Scary outsourcing – dispelling the myths

Expense, security risks, loss of control…just some of the reasons why many mid-market organisations view the idea of outsourcing with a great deal of fear and trepidation.

Be not afraid

We’ll try to temper the scaremongering by providing some positive reasons why outsourcing should be considered as more friend than foe.

Outsourcing is more expensive

In fact, the single most important tactical reason for outsourcing IT management is to reduce and control operating costs. By outsourcing, companies are able to package their infrastructure, application, and support services into a predictable monthly fee.  Stable monthly costs are essential for dynamic businesses. Against the need to stabilise and streamline is the constant pressure to evolve with the market and retain competitive advantage. When your monthly costs are out of control, your ability to plan strategically is compromised. And don’t forget, with the adoption of cloud computing, costs now shift from capital expenses to operational expenses.

We’re too small to outsource

Don’t think that outsourcing is just for the big boys. Mid-market companies can gain great advantage by accessing  newer technologies  and tools to help them scale rapidly and be agile in competitive markets without incurring the costs of hiring and retaining high priced talent that isn’t needed full time. Outsourcing providers are constantly training their teams on the latest and greatest technology advancements.

It’s all or nothing

Falling under the spell of an outsourcing provider does not mean losing control of your IT. You don’t have to outsource all of it, and internal IT staff will not automatically lose their jobs. Working with a flexible outsourcing provider allows many mid-market companies to pass over responsibility for a particular area of their business IT, first line service desk support for example. The best way to think of outsourcing your IT is that it won’t cause a loss in jobs, but instead it will give your team more time to  focus their efforts on strategic IT over simply keeping the lights on.

It is less secure

Now the issue of security may scare the wits off many an IT Director. But outsourcing means you don’t have to be a security expert or even employ one.  Outsourcing providers are experts at security, business continuity and disaster recovery. Today’s infrastructure is better than ever but sometimes it fails.  By handing it over as a managed service will help mitigate risk and give you the added benefit of 24×7 monitoring, maintenance, and geographically dispersed data centres.

Service levels will be lower than in-house

To compete, any outsourcing provider worth its weight will measure its success on its SLA achievement and define SLAs based around their client’s objectives, whilst adhering to industry recognised practices and processes (ITIL, ISO). It can put measures in place to spot when something could go wrong before it does and then take the correct steps to either fix or prevent the issue from happening, saving you from costly downtime. And with today’s workforce working more and more from remote locations, it is hard for companies to provide 24×7 support. Outsourcing can fill till this gap.

Read more about Acora’s outsourced IT services.