The decision to outsource your IT services or develop your own in-house team is an important one. The key to answering this is enterprises need to consider the level of IT support that is most cost-effective for their current business and their overall goals.
Smaller companies are likely to benefit the most from (fully) outsourcing their IT support because of the cost of having IT specialists on the payroll, the investment in the infrastructure needed to operate a reasonable IT service and the cost of constant upgrading as a business expands. Medium to large companies may want to consider the potential savings of partially outsourcing IT services in order to support on a large project or with a particular on-going client. It might be more efficient in the long run to distribute different duties between a small internal IT team and a trusted external team.
When searching for a provider, it is important to consider the pros and cons, and the scope of the external service. Find out if they provide account management and consulting services for their projects. Both of these will make communication and implementation much smoother, especially on long-term projects. Equally, you should consider the geographical location of the service, as physical and cultural barriers (such as language) can incur significant delays and, therefore, costs. Finally, always ask if it is possible to have a 24/7 service included. In a world where flexible working is fast becoming the norm, problems can arise at any time.
