Every organization of more than one person needs an IT network. The IT network can take many forms but it basically allows the organization’s personnel to connect with each other for communication, sharing data and accomplish tasks.
When you walk into an office and see a bunch of connected computers all neatly arranged, someone or a team of people would have had to set up the workstations, configure the network and build the servers. For the day-to-day operation of the organization, an IT team works behind the scene to keep everything running smoothly: Help desk personnel provide IT support to staff members, systems administrators manage the user accounts and network, engineers maintain the server infrastructure, and security professionals prevent threats and protect the network.
The skills required to operate and maintain an IT network are varied and many. Few individuals have all the skills required to meet the demands of a modern IT department. That is why an IT team usually consists of a number of individuals with varied skill sets that meet the needs of the business. Some organizations are able to employ all their IT personnel. Others have a combination of in-house staff and augment any skill gap with experienced IT consultants. There are also organizations that contract managed service providers (MSP) to run most of their IT operations.
As an organization grows, the number of IT staff will also have to increase to support the growing number of IT devices and staff members. Or someone from the IT department quits and his skill and experience are not easy to find. At this point, a decision will have to be made whether to hire new IT staff, contract an IT consultant or outsource some of the IT work to a MSP. Several factors will weigh in on the decision:
- What is the cost of hiring? Consider the costs of salary, health insurance, overtime pay, holiday pay and vacation pay.
- What skill sets are needed? Analyze the experience needed to support the IT needs of the organization, start and complete IT projects, keep the network reliable and secure.
- What are the tradeoffs with hiring versus outsourcing? Compare on-site versus remote support, availability for off-hours on-call support, response time.
Budget IT offers a free consultation for CIO’s, COO’s and IT Managers to make a decision on whether outsourcing to an MSP makes sense for their organization. Book an appointment with us today!
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