Top 5 Reasons Successful Organisations Outsource IT
Read time 6 mins
You’d be hard pressed to find anyone in business who hasn’t encountered some kind of outsourcing practice. Over the years, deploying business tasks or functions, including managed IT services, to outsourcing partners, has become a critical part of organisational management.
Indeed, it’s estimated that global spending on outsourcing could hit $731 billion in 2023 (around £574 billion), with the majority of organisations looking to delegate integral business services such as IT, payroll, and accounting tasks – although practically any task can be completed by outsourced business providers.
A major benefit of outsourcing, of course, is the ability this practice offers to maintain focus on other core business activities. Outsourcing essential services means business leaders can channel resources and recruitment efforts into particular specialties that offer the best return on investment in their market, while still benefiting from the technical expertise and cost-effectiveness outsourcing offers.
In short – while keeping costs down remains a major benefit of outsourcing various tasks and projects – modern organisations tend to make use of business process outsourcing more so to streamline, prioritise focus, and improve productivity in certain areas.
Managed IT Services
A managed IT service provider is likely to offer functions including IT service desk, modern workplace management, network and infrastructure management, cloud computing, and possibly also cyber security.
As specialist areas with hard-to-recruit-and-maintain skillsets, it makes sense for many organisations to look outward for IT services rather than sourcing them in-house, which can prove time-consuming, stressful, and quite costly.
As well as bridging the skills gap in these areas, outsourcing IT can help improve efficiency and productivity through strategic IT consultancy and investments in better digital employee experiences (DEX). Not to mention, constant and cyclical digital transformation is fast becoming an essential process for organisations in 2023 and, with the help of outsourced IT support, can be utilised to improve operational agility and collaboration, enhance data privacy/security, and offer better customer experiences.
Suffice to say, outsourcing IT involves more than building laptops, changing forgotten passwords, and updating the latest security patches. Managed service providers (MSPs) undertake a plethora of business-critical responsibilities, many of which include service level agreements (SLAs) or even experience level agreements (XLAs) for users.
When is the right time to outsource IT?
It’s impossible to imagine any successful business running smoothly without technology and, as IT continues to evolve alongside business practices, it can become expensive and time consuming for organisations to constantly recruit IT skills, upgrade infrastructure, and train employees in this area.
Remember that, while reports indicate that 45% of companies will outsource IT services to save money in 2023, a larger number of organisations, 56%, are likely to do so due to a lack of talent limiting their in-house capabilities instead.
With this in mind, organisations may look to outsource IT:
Outsourcing IT means receiving technical advice and capability quickly – with no need to hire new employees or train teams in-house. Even a new trainee will lack the shared experience of an outsourced IT partner with hundreds of skilled employees and knowledge across multiple sectors. Working alongside an MSP, means hitting the ground running as well as benefitting from the cross-pollination of intelligence from the MSP’s wider customer base. Some IT positions are hard to fill due to skills shortages in the area and the constant need to upskill and maintain training (this is often the case in cyber security, for example). Even using a recruitment agent, it can be difficult to identify the right person for the job, especially on a tighter budget or if companies don’t require someone full-time. Outsourcing IT functions, such as Chief Information Security Officer, service desk, or infrastructure management is often a cost-effective way to receive top notch, highly experienced professional help that is available whenever the need arises to expand your team’s capabilities. Organisations that maintain all IT functions in-house can sometimes find it especially difficult if one of these employees goes on leave. Not only does this put pressure on the rest of the team to ‘pitch in’, getting in the way of their own job functions, but it can also mean people end up feeling out of their depth or overwhelmed whenever a team member steps away for personal time. Remember, outsourcing doesn’t always have to be for tasks that you have little or no experience doing in-house. When organisations outsource business functions that their in-house team does on a day-to-day basis, it can give organisations the freedom to become more productive and much less stressed.
When the in-house team can’t handle tasks
When there is a skills gap or hard-to-fill position
When the team feels stressed, overworked, or overwhelmed
Reasons successful organisations outsource IT
All in all, it’s easy to see how outsourcing IT can benefit organisations looking for fast access to expertise, or for tasks that require specific skills that a regular in-house team can’t handle. However, there’s also many more strategic ways for organisations to collaborate with IT MSPs.
Working with a collaborative and agile IT partner, for instance, can add tangible business value in various ways, particularly if the IT services implemented support the core business objectives and plans of the company in question.
With that said, below are five ways successful organisations get the most from their outsourced IT partners:
1. To boost progress
Business progress can sometimes stagnate; often this is due to different teams being too busy dealing with routine tasks to regroup and focus on the bigger picture of how to drive your business forward. Outsourcing an integral function like IT helps free up your team, giving them more room to thrive and innovate.
Additionally, with the right partner, outsourcing IT can improve user experience dramatically. Day-to-day, this means employees are less frustrated and can communicate and collaborate easily with one another, which frees up extra space to think creatively.
2. To provider better customer service
Customer service is crucial to almost all business success and, these days, consumers are used to receiving services that are delivered quickly and efficiently, often via digital channels.
Outsourcing IT means organisations can quickly put technology and services in place to support digital customer interactions. This means customers receive better, more joined-up, experiences and your employees have more time and resources to provide an appropriate level of service.
3. To lessen operational risks
Your managed service provider will have the experience and knowledge necessary to take care of compliance and training requirements – an area that is especially important when it comes to IT due to data protection regulations and the modern requirement for robust cyber security.
By outsourcing specialist IT tasks to people who have the right level of expertise, it will be easier to monitor, plan for, and mitigate operational risks and keep your data safe.
4. To focus on what matters
In business, as in life, there’s only so much time available and it’s critical that organisations can focus this time on areas which generate the most value.
Outsourcing an integral business process like IT enables your staff to concentrate on strengthening and improving the core competencies that help your business grow.
5. To take advantage of new technology
Lastly, as we all know, technology is evolving day by day, with big data, cloud computing, and robotic process automation increasing in popularity.
Working alongside an MSP with years of experience and a vested interest in up-keeping skills in these areas means your business will instantly benefit from new technologies that can help to improve the quality and efficiency of the process or function being outsourced.
If you would like to discuss how Littlefish’s award-winning and user-centric IT services can help you reduce costs, increase service quality, and support your end users’ experience, feel free to contact us through our get in touch button.
