5 Reasons Startups Need to Outsource IT
As a tech founder, you start your businesses as a jack of all trades. You develop your product, handle marketing and sales, keep the books — you may even take the trash out. As your startup grows, however, you need to hand off many of those tasks to other people so you can focus on business growth and success.
Managing IT infrastructure, systems, and security are responsibilities that founders need to offload. You may be an expert at multitasking, but deploying IT systems, monitoring security, managing cloud resources, troubleshooting problems, and more, could take a huge bite out of your day. Moreover, it can divert your attention from other responsibilities and activities that will help you climb to the top of your market.
Generally, you have two choices for IT support for your startup: hire in-house staff or outsource. When you analyze the pros and cons of each, outsourcing inevitably will come out on top. Here are five reasons why.
1. You Can’t Control How Much Tech Support You’ll Need
Your first impulse may be to hire an in-house “IT guy.” Unfortunately, IT tasks and responsibilities can’t be scheduled neatly into eight-hours a day, five days per week. There will be times when everything is humming and you’re basically paying a full-time employee to wait around for the next fire to put out — but rest assured, there will be one. In fact, there will be times when an in-house employee will have so many problems to solve and projects to complete that one person won’t be able to give them the time and attention they require. Either way, there are times when the salary you’re paying your IT guy is a waste of money — you are either paying for little to nothing or paying for Band-Aid solutions when your employee is trying to survive under an avalanche of work.
On the other hand, outsourcing IT to a group of skilled professionals will allow you to use precisely the right resources and labor hours you need for different levels of IT — from help desk to server deployment to policy and roadmap creation — precisely when you need them.
When founders are weighing their options, the cost of outsourcing always comes into question. When you consider the salary, benefits, taxes, 401K, training, and other expenses associated with a full-time employee, however, outsourcing can be less expensive. Furthermore, outsourcing allows you to save capital for other business expenditures, and, even more importantly, you get more value for the money you do spend.
2. One Person Can’t Know Everything
You could find the most intelligent, quick, skilled in-house IT resource, but it’s nearly impossible for one professional to have the numerous and diverse skills your startup needs now and in the future, such as:
Networking and wireless networking: Engineers with this expertise can design and implement networks, including determining specs for network hardware and software. They can also conduct site surveys for wireless networks and implement solutions to optimize them.
Cloud services: Most IT pros know how to use cloud services, but they aren’t all cloud experts. An engineer with cloud expertise can help decide the type of cloud services to use, which applications and data are good candidates for cloud computing and which are not, and how to migrate from one service to another with the least disruption.
Automation: Professionals with expertise in IT automation can research and find applications that will enable your startup to operate most efficiently and reduce opportunities for human error. In addition to automating repetitive or routine activities at the core of your business, it can also help you take a lean approach to back-office tasks, marketing, and customer service and support.
Security system implementation and risk mitigation: IT security specialists will assess your risks and choose and deploy the security solutions you need. They also have the know-how and assets that enable them to automate processes and provide continuous monitoring of all vital systems. They also stay informed about the continually changing threat landscape, vulnerabilities that new systems or activities may create, and how to address emerging threats.
Staff training: IT staff is also responsible for educating your team about the systems and solutions they deploy. IT professionals who are talented communicators can convey the value the solutions offer, increase buy-in and ROI, and show your team how to use them securely.
When you outsource, you give your startup the advantage of working with a team of professionals with diverse areas of expertise. You aren’t relying on one person to know everything about the IT systems and solutions your business needs. Besides, you aren’t relying on one person to try to accomplish multiple projects within one timeframe. You’re partnering with a group that can address projects and issues that are beyond the capabilities of a single employee.
3. It’s Not Worth The Risk
Even if you could find one person who could do it all, would you want to? Your operation’s performance, security, and uptime depend on reliable, optimized IT. It’s a big burden for one person to bear and doesn’t leave much room for that employee to take a vacation or a sick day. It’s also a big risk for your growing company. If your IT guy takes PTO, some processes may grind to a halt if something goes wrong.
Furthermore, when your in-house IT resource is swamped, something is bound to be back-burnered or fall through the cracks. One missing security patch, one forgotten backup, one failure in a non-redundant system and your business could be in jeopardy.
It’s also important to acknowledge that your business’s staff is bound to change. When in-house IT resources are fired or resign, essential information could also leave with them. A departure of an IT team member that’s less than amicable could also mean having to deal with changed administrative passwords or missing documentation.
Relying solely on one IT guy could also put your business at risk from security vulnerabilities, regulatory noncompliance, or being blindsided by changing markets and disruption. An outsourced IT team can provide you with a reliable resource on regulatory requirements, industry standards, trends, and forecasts to help you proactively deal with changes on the horizon.
4. Your Business is Going to Change
You probably don’t intend for your startup to stay a small business forever. Partnering with an IT group will give you access to additional resources when you need them. When it’s time to scale outsourced IT support can ramp up to help build new facilities and deploy workstations and other tools for your growing team. It’s not necessary to overbuild now in anticipation of future needs.
Conversely, if you need less IT support due to changing focus or reorganizing your business, you can arrange for outsourced resources to scale back. With in-house IT staff, unfortunately, you’d have to deal with lay-offs.
Outsourcing IT gives you the power to deploy precisely the resources and expertise exactly when you need it. It can also give you the opportunity to level the playing field with larger, established companies in your market that can afford state-of-the-art tech solutions and dedicated resources. Your business can have the same caliber of technical expertise as bigger players you are challenging.
5. You Don’t Need One More Thing to Think About
Starting a business requires founders to make dozens of decisions every day. Although optimized, expertly maintained IT systems are foundational to your operation, they aren’t the mission of your business. Your team will inevitably want to use their time to focus on their core competencies and invest their time in growth and success. They probably aren’t clamoring to be responsible for network upgrades, performance monitoring, and security patch management.
Outsourcing allows you to turn those responsibilities over to experts whose core competency is IT support. They allow you and your team to focus on R&D, market research, customer satisfaction, and anything else it will take to build a successful enterprise.
Help for the IT Guy
If you’re still waffling between hiring an in-house IT guy and outsourcing, remember, it doesn’t have to be all or nothing. For some businesses, the best strategy is to leverage outsourced IT resources to complement in-house staff. This approach can be especially beneficial during times of company growth or restructuring or when you’re moving operations to a new facility.
Also, by working with an IT group, in-house resources have the comfort of knowing they don’t have to figure everything out on their own. An IT guy on your staff can rely on your outsourced IT provider for expertise and advice when stumped or entering uncharted territory. Since your outsourced IT support partners have worked with many startups, they can shorten the learning curve and help focus on solutions that work for businesses like yours.
Overall, partnering with an outsourced IT support provider can help you make the wisest use of your startup’s resources, give your business the benefit of the level of expertise that your larger competitors have, and assist you as you identify and find ways to mitigate risks. Working with an IT group also provides flexibility as you scale and the ability to focus on the core of your business.
The benefits you receive from a partnership with a skilled and responsive IT service provider — as well as the ability to hand off your IT support workload to a team of experts — can be a pivotal step in your startup’s journey to your next stage of growth and success.