In-House vs. Managed IT: Which Is Better?

IT Support Los Angeles
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Did you know that 90% of companies that leverage outsourcing enjoy an ROI of 25% and over?

This is one of the reasons why many companies are turning to managed IT support in Los Angeles.

If you are still using in-house IT to cover all of your needs, it’s high time that you looked into whether or not managed IT could benefit your organization.

Managed IT support options have a number of advantages over in-house IT support.

To ensure that you make the right decision for your business, continue reading to find out the differences between in-house vs managed IT support, and which is the best choice for you.

Pros of in-House IT Support

Although businesses are turning to outsourced IT en mass, this doesn’t mean that in-house IT support isn’t without its benefits.

These include additional control and instant access (within working hours).

You Can Pick the Individuals You Hire

One of the advantages that comes with in-house IT is that you can pick the people you hire to work in your IT department. If you’re picky about the type of person you hire, this can be of benefit.

However, take note you can also exercise similar judgment when it comes to hiring managed IT services. Although you might not be able to individually choose which individuals will work with your company, you can get a general feel of their staff and customer service.

If all the representatives you’ve spoken to are friendly and efficient, chances are so are the individual technicians who will support your business’s day-to-day IT functions.

Immediate Access

Are you someone that likes to have staff at your beck and call? If so, then another benefit of in-house IT support is that you’ll be able to have immediate access and control over your IT personnel.

As their boss or superior, you can ask for their attention at any point, go over and talk to them in their cubicle, or ask them whether they recommend the latest iPhone.

This, of course, doesn’t mean that managed IT support services don’t give you instant service. They do, and they can usually fix problems far quicker than in-house IT support. However, you won’t have the same level of control over the individuals that work there as you would over an employee.

Extra Control

Speaking of control, this is the final potential benefit of in-house IT support. If you choose to go with in-house IT support, this will give you ultimate control over your IT functions. You can choose what hardware you wish to install, what cloud solutions to use, what employees to hire, etc.

However, with control also comes a lot of responsibility. Should something fail, you’ll also be in charge of seeing that your IT staff can rectify it.

Cons of in-House IT Support

Although it does give you additional control, in-house IT support has a variety of cons. Overall it tends to be more expensive, less reliable, and more stressful to manage.

Let’s take a look at some of these areas in more detail.

You Might Have Overtime Costs

One of the substantial drawbacks of in-house IT support is that you don’t get round-the-clock support. Your IT staff are only available during working hours.

If something goes wrong after hours, you will need to pay your IT employees overtime to attend to the problem.

What’s more, if you only have one IT staff member, when they go on vacation you will be entirely without IT support.

If you choose to use managed IT services, you won’t have either of these problems, as someone will be around to help you day or night.

Limited Resources

Another disadvantage of in-house IT support is that you will have access to limited resources. This applies to various areas, including:

  • Talent, knowledge, and experience
  • Bulk discounts
  • Support

When you work with a good managed IT services provider they will have an array of IT-related resources at their disposal. An in-house team on the other hand is limited to the resources that your company can provide them with.

More Expensive

Besides triggering overtime costs, in-house IT support is also more expensive in other areas. With every in-house IT employee you hire you will likely trigger the following costs:

  • Hiring and onboarding costs
  • Training costs
  • Office overheads
  • Payroll expenses (including paid time off, sick leave, etc.)

What’s more, these costs aren’t always fully justified by the workload. If your business is growing, there will be a point where there is too much IT-related work, and you will need to hire. However, there might not be quite enough of a workload to fully utilize your new IT hire and justify the cost they pose to the business.

Unpredictable Costs

Additionally, in-house IT support also comes with a large number of unpredictable costs.

Unless you have an extensive, cutting-edge IT team operating for you, it will be hard to predict when what components are likely to fail or need replacing.

When this happens, you invariably have to lay out a substantial amount to have your system upgraded. These costs can come out of the blue, and be hard to budget for.

Pros of Managed IT Support

Are you wondering whether you should opt for outsourced IT support in Los Angeles? If so, there are a number of attractive advantages to going this route.

Not only is it cheaper, but you also get more comprehensive support, better security and compliance, and it’s great for scaling.

You’ll Get 24/7 Support

One of the valuable benefits of outsourced IT services in Los Angeles is that you will almost always get access to round-the-clock support. This is a feature that most managed services providers offer, but particularly ones that serve large metropolitan areas.

If you choose to sign up with a managed IT services company, they will have teams on-call 24/7. If you experience an issue after hours, they will be there to help, no matter how late it is.

System failure can be highly disruptive to any business. Being able to have issues rectified immediately ensures that your business isn’t held back by unexpected technical problems.

Pro-Active Maintenance

Another advantage of managed IT services is you’ll benefit from proactive maintenance. Traditionally, IT departments and service companies operated on the break/fix model. When a component failed, it would be repaired or replaced.

Recently, however, managed services providers have been adopting proactive maintenance methods. Through ongoing system monitoring, managed IT support teams can pick up on early indicators and issues.

Instead of waiting for components to fail, they can implement fixes ahead of time. This reduces disruption and downtime.

On-Demand Access to Industry-Leading Expertise

One of the reasons why 74% of businesses outsource IT to one degree or another is it gives you on-demand access to industry-leading expertise and a wider talent pool.

Have you struggled to attract IT talent in the past?

Unfortunately, North America is facing a chokehold talent shortage that is only predicted to get worse with time. According to survey results, more than 1,500 CIOs agree that there is a serious deficit in IT talent, one which can impact IT operations if you’re in need of new hires.

The good news is that if you choose to utilize managed IT support in Los Angeles, you won’t need to worry about this. Instead, you get to tap into a pool of collective knowledge and IT expertise.

As we said above, when you’re hiring employees for IT support, your options may be somewhat limited. However, even if you find a highly skilled and experienced hire, you’ll only have access to what they bring to the table. In short, you can only leverage the collective expertise of the people you hire.

An IT support company, on the other hand, will invariably employ dozens of IT professionals. Their clients get to profit from this combined pool of knowledge and experience.

Managed IT Support Is Highly Cost-Effective

One of the most attractive advantages of managed IT services in Los Angeles is that it is highly cost-effective when compared to in-house IT support.

According to research, companies that outsource their IT requirements can save up to 55% of their IT costs.

What’s more, like we mentioned earlier, managed IT also reduces your variable expenses. Instead, it replaces these with fixed costs that stay the same month after month.

Additionally, with many managed IT support services you won’t have to worry about upfront hardware and software costs. Instead of having to fork out for replacement and upgrades, the cost of these is already incorporated into your monthly service fee. This is ideal for budgeting and easy expense claims.

Outsourced IT Is Easy to Scale

If you’re like 99% of other businesses out there, you probably want to grow your operations. However, scaling a business is no easy task, and scaling IT functions is one of the biggest challenges growing businesses can face.

Fortunately, managed IT services makes scaling your IT needs easy and risk-free. Instead of having to lay out money on large systems, or bring on new hires before you can really utilize them, you can simply ask your provider to upgrade you to a higher service tier.

Didn’t grow as quickly as you thought you would? No problem. In this case, as long as you chose a good managed services provider, you should be able to easily downgrade.

Better Security

Did you know that cyber-attacks cost businesses $200,000 on average? Or that 70% of cyber-attacks are targeted at smaller businesses? But what’s more alarming is what happens after the dust has settled.

According to reports, 60% of SMBs that experience a cyber-attack close down within 6 months.

Stats like this show just how important it is to maintain watertight security for your organization.

Besides costing you less, outsourced IT can also result in better compliance and security. IT is a specialized field—and one that contains numerous sub-field. Therefore, although they might be very competent, the general IT technician you hired might not have the specialized training and experience it takes to protect your entire organization from online security threats.

On the other hand, a managed IT support provider will usually have an entire team of specialists dedicated to security. It is their job to stay up-to-date with the latest developments in cybersecurity and implement the most cutting-edge security measures for your business.

Cons of Managed IT Support

Although managed services will usually get you the best IT support there are also a couple of potential cons to be aware of.

For one, an outside provider won’t have inside knowledge of your organization. This can be both a plus and a minus. While they might not have an understanding of things like your company culture, they also won’t have any personal agendas.

Another concern that some people have when trying to choose between IT support options is security. Surely putting your systems into an outside organization’s hands isn’t safe? Fortunately, IT services providers have very little to gain by “hacking” or taking control of one of their clients’ systems.

As long as you go with a reputable provider, your organization’s data and systems won’t be in any danger.

Are You in Need of IT Support in Los Angeles?

Although there are pros and cons to both in-house IT support and outsourced IT services, for most businesses outsourced services are the way to go. Not only will they save you money, but you’ll also get access to pooled talent and expertise, cutting-edge security protocols, and pro-active maintenance.

Are you in need of IT support in Los Angeles? If so, you have come to the right place.

Here at Be Structured, we specialize in managed IT services, as well as IT consulting in Los Angeles. We are also a managed security services provider (MSSP).

Contact us today to discuss your needs.

About Chad Lauterbach

CEO at Be Structured Technology Group, Inc. a Los Angeles based provider of Managed IT Services for small business. I desire to help small businesses better utilize technology by assisting in high level planning to make sure that new systems will benefit them both operationally and financially. I am careful to implement and support systems using industry best practices.