What IT Services Can Be Outsourced?
What IT services can be outsourced? Know the ins and outs of outsourced IT Services. There are a lot of options to choose from. Understand which IT services that can be outsourced and which ones you want in house.
IT Services
What are IT Services?
1.
Managed Cloud Services
2.
IT Help Desk Services
3.
Cybersecurity Services
4.
Infrastructure Services
5.
Application Development
Explanation of IT Services
Cloud Services
Cloud services include things like Software as a Services (SaaS), Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), and more. For this discussion we will focus on SaaS and IaaS for outsourcing. SaaS can be things like QuickBooks Online, Microsoft 365, or HubSpot. IaaS are servers or desktops that run in the cloud and not on-premise.
IT Help Desk Services
IT Help Desk Services is your first line of support for your employees to contact a professional to get IT Support. This can be things like, a computer not starting, resetting a password, troubleshooting a printer, setting up email on a phone, etc.
Cybersecurity Services
Cybersecurity Services covers things that protect your environment. They typically include, firewall services, managed detection and response (MDR), antivirus, privilege access management, zero trust architecture, penetration testing, and consulting/advisory services. It can sometimes include backups and disaster recovery.
Infrastructure Services
Infrastructure services include things like, network and server management and monitoring, datacenter support and monitoring, backup and disaster recovery, desktop support, VPN support, phone system support, mobile support, and sometimes firewall support. Think any network connected hardware device you use for your business.
Application Development
Application development services can vary on what that offers. It can include things like custom code creation for your custom in-house or ERP software, code migration services, maintaining your software code, database management and monitoring, and mobile app development.
Why Outsource IT Services?
Why would you want to outsource your IT services? It boils down to cost savings. Outsourcing your IT services means you don't need to hire staff to provide the services you can contract out. Hiring employee's costs in salary, benefits, taxes, insurance, training, and more. The number of employees needed with the skills required to support all the IT services your business requires to operate efficiently is typically more expensive than hiring an IT Services company. Outsourcing IT services can augment your existing staff in order to fill gaps in skills they do not have or lessen the burden on your staff so they can focus on more important business objectives.
Something to keep in mind is that outsourcing is not the same as offshoring. Outsourced IT services can be 100% USA based. Offshoring is using services that are overseas. It depends on what your business needs are and if you have any compliance requirements to use only USA based services. One service Ethos Tech Consulting offers is a 100% USA based IT Help Desk Services to support your staff's computer needs.
When to
Outsource Cloud Services
When outsourcing cloud services, it typically refers to SaaS and IaaS. Using SaaS is subscription based. SaaS can be QuickBooks Online, Microsoft 365, Adobe Cloud, HubSpot, and more. Microsoft 365 can include desktop applications, but they also include a lot of services such as email, online storage with OneDrive and SharePoint, Microsoft Teams, and more. Adobe Cloud also includes desktop software plus additional services online such as storage or Adobe Stock photos. Both are subscription based.
Leveraging IaaS can save costs on hardware and maintaining that hardware, licensing costs, and building high availability for production applications which usually requires doubling your hardware and licensing costs. The cloud still needs to be backed up for both SaaS and IaaS cloud services. Outsourcing the management of your IaaS so you don't need to hire staff to manage that portion of your business is usually more cost effective. IaaS is typically servers and virtual desktops. You can also get self-provisioning options and management with managed IT services company that can allow your existing IT staff setting up new infrastructure a breeze.
Benefits of Outsourced Cloud Services
IT Help Desk Services
Outsourcing your IT help desk provides quicker, and more quality support for your staff. You don't have to hire additional help desk staff and support is just a phone call away. Most IT Help Desks provide remote support so they can remote into your computers and solve the problem quickly, providing a better experience for your employees. Better support for your employees helps them stay happy and be more productive getting more work done. If you use our 100% USA based IT Help Desk, you'll get the right kind of support your staff can understand, saving you time and money.
IT Help Desk Outsourced Benefits
Cybersecurity Services
Outsourcing cybersecurity reduces the number of staff you need to hire to monitor your environment 24/7 for security incidents. The cost of quality, highly skilled cybersecurity professional engineers would be very expensive.
Preventing threats is the number one goal for outsourced cybersecurity services, but if an attacker gets in, they quickly isolate the attacker and prevent further issues, then work with you until the threat is eliminated.
Managed Cybersecurity Services usually includes MDR (managed detection and response), 24/7 SOC (security operations center), Email security and SPAM prevention, cloud security, SIEM (security information and event management), and more.
When to Use
Infrastructure Services
When outsourcing infrastructure services, you want to make sure to pick a quality partner that has years of experience. They will be responsible for managing the critical components of your network systems. These usually include things like servers, virtual machines, network switches, routers, wireless access points, and other critical IT hardware. They monitor your entire network 24/7 for issues and proactively resolve them if any are detected. They'll make informed recommendations for your environment to make sure things are running smoothly. Infrastructure services usually includes patching server operating systems for security, critical, and feature updates, firmware updates for hardware, and sometimes 3rd party updates.
You will usually want to outsource the management for your infrastructure when you don't have the cashflow to hire qualified full-time staff, augment existing staff for 24/7 coverage, or fill any skill gaps for coverage to ensure critical network systems are operational.
Benefits of Outsourced Infrastructure Services
Outsource Application Development
Outsourced application development is when a programmer writes code to create or enhance software for your business. Having a team of developers in house, maintaining quality control, documentation, software for writing code, repositories, project management, and more costs a lot of money. Salaries for experienced programmers are in the high six figures. Getting a team of developers outsourced that has all the processes, software, and skilled employees makes a lot of sense when you add up trying to do it all in house. Having skilled professionals guide you through the software development lifecycle process for creating and maintaining your code saves a lot of time vs trying to figure it all out yourself. Outsourced developers can also migrate applications and support different kinds of critical business applications like ERP software such as SAP, Microsoft Dynamics, or NetSuite. They can also help manage databases for your business.
What IT Services Can Be Outsourced? When do you outsource?
The above listed IT services are the most common that get outsourced. It varies on your business as to when to outsource, but it is usually when you need skilled resources to make sure your business stays operational, fill in the gaps to augment existing staff, get knowledgeable professionals to help with projects, or save money when hiring staff doesn't make sense.
Outsourcing doesn't mean diminished support or services. Picking a quality partner to help you reach your business goals is a great way to enhance your customers experience as well as your employees. If you have bad IT support, it will likely be reflected in upset customers because your employees are frustrated more.
Problem
Not having employees with the skills to support your existing or new information technology.
Solution
Outsource IT services to highly knowledgeable professionals to support your employees, augment your IT staff, reduce downtime and outages, and keep your business running smoothly.