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Are you considering outsourcing your company’s IT needs? Discover the pros and cons of IT outsourcing, price points, and skills to look for when hiring an IT Service Consultant.
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Learn How To Get Listed!Information technology (IT) service providers are experts in supporting their client’s technology needs and creating solutions that fill gaps in client IT infrastructure. Traditionally, IT service providers focused their efforts on network management and managing client hardware needs. In the modern business setting, IT infrastructure touches upon every business process.
Small to midsize businesses can grow and remain competitive through the application of modern technology solutions, making IT service providers an integral partner capable of supporting:
Software development
Technical support
Network administration
Hardware maintenance
IT infrastructure management and IT security services
Business leaders partner with IT service providers in order to determine the scope of IT support they need. IT service providers install and manage communications systems, design and maintain network infrastructure and server solutions, and establish and manage hardware and software licensing agreements.
Network disruptions due to cyberattack, hardware failure, or other outages can severely impact a business’s ability to stay in business. IT service providers provide proactive solutions for:
Network monitoring
Keeping software updated and actively licensed
Protecting and managing data
Ensuring the overall health and stability of hardware infrastructure
In the event of an outage, IT service providers deploy systems to ensure their clients can collaborate internally across departments as well as maintain communication with customers. In the long-term as preventative measures, IT service providers secure data accessibility and deploy automation across departments to guarantee efficiency, allowing their client companies to accomplish more with less.
Because of how enmeshed IT infrastructure is across business processes, it’s necessary to have standards around data access and user permissions. IT service providers assist in crafting the extensive IT governance policies that protect their clients and ensure compliance with industry standards and regulatory requirements around performance management, risk management, and proper IT data protection.
IT service providers offer as wide a range of services as there are business processes that depend upon technology in the modern business environment. These firms provide IT services either as full-service providers or specialize in working on limited-scope projects of specific types.
Below we’ve outlined the primary service models IT service providers deploy in order to meet the needs of clients, including the boutique service offerings of specialized service providers.
Managed service providers provide clients with long-term partnership in order to support the deployment and management of IT infrastructure. MSP providers offer comprehensive IT infrastructure management, covering services such as network design, deployment, and management; IT security management and monitoring; help desk support; and cloud migration and deployment.
IT service providers focused on professional services are often contracted for project-focused tasks such as software integrations, data migrations, system implementations, or software and mobile app development. The goal of professional service providers is to act as a seamless extension of their clients’ businesses to support IT needs beyond the capabilities of existing in-house resources. This approach to integration helps to create functionality between existing technologies and new software solutions, third-party software, and upgrades to hardware.
IT consultant firms provide clients with a level of expert guidance on how they should structure and manage their IT infrastructure, what software platforms to use, how to integrate technology into daily operations, how to best secure networks against attack, and which critical technologies should be adopted. Consulting service providers focus on finding strategic alignment between their client’s IT infrastructure and their business goals in a way that is in compliance with regulatory requirements and industry standards.
Beyond the core IT services covered by these types of service providers, there are a multitude of service provider models that specialize on niche IT service needs. Some major categories include:
Managed security service providers (MSSP) focus on managing system updates, mitigating vulnerabilities, and protecting data against cyberattacks.
Telecommunications service providers manage telecom systems, including Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), Internet connectivity services, network and server infrastructure, and the hardware necessary to interface with these systems.
Cloud service providers (CSP) support the increasing shift of IT infrastructure to third-party cloud service vendors. CSP provide cost-efficient management of cloud computing services such as Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS), Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS), and Software-as-a-Service (SaaS), as well as related services in data storage, hosting, and hardware virtualization services.
IT service outsourcing service providers are capable of supporting infrastructure management, help desk support, software and app support, or any other long-term in-house IT functions supporting business processes.
Remote IT support and help desk services provide support and troubleshooting for clients with in-house IT infrastructure to minimize downtime and help increase efficiency and productivity.
Partnership with an IT services provider results in a host of benefits for small to midsize businesses seeking to improve or enhance their IT infrastructure.
Recruiting and training a team capable of keeping up with cutting-edge technologies and constantly shifting software platforms can be an expensive line item for your HR department to absorb. The potentially high cost of maintaining an in-house IT team stems from the extremely diverse array of skills IT professionals need to bring to the table. Costs come not only at a labor level, but also with the acquisition, deployment, and maintenance of IT infrastructure, software, and hardware. These operational costs are especially challenging in that hardware failure or software upgrades can cause an IT budget to unexpectedly skyrocket.
A service provider partnership can serve several cost-saving functions. First, a service provider helps to minimize and stabilize your IT budget and reduce overhead costs without compromising a company’s operational capabilities. IT partnerships also allow businesses to more effectively allocate their internal resources towards core business processes such as sales and client relationship management.
The constantly evolving technology landscape makes it difficult for small businesses to deploy the proper mix of technologies to both meet business demands and remain current and competitive. Businesses partnering with professional IT service providers know that the contracted arrangement provides them with access to highly qualified individuals from varying tech-inclined backgrounds. The partnership also comes with access to specialized software tools and hardware solutions that provide clients of IT service providers with a competitive edge.
There are compliance and security risks inherent to managing and maintaining IT infrastructure. This is increasingly true with more organizations adopting remote-work models or allowing customer-facing staff to work from the field. With small businesses struggling to keep pace with IT infrastructure vulnerabilities, threat actors have increasingly targeted their networks, digital assets, and remote workers.
Because of their limited resources, small businesses rarely properly allocate their IT resources towards proper cybersecurity training and awareness. IT service providers provide a dedicated team capable of monitoring your networks, training your team, and establishing and enforcing information security policies continuously, reducing risks for their clients.
It’s difficult to provide readers with specific rates they should expect to pay to IT service providers, as rates vary greatly based on the location of the firm, the scope of services they provide, and the type of experience a given project requires. However, we can provide a breakdown of the pricing models businesses seeking to partner with IT service providers can expect.
One of the most popular pricing models used by IT service providers, this pricing strategy charges clients for specific services on a contractual basis. The fee can shift based on the scope of the service being provided, and can scale up or down with a client’s needs. This pricing model allows clients to add users and devices at predictable increases to their monthly IT budget.
A variation of the per service, per month model is the per device cost IT service providers provide for hardware and network infrastructure. IT companies provide an incentive to their clients to grow and expand their operations by building in discounts for larger networks.
MSPs offer added value to clients by providing service bundles. These bundled offerings are designed with client growth in mind, scaling to align with operational expansion and support revenue growth. The pricing for these bundles is designed to not only provide additional value to clients, but also maximize profitability for the firm.
Flat rate, all-inclusive pricing
Companies seeking to completely outsource the entire scope of their IT infrastructure to an IT service provider can expect to pay a monthly, all-inclusive rate. Through consultation with the firm, the business will identify their network, software, hardware, and infrastructure needs and establish a fee for these services to be fully managed by the service provider.
There are complexities to the decision to outsource portions of their company’s IT infrastructure that business owners and managers have to navigate. This decision is especially dependent on how complex the business’s IT needs truly are and how dependent daily business processes are on integrated software and automated solutions.
While software automation is a useful tool for small businesses to maintain IT infrastructure with in-house resources, automation can only carry a business so far. At some point, the complexities and time commitment required to manage and maintain basic business processes will outpace your organization’s bandwidth and it becomes necessary to consider outsourcing to an IT service provider.
Once the decision has been made to outsource to an IT service provider, it’s important to ensure the firm you contract with aligns with your business needs. Can they provide the full scope of IT services you need to outsource at a cost-point you can afford? Do they have the IT experience and maturity to support your business for longer-term engagements, or are they set up for short-term, project focused work?
Finding the answers to these questions and other considerations are important to make sure the IT provider is a good fit for your company. Here are the major steps that business leaders must take to identify the best firm to meet their needs:
Perform an internal needs assessment and consult with potential service providers to identify gaps in existing IT infrastructure.
Establish goals for improving efficiency, enhancing IT security, reduce operating costs, or other ways to leverage technology to improve business performance.
Identify services that are proactive and tailored to your organization’s specific needs.
Set a realistic budget to dedicate towards managed IT services or specific IT projects to establish a baseline in your search for a service provider.
Explore service providers with experience and expertise servicing your specific industry and providing the types of IT services you’ve identified previously as opportunities.
Research potential service providers by reading reviews, contacting previous and existing clients, and seeking referrals from industry peers and your professional network.
Compare service plans and pricing to your previously established budget.
Inquire how potential partner service providers measure success, what KPIs they track according to the projects or services being provided, and how they plan to communicate throughout their contracted engagement.
