The decision to have either a completely Managed IT Service or a complete In-house IT department is often a topic of conversation for many businesses. This solely depends on how you’d like IT to operate within your business; alongside your existing setup or outsourced to a specialist business. For some, this usually depends on the size of your business. In-house IT departments usually operate well enough, however, there can be some areas in need of improvements. Managed IT Services can provide support that may not be possible with the manpower you currently have.
Differences between managed
and in-house IT departments
When evaluating what you need in terms of IT support, you’ll have to weigh up the pros and cons of both internal and external IT support – we can help by outlining the differences.
Managed IT Services
As we’ve mentioned, the size of your business plays a significant role regarding the level of IT support you may require. For example, if your company is smaller in size, you may require more areas to be covered and managed. Whereas a medium to large company may just need some specific areas managed to save time from their existing IT department employees.
Specific Cover
Anti-Virus protection
Disaster recovery plan (Backups)
Onboarding (Go-live support and project management)
In-house IT
In-house IT departments are as they are described – in-house; you may have one setup within your premises. Internal teams typically handle the day-to-day operations from desk setups to software installations. Some teams may also feature different lines of support with a specialist handling server care and IT security.
Other areas handled in-house
- Employee desk setups and desk moves.
- New employee technology setups such as laptops and mobiles.
- Internal software updates and machine operating system updates.
- Premises broadband monitoring.
Benefits of additional
external IT support
If you haven’t used external Managed IT Services before, you may not be clear about the benefits which it can produce for your business. It may be an additional investment but the time saving for your in-house IT department can be considerable, as well as bringing in industry professionals for advice and expertise.
Additional knowledge and expertise
Managed IT Service companies typically provide support for a full range of industry types. This means that they work on various systems and with different types of people. Doing so can provide new insight into more efficient ways of working whilst constantly finding ways of improving your IT infrastructure.
After-hours support
As per most workplaces, your IT team will head home after a long day of work along with everyone else. This does however mean if anything happens to your IT systems outside of typical work hours, you may struggle for some assistance. The issue could also be missed until the early hours of the next day. To counter this, after-hours support can be key to smooth operations and limited downtime.
Control specific areas
Your in-house IT department will likely handle anything from desk setups to server maintenance. It may be time for you to delegate the responsibilities to make time for the impactful tasks from an internal point of view. By handing over the reins to the specific tasks like server maintenance and software setups to a Managed IT Service company, you and your team can focus on the day-to-day jobs with no interruptions.
When speaking to a Managed IT Service company, such as our own IT Services department, they’ll happily tailor to your needs. They understand that you may need a smaller level of care in terms of hardware setups or a larger level of support in the form of server maintenance. We highly recommend asking questions and finding out if Managed IT Services is the right solution for you to enhance the capabilities of your in-house IT department today.
Book your free non-intrusive IT audit to see if we can offer you a reliable, cost-effective managed IT service.