IT Support - Outsourcing Vs In-House It Department
Regardless of the level of IT Support, engineering or even designing of an entire
infrastructure that a business will need, there will always be a bit of a dilemma when it comes to deciding whether to get an in-house IT department or simply outsource all the IT matters to an external IT group. Each of the 2 options has its own advantages and disadvantages.
These aspects are actually being analysed and re-analysed not only by the new businesses when they get to improve their business performance through an optimal IT Solution, but also by long running companies when they get in more or less regular stages of reviewing their annual accounts, performance-spendings ratios, and many other situations and aspects. Let's have a closer look at each of these 2 options.
a) In House IT Solution.
This is a very popular choice for medium or larger companies most of the time with personnel on payroll, but not very unusual with permanently on site contractors
Considering the large number of systems, hardware and users in a large company the probability of a hardware failure is higher than in smaller businesses. An in-house IT presence allows an immediate intervention in this type of situations.
It is a rather expensive option in comparison to the less costly solution provided by an Outsourced or Virtual IT Department.
b) Outsourced IT Department.
It is most of the time the favourite choice for small to medium size companies.
It is at times used by massive corporations when trying to limit the human resources costs. At times is organised in national administration locations combined with an IT support & a Call Center most of the time located in Asia (most popular India, but others may get used too).The profit difference normally gets cached by the owners of the Service Provider and not really passed as a significant saving to the clients.
In situations when an outsourced IT Dept. is located within the borders of the country it services, the costs are not significantly higher than when the service is provided by other abroad based solutions. Clients VERY often have a much higher level of satisfaction and more efficient service when they don't have to deal with language barriers, cultural and other type of differences of near global scale.
In case of hardware failures, a nationally based Outsourced IT Department will cost less than trying to get the same issue resolved by the abroad alternative. These factors can REALLY make a big difference on the quality of service a business gets.
A simple example easy to extrapolate to almost any other country. Let's follow the situation and "trajectory" of an imaginary damaged Laptop/Desktop. Most average users don't know how to
prevent this from happening, but a LOT of laptop hard disk end up damaged within the first year. So, let's see how it is going to work for them.
Outsourced Abroad:
user contacts the it support for the manufacturer.
user manages to get to a technical support guy who he can communicate properly with (at times this may not happen at the first call)
the technical support guy will walk the user through his annoying standard list of troubleshooting steps and VERY often fail to correctly diagnose the problem
the tech support guy books the laptop for a Return To Base repair, issues a reference number and lists his (correct or wrong) diagnosis with it
after being put on hold a bit more, you will be given an estimate of the cost for the repair. If you are in warranty it will be one price, otherwise a much higher price.
the user sends (most of the times at his own expense) the laptop to the national representation/admin center of the manufacturer.
the national branch sends it to the abroad Outsourced IT Support Center... where it eventually gets repaired and sent back to you.
data recovery attempt (should you really needed the data on the damaged disk) will not be offered and probably not performed even if you ask for it.
This process from picking up the phone first time, to having the computer back in a functional state would, at times, take even more than 1 month and it WILL cost more than just the money.
Outsourced Nationally:
user contacts it support
user gets through to technical support
tech support diagnoses the problem
2 options are normally available: Return To Base or On Site repair
choosing On Site, would result in an engineer or technician being deployed on the business premises within hours or at worst next working morning
This process will almost always resolve the issues within 1 working day.
In case of a permanent Nationally Outsourced IT Department, a proper administration and servicing of the IT Resources/Infrastructure will very rarely (if ever) lead to downtime situations.
Presented in a simplified manner, these are the 2 main options a business would have to chose from: In House IT or Outsourced IT. If you have any questions before deciding which way to go, do seek advice from an IT Consultant... or maybe more than one, should you want to compare and chose the suggestion closer to impartiality. Most IT Consultants will not charge for the analysis on which they base and produce their Solution.
IT Support - Outsourcing Vs In-House It Department
By: Christian Gabriel C
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