Should You Keep Your IT Support In-House Or Outsource To A MSP?
Since the advent of Managed Service Providers in the tech industry, business leaders continue to debate the merits and demerits of having in-house or outsourced IT support services. Both approaches have their benefits, but ultimately, the right decision depends on an organization’s unique needs.
Why Do Companies Outsource Their IT Support To MSPs?
A study by Computer Economics, an IT research firm, shows that outsourcing of support services made up 12.7 percent of organizations’ technology budgets in 2019. This figure was a steep rise from 9.4 percent of their IT budgets in 2018. The study results also show that, on average, businesses spend 6.7 percent of their tech budgets on solutions offered by Managed Service Providers (MSPs). This growth is particularly notable among small and medium-sized enterprises, who spend an average of 16 percent of their IT budgets on outsourcing.
Why is there such dramatic growth in outsourced technology services? Outsourcing technology solutions and IT support allow SMEs to grow their internal IT capabilities or even replace them entirely without making massive capital investments or committing resources to hire full-time staff.
Today businesses of all sizes and companies in different industries view outsourcing as an effective way to reallocate valuable resources from tasks that keep them running to strategic initiatives that drive growth.
Despite these advantages, many businesses favor a purely in-house IT setup. This situation begs the question:
Does It Matter Where Your IT Support Comes From?
For many business leaders who believe in a purely in-house IT support model, the answer is yes. There are two main reasons for this:
- There is always an IT technician available on-site with in-house support compared to MSPs who often provide remote support. The common wisdom is that there are employees who prefer to build in-person relationships with support staff. Business leaders believe that some employees feel more comfortable if they work with fellow employees directly.
- Many managers and business leaders believe that an in-house IT team has a more intimate understanding of its processes than MSP employees.
Both of these points are perfectly valid arguments for enterprises to use an in-house talent for their IT support. In-house technicians often have to support managed services, which continue to grow in popularity as they are more suited to remote working arrangements in place due to the Covid-19 pandemic. However, these solutions come with limited user customization options and opaque underlying infrastructure.
Hiring and maintaining specialist IT staff is time-consuming and expensive. As a result, in-house techs carry out only essential support and rely heavily on third-party support from the managed solution provider. IT staff effectively become messengers to relay the needs of the business to MSPs with larger skill pools.
Finding the Right Balance between MSP and In-House IT Support
Although Managed Service Providers appeal to many companies looking to lower their costs and save on infrastructure, there remain compelling reasons to maintain certain IT services in-house. The secret to striking a balance is to understand which of your technology assets will work better in-house and the services you should outsource to an MSP.
MSP-run and in-house solutions have different approaches, each with advantages and disadvantages. Establishing a hybrid solution to leverage each course’s strengths is the only way to avoid working at cross-purposes.
If you are looking for an IT services company to help your business strike this delicate balance, talk to Kraft Technology Group. Based in Nashville, Kraft provides a range of IT solutions, support, advisory, and compliance services. It ranked among Tennessee’s top MSPs in the annual Channel Futures MSP 501 worldwide list. Contact Kraft today to find out how your in-house IT can work with a Managed Service Provider to achieve your business targets.
