While the debate between companies on whether to opt for in-house IT departments or outsourced IT support continues, there are benefits and downsides to both.

However, it’s undeniable that IT outsourcing helps significantly in cost-cutting and delivering quality services. On the flip side, in-house IT teams could boost quicker response times to the issues.

In this article, we delve into the various advantages and limitations of investing in an in-house IT department and opting for outsourced IT services.

When you are through the blog, you will be able to decide which option suits your business!

So, let’s get started.

Advantages of In-house IT department

Undoubtedly, having a dedicated IT support staff in-house brings along its set of benefits.

Quicker Response Time

When you have an in-house IT support team, it becomes easier for your employees to reach out in case of any IT issues. or a quick call to the support desk resolves their concerns in a matter of time. In times of any serious technical problems, you’ll need immediate diagnosis and quick remediation. The team inside our company makes things go faster and helps fix problems quickly, so there’s less waiting and less chance of things getting worse.

Conversant With Your Business

In-house IT support staff, in this context, are the ones who possess a deep understanding and extensive knowledge of your business goals and priorities. Furthermore, they are completely aware of what hardware, software, and tools your employees are working with. This makes them approach any issues in a manner that will be most beneficial and aligned with your organizational values and objectives.

Know Your People

In-house IT staff members will know your employees, customers, and prospects well; the way each one works, and thus can suggest the best practices with regard to their IT systems and infrastructure. Your in-house IT team can guide your employees better towards ensuring a smoother working experience.

Better Control

With an in-house IT team, you gain more and better control over your IT management due to their quick response times and quality of work. You can ensure your employees stay updated by providing them with timely training on the required technologies.

Limitations of In-House IT support

While an in-house IT team has several advantages, it comes with limitations as well. These include:

Huge Hiring and Retention Costs

When you think of hiring someone for your in-house IT team, you need to take into account their salaries, onboarding expenses, other benefits, training costs, and more. Besides, they need to regularly undergo training and certification on various upcoming technologies to stay relevant. This, in turn, would require you to incur additional expenses.

Most importantly, while you spend all the money on hiring and training them, they can get handsome salaries elsewhere due to the high demand for IT skills, thereby making their retention much more difficult.

Additional Costs for Holidays

Your in-house IT team will be available only on the 5-day nine-to-five duration. Beyond this period, if any emergency situations arise, such as on weekends or holidays, you would have to incur additional costs in case any of the team members work overtime.

Skill Gaps

Your in-house team might handle everyday questions and tech support well, but they might struggle with software or hardware changes needed to improve your business processes. Such gaps in the skill sets of the in-house team could create uncertainties for your business.

Falling Behind

It’s quite possible that support tickets and vital software patches could pile up in case an IT staff member goes on leave, etc. Such situations may result in the IT team spending more time resolving the pending support issues rather than focusing on learning new technologies.

Advantages of Outsourced IT

IT outsourcing services are gaining significant momentum due to the multiple benefits they offer, some of which include:

Cost-effective

While it might seem easier to hire a few resources in-house to manage the IT support, considering the amount of money to be shelled out in their hiring, onboarding, training, and retention could make you rethink. However, IT outsourcing vendors offer services at a fixed monthly cost, and you don’t need to pay extra for outages after working hours or for training them.

Enjoy rich expertise and state-of-the-art technology

As mentioned earlier, maintaining in-house IT experts with proficiency in various areas is an expensive and time-consuming endeavor. However, with managed IT services, you can get access to a team of expert professionals in every realm, from cybersecurity to network administration and more.

In addition, outsourcing IT companies also provide access to the latest tools, technologies, and hardware support, ensuring that your employees are not lagging behind.

Gain 24/7 support access

With in-house support, though you enjoy faster response times to issues, that’s only on working days. However, in the case of outsourced IT services, you get 24/7 support without the need to incur additional costs for work done on weekends, holidays, or beyond working hours.

Development of Internal members

When you outsource most of your routine administrative, security, and other IT maintenance tasks, you shed the excess workload from your internal team. This gives them sufficient time and opportunity to develop their skills and focus on contributing innovatively to your business.

Robust Cybersecurity

With businesses handling tremendous volumes of sensitive data, the need for powerful cybersecurity measures is realized. Data privacy and data integrity are of high importance and need to be always maintained. Outsourced IT service providers ensure your business is always protected against malware with the best security and antivirus software. With these services, you can rest assured your network is safe and you enjoy its constant monitoring and management.

Limitations of Outsourced IT

While we discussed the various advantages that IT outsourcing offers, there are some downsides, too. Some of these include:

Less Control

You can certainly coordinate with the outsourcing IT vendor on business priorities. However, it’s difficult to have complete control, unlike the case of an in-house team. Sometimes, it could really be complicated to monitor and steer in the direction.

That said, you could set up frequent meetings and calls to keep track of and update them on any changes you feel are desirable.

Lack of proper communication

Quite often, outsourcing IT vendors operate from an off-site location which could pose challenges to effective communication. It’s possible that, at times, you face a slight delay in responses to your queries from your outsourcing service provider. Additionally, you may not meet them in person often.

However, trust is the cornerstone of any professional relationship. If you have faith in your outsourcing vendor, communication gaps can always be taken care of.

Closing thoughts

In-house IT support and Outsourced IT service – both come with their set of advantages and limitations. While various factors come into play when companies need to make a choice, IT outsourcing offers key benefits to even small businesses in the long run.

At 8Seneca, we are experts in IT outsourcing and would be happy to assist you. Do reach out to us here, in case of any queries or assistance.

References:

In-House Vs Outsourcing IT: How to Make the Right Choice for Your Business (kmicro.com)

https://www.netitude.co.uk/blog/outsourcing-it-vs-in-house-it-department