- Written by Ashley Wyatt - Senior IT Sales Consultant
- Connect with Ashley on LinkedIn
With a wide range of factors and influences in the UK and European economy at present, companies are looking at ways to stabilise their running costs while improving the efficiency and flexibility of their workers. One of the most common ways of doing this is outsourcing IT, which brings a multitude of cost-saving benefits.
Here are five cost saving benefits of outsourcing your IT support
1. IT outsourcing offers a broader skill set for a single cost
Managed service providers like Opus offer a wide array of skilled specialists for a single cost. This means that any company can have access to Cloud infrastructure, Microsoft, networking, security, and support specialists – all without needing to hire for these roles. The quality of service you receive will be of the highest level without needing to increase your overheads. It also ensures you have peace of mind that the solution to a problem is coming from a place of vast experience and expertise. All of this reduces time spent waiting for IT issues to be resolved and keeps business moving. Many companies like Opus, also provide a wider range of products. Telephony, Print and Mobile issues can also then be taken care of from one source, and this again reduces the need for an internal skillset without compromising on the quality of the support.
2. Outsourcing IT support removes hidden costs
The overhead of running an internal IT department comes with cost areas which can be eliminated by outsourcing both your IT consultancy and IT support. When you have an internal IT department, not only are you paying for the products and services of solution providers, but you need to pay the salary of the team members managing them. Additionally, you are paying for the entirety of their time, with a service provider this is usually based on the number of support tickets raised and you simply pay for what you use. As an example, before product costs, the average salary bill for three reasonably skilled engineers can come to double or more the cost of an annual managed IT support contract, and you don’t get the other benefits outlined in this list of outsourcing your IT!
3. Outsourcing IT to a dedicated security team protects against costly cyber-attacks
The Government’s figures on Cyber Security in 2022 indicate that 39% of businesses identified cyber-attacks in the UK. Worryingly the same report documented that only 54% of businesses are proactively working to identify attacks. This puts them at a much higher risk of significant business impact and with the average cost per attack estimated to be £19,400, for medium and large businesses, this can be quite a cost. Working with a managed service provider means you will have a team of people proactively monitoring your IT vulnerabilities which massively increases your chances of catching attacks early or having systems in place to negate them altogether. It also means you can be alerted to developments in security technology when they are relevant and appropriate for your business, instead of having to monitor updates on an ongoing basis.
4. IT outsourcing drives business success through increased productivity
The speed at which service providers can fix issues and keep daily users running is generally faster than that of an internal IT team. Where a single internal IT engineer can make their way around users and fix immediate issues, the service provider can have 20+ support engineers remotely helping multiple users. This agile way of working can ensure reduced resolution times and allow your teams to be more focused on their own productivity. This also links back to increased skill sets as problems can be addressed by a specialist that knows the issue well. Managed service providers can also offer proactive help in increasing IT efficiency. Keeping ahead of trends and new technology allows your business to be agile and improve productivity – your partner will help you accomplish this.
5. IT outsourcing allows for predictable budgeting
IT has traditionally had many areas of ambiguity around running costs and unforeseen expenditure is reasonably common. When problems occur, the cost of resolution and time to resolve can often mean an open ‘chequebook’. We offer an all-encompassing outsourced IT support service where for a monthly running cost, most issues that arise can be dealt with, incurring no additional charges. This predictability benefits the accounts team and helps to control overall running costs, enabling careful budgeting for future projects such as infrastructure improvements.
How can Opus help?
With technology constantly evolving, it’s crucial to have the expertise to leverage its benefits and mitigate risks. Managed service providers deliver a dedicated partnership to ensure you stay up to date. Reach out to Opus today to discuss your requirements and how we can help you to make the most of the benefits above.
