Want to hire your own in-house IT staff rather than working with an outsourced vendor? That approach has its advantages, but it’s probably going to cost you a lot more than you think.
This is something numerous business owners and executives have discovered on their own over the years. IT staffing costs have a habit of ballooning very quickly, even within small and medium-sized companies. Let’s look at a few of the reasons that tend to become obvious only after your budgets get out of control.
It Takes a Team to Offer Round-the-Clock Coverage
It’s very difficult to have good IT coverage if you only have one or two employees. That’s because your team members are going to want a reasonable schedule. And, they’ll have to miss time for sick days, trainings, and vacations.
You can ask one or two of your employees to go without these things for a while, but over time the damage adds up. Push them too hard and you’ll lose the people you need. Then it will cost you even more to replace them and get new staff up to speed.
Training Can Be a Huge Expense
Few people outside our industry understand just how much training and re-certification goes on behind the scenes. Every time we are introduced to a new technique or a new version of popular software, there are courses that need to be completed. These trainings are expensive and can take up valuable days or weeks.
This isn’t a big issue for a company like ours because we budget time and money for continued education. For a small business, however, the ongoing costs could be crushing.
You’ll Have to Pay Well to Keep Your IT Employees
The longer you hold on to an IT specialist the more valuable they become – both to you and to other employers. As a result, you’ll have to pay them big salaries, with benefits, to keep them on your team. This dynamic is multiplied when you have to bring on several different people.
Eventually, you might be forced to either pay more than you can afford or lose someone who is integral to your day-to-day operations. That’s not a good decision to face.
A Better Way to Manage IT Staffing Costs
We have only touched on a few of the reasons IT staffing costs grow so quickly in this post. There are others (like the tendency of IT managers to ask for newer and more expensive equipment fairly regularly). Hopefully, though, we’ve made our point.
So what is a business owner or executive who needs good tech support to do? The best answer, in almost every case, is to outsource some or all of your IT needs.
With the right managed services provider you can enjoy 24/7 help desk coverage and proactive care for patches, updates, and other routine tasks, along with emergency service when you need it. And best of all, you can get it for a low monthly or quarterly fee that can be increased or decreased depending on your company’s needs. In other words, you can get access to all the tech expertise you require without committing to an ever-growing team of full-time professionals.
Want to know more? Contact our team today to schedule a free consultation!