking to outsource your IT support? Get in touch!  

Our friendly team are happy to discuss your needs and goals to see if we’d be a great fit for you… 

Give us a call on 0117 325 0370 

Or email us hello@geeks.co.uk