Outsourcing Your IT Services: Do's and Don'ts

Revenue minus expense equals profit; to increase profits, you can increase revenues and or lower expenses. Increasing revenues can prove to be difficult, and there are many factors outside of your control as a business owner that can negatively affect your ability to do so. Cost-cutting measures are a lot easier to implement and are 100 percent under the power of the business.
The most expensive aspects of running a business are Human Resource (Employees), Office Space (Rent), Equipment (tools), and Research and Development. Information technology support staff are some of the most expensive human resources, making outsourcing a good option.

Information Technology Support

When trying to decide if outsourcing IT support is a good idea, businesses should base their decision on the number of employees. Smaller companies, with less than five or ten employees, typically lack enough demand to justify the need for full IT support staff. Businesses with less than ten employees are good candidates for outsourcing.
Before pulling the trigger on deciding to outsource IT support, business owners should understand all the fine print regarding this process. IT support companies often include as part of the support package, educational, and training sessions once or twice per month. These educational or training sessions help train employees on basic technology troubleshooting techniques. For businesses with more than ten employees, desktop support being outsourced may also work, but that will depend significantly on the comfortability and tech-savviness of your staff as well as what technology tools used.

Software Engineering

Businesses can drastically cut costs by outsourcing software engineering positions. Software engineers are costly as they have a specialized skill that only a small percentage of the population possesses. While it is true software engineers are not cheap, it is also true the nature of their jobs requires very little hands-on managing. In most cases, software engineering can perform the majority of their duties remotely.
Once the project manager gathers requirements for the application and distributes tasks, there is very little need to interact with most of the development process. The entire application development process can be outsourced, from project management to development, and even testers are areas to consider outsourcing to lower overhead. Application development can be offshored or contracted out to different software development companies.

Web Hosting and Application Support

Web hosting or application support are two areas businesses should consider outsourcing. Similar to software engineering or application development, website development can easily be distributed to independent contractors or companies. According to Diverse CTI, a company that offers small business IT services in Oklahoma City, OK, a managed service program eliminates the problems of traditional IT and helps you serve your clients better than ever. In many cases, companies that provide website development will also offer web hosting. Web sites must be hosted on a server, which can quickly balloon production costs. Servers need to undergo scheduled maintenance and configurations, including virus protection in other security measures. By outsourcing web hosting needs, businesses are free to focus on their core business objectives.
Application support is another area business can consider outsourcing. After initial training, customer service, or application support reps can perform 90 percent of their duties independently; the additional 10 percent accounts for others on new products or services or possible escalated customer support situations.
As discussed, desktop support, web hosting, application support, and software engineering are areas businesses can consider outsourcing. There are also equally essential areas and tasks that should not be outsourced or ignored. A common mistake made by business owners who outsource jobs or projects is neglecting the integrity of the projects that have been outsourced. While it is true many professionally ran remote businesses can adequately support the company’s outsourcing problems, there is still no replacement for that hands-on touch of the business owner to ensure the integrity and expectations are being met.

Conclusion

Outsourcing is an excellent way to decrease overhead and ultimately increase profits. Before deciding to outsource projects, essential duties, and or functions of your business, it is best to identify and weigh the benefits of employing an outside company versus an employee or department of employees performing these tasks in house.
Outsourcing should be reserved for long term solutions and become part of the company’s business model, rather than short term projects or a quick fix. In many cases, the time spent with outside contractors to ensure the understanding of what your end goal is not worth a fast three to six-month project.