What Are the Benefits of Outsourcing IT Services: All You Need to Know

Long gone are the times when you had to host an entire team of professionals in your office to get the task done. Today, as businesses enter a new era where everything’s rapidly changing, our professional habits drastically shift as well. Having a team that meets your needs without any complexities of setting it up, training, and maintaining quality performance can be an unforeseen gem. Especially in the face of high competition. 

What’s IT support outsourcing, how does it work, and where do you start? Let’s explore.

What Is IT Support Outsourcing? 

Let’s begin with the basics. What is IT support outsourcing? In simple terms, it’s the use of external specialists or teams to address your company’s IT needs. Instead of deciding on its objectives and recruiting and finding the right professionals, a company picks a third party to manage all its support services. This can cover anything from technical support or software as a service to cloud management or cybersecurity. 

It’s a shift from a traditional hiring model to a more dynamic one that targets specific professionals to fill in the gap in IT support. As more companies offer such services, their joint global revenue will increase by $271.7 billion from 2024 to 2029. The growth of this industry indicates the growing demand.

Why Is It Growing?

The numbers don’t lie: the IT outsourcing market is projected to grow to $541.10 billion in 2024. So where does the popularity come from? Several factors account for it. The first root cause is the gradual popularization of hybrid professional environments that allow people to work from home — this trend became especially evident after the pandemic. It turned out that people do work well without being in the office, and many businesses decided to give this approach a try. 

Another reason is the globalization of labor: now, specialists get hired worldwide because of their expertise, niche, or financial reasons. Businesses allow work from home and get access to skilled individuals who can offer certain services based on their unique needs. At the same time, technology costs are rising, and the demand for IT specialists far outweighs supply in many regions. Such a combination of factors makes it a natural step in further progression. 

What Does IT Support Outsourcing Do: The Main Areas

Entrepreneurs utilize skills of IT support in various areas, but here are the main ones that specifically aim at efficiency and competitive advantage. 

• Help desk support. Quite common, this function accounts for the technical assistance to teams working with any tech resources a company owns or pays for. IT outsources professionals may troubleshoot software glitches, maintain hardware functioning, and monitor simpler regular daily requests. The goal is to be as invisible and solve concerns fast so your in-house team won’t even notice any stumbling blocks. 
• Cloud services. The scalability and flexibility of cloud services attract many companies to their opportunities, but it requires a team managing the infrastructure and ensuring a smooth transition. This feature usually covers cloud migration, setup, and ongoing management — all the while a business progresses fluidly. 
• Network and infrastructure management. Many seemingly invisible features, such as maintaining data centers and servers, require constant evaluation and monitoring. A well-functioning IT support ensures a preventative rather than reactive perspective, building the entire system’s resilience. 
• Cybersecurity. Today, security is an unavoidable subject as all companies function in a digital sphere and remain vulnerable to external threats daily. A multi-step protection management can save costs by avoiding legal consequences and expensive protection mistakes. 
• Software development and maintenance. Businesses with customized demands can hire an IT outsource support team to create a new app, locate legacy systems, or adjust the existing tech resources. By offering tailored solutions for a specific team, they can offer a one-of-a-kind set of programs overriding rivals’ capabilities. 

Although this list isn’t conclusive, it still can give you a general perception of how many variables an outsourced IT support can handle. 

Benefits of Outsourcing IT Services

What are the benefits of outsourcing IT services? Let’s explore the most evident advantages of doing so. 

Enhanced Efficiency

Does your team ever feel like it’s overwhelmed and can’t handle the required tasks on time? It’s time to reconsider. Instead of multitasking and trying to patch the existing gaps, you can find a group of specialists who’ll take this burden off your hands. You’ll get streamlined customer service operations and better accomplishments in other areas that you might’ve been accidentally overlooking. Improving efficiency is among the leading reasons business owners considering outsourcing actually proceed with it — it brings better productivity without sacrificing quality. 

Cost Reduction

Outsourcing is a well-known root factor determining the outsourcing option: 59% of employers choose to outsource to cut expenses. This trend is especially true for companies searching for new talents in developing countries due to wage differences. However, the costs of using the expertise of an outsourced team are typically cheaper in any place because you don’t have to invest in maintaining in-house equipment to host an entire team. This allows many businesses to invest their resources into other, more suitable, endeavors. 

Access to Expertise

There’s always a limit of skilled professionals in your area, even if you live in a large city. With outsourced professionals, you don’t have any restrictions and can reach out to a much larger pool of candidates. If you target a specific team, you can easily go international. For example, many companies choose to hire software developers in Colombia to access a growing tech talent market with strong expertise and competitive rates. Options to do so are common now: in 2022, almost 30% of global professionals performed their tasks from home. Even if that’s not the case and you still hire locals, you don’t need to invest in creating such a team. You just have a guarantee that your IT systems are managed by those familiar with the latest industry trends and learn quickly. 

Scalability

One of the primary disadvantages of having an in-house team is that you can’t always predict how many people you need. If you choose to grow or cut back, your specialists can be the first to face the consequences of such changes. If you’re concerned about a stable environment and ensuring that every member of your workplace is safe and secure, it’s better to opt for outsourcing — typically, outsourced teams can easily adjust their sizes without any significant pains. Even more, your IT infrastructure changes its progression with your business priorities. With an outsourced team, though, you gain flexibility: your IT resources change and adapt, just like any efficient supply chain does based on demand.

Up-to-Date Technologies

When you’re not focused on IT technologies as your core product or services, constantly investing in its growth might be a bit too much. Outsourcing allows entrepreneurs to have the latest software and hardware on their hands without either mental or financial resources to make sure it performs well. Since it’s their primary goal, IT service providers can give you all the tools and help you remain on a high competition level. 

Sharper Focus

You no longer need to divide your efforts among all projects and sub-tasks — you’ll delegate a set of responsibilities to another group. This way, you can concentrate on what your business does. Instead of diverting attention to troubleshooting technical issues or managing infrastructure, companies can direct their efforts toward tasks that generate revenue, focusing on their customers. Plus, outsourcing doesn’t mean forgetting about it, so this step doesn’t make a business owner entirely detached from the processes. 

Best Practices to Make Your Collaboration Work

Every partnership requires understanding your expectations — what can you do to make sure your collaboration works well? 

Go Agile

Outsourcing is a great step to moving your business toward agility, so it’s always a good start. Agile practices emphasize short, iterative cycles, enabling you to test and improve your IT solutions frequently. When you adopt agility for your outsourced IT team and integrate it with your entire company, you’ll move toward efficiency. This approach will allow your outsourced IT specialists to respond to rearrangements quickly and make the necessary changes. Even if you’re still looking for a good team, you can start this transformation already. 

Define Goals and Needs

Every company has certain requirements when it comes to IT. Before you go full-speed into a searching mode, discuss with your team what you need exactly. Define what you want to achieve. Is it enhanced security, efficient cloud migration, 24/7 help desk support, or something else? With this plan, you’ll know what to demand and expect of your future partner and how to start your interaction.

Feedback and Communication

Communication matters in all situations, even when you deal with third parties. Arrange specific expectations regarding your communication and ask your prospective partner whether they agree with it — it should go both ways. Make sure to conduct regular check-ins and arrange weekly meetings to keep you informed about crucial updates or changes. Plus, decide on a communication channel that will suit all the engaged.

The Pricing Model

Selecting a pricing model that fits your needs and budget is crucial for a sustainable outsourcing relationship. Some entrepreneurs might want to do it too cheap, and it can sacrifice quality, while others might be willing to invest too much. Consider the budget you’ve got and analyze what you can do with it. Although this seems like a straightforward issue, many still overlook it. 

Set Quality Standards

Just like price, this matters a lot yet is often ignored. A barrier between a company and a provider often starts with a lack of understanding of how to handle it. Decide what you expect and outline it before you contact any team and then proceed to record it somewhere you find it safe. Regularly review these standards to monitor your partner’s performance and maintain accountability. 

Conclusion

If you’ve never considered outsourcing your IT support services, the thought of it might require some time. Essentially, it’s always you who makes the decision. Take a look at the benefits and potential drawbacks of such a choice for you specifically. Only you as an entrepreneur can make a choice based on what you know about your company. 

Before proceeding, evaluate your resources, timing, and how strong your business depends on IT. Once you’ve decided, start planning your next steps.  Start by researching potential partners, comparing their services and expertise, and reaching out to a few to explore their approach. Then, go for it. You’ve got the team and a business — all that’s left is the day to start.

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