MSP vs. Internal Hire: 3 Reasons Outsourcing Makes Sense

Some people assume an in-house IT staff is the best choice, but there are many ways in which businesses benefit by outsourcing IT management tasks.

Sometimes, a company will ask us point blank: why should I work with an MSP instead of hiring an internal IT person? It’s a good question, because most executives who aren’t familiar with the MSP model often just assume that an internal staffer is better than hiring a company. After all, they’re onsite all the time, so shouldn’t they be better able to respond to problems or issues? Don’t they integrate better into a team and company culture?

While it’s true that having an in-house IT staff does provide certain benefits, there are several important reasons why an MSP is often a better choice.

Reason 1 – MSPs Offer Increased Consistency and Optimized Uptime

Having an IT staffer onsite to fix daily issues is great, but what happens when they’re not at work? Even the most diligent IT engineer will get sick or go on vacation. When they’re not at work, your technology is vulnerable. Even a routine problem could rob your team of hours or days of productivity.

Partnering with an MSP eliminates this problem. By providing you with consistent, comprehensive IT maintenance and support, a well-respected MSP gives you an assurance that all IT problems will always get handled quickly.

Complete Network and other leading MSPs never go on vacation or take a sick day.

• 24/7 network health monitoring
• Help desk support 365 days a year
• Regular on-site and remote maintenance to ensure peak system efficiency

When it comes to security – vigilance is critical.
Consistency is especially important in the realm of cybersecurity. Did you know that most ransomware infections occur outside normal business hours, when your internal IT staff would be at home in bed?

MSPs who specialize in providing cybersecurity support, like Complete Network, can provide a range of services to help keep your business safe, which includes the following:

• A 24/7 security operations center to proactively respond to security incidents
• The latest cybersecurity and threat intelligence for your industry and business
• Regulatory compliance expertise to safeguard critical data

Reason 2 – You Get the Entire Range of IT Skillsets in a Single Partner

Successful management of your network and technology is about much more than just support. There are a host of skills that go into effectively managing your business technology, including:

• IT Strategy and Planning
  Holistically developing a technology strategy means regularly analyzing your business and goals, then using the latest hardware and software to bring your systems and objectives into better alignment.In-house IT staff, who are often stressed by the simple day-to-day job of keeping the network operational, rarely have the time and energy to give these big picture issues the attention they require. A reputable MSP, on the other hand, will have a dedicated team to keep your IT strategy consistent and effective.
• Cloud and Mobile Expertise
  Both cloud computing and mobile devices are having a transformational impact on how businesses operate, especially in the age of increased work from home activity. While some IT staff people have skills surrounding cloud migrations, mobile device management, and the many technical problems they can present, many others do not.Established MSPs like Complete Network employ experts in both those fields, allowing you to confidently embrace these important technologies without any of the headaches or frustration they sometimes cause.
• Cybersecurity Talent to Meet Any Challenge
  Cybersecurity is simply beyond the ability of many IT generalists. What’s more, a severe cybersecurity job crunch has left millions of positions unfilled, driving the average salary well beyond the budget of most midsized businesses.Partnering with an established MSP helps you access top-notch security talent, providing the surest, most cost-effective path to cybersecurity confidence.

Finding a person with one of the above skillsets is a challenge; finding all three in a single IT staff person, especially one who fits an SMB budget, is exceedingly rare. The best way to realistically secure each of those competencies is to partner with an MSP.

Reason 3 – Your Institutional Knowledge Never Leaves the Door

The IT industry is highly competitive and always evolving. As such, there is a strong drive among IT professionals to actively improve their skills, seek out new employment opportunities, and secure higher paying work.

This means that many small businesses are competing with a variety of different organizations for top IT talent. What happens when an IT staff member leaves your organization to fill a new job? He or she takes all the knowledge they’ve accumulated about your company and technology with them.

This means not only spending the time finding a replacement, but that you’ll also have to retrain them on your technology and spend months getting them up to speed on how your company operates.

An MSP insulates you from the endless cycle of hiring and training IT staff 

• A long-term partner that never changes jobs or requires re-training
• Scalability that provides flat-rate support for your business as it grows and evolves
• A single point of contact for all your technology maintenance and management

The Co-Managed IT Model Provides the Best of Both Worlds

While the benefits of hiring an MSP usually outweigh those of hiring internally – especially for small or midsized companies — we’re not going to claim that in-house staff doesn’t have benefit as well.

For example, in organizations with complex technology systems or proprietary systems, having an internal IT team who deeply understands those systems is an obvious benefit. These companies often seek what’s called a “co-managed” IT solution, in which an MSP uses a set of tools, strategies, and processes to augment the in-house team.

Co-managed IT solutions, like Complete Network’s own C360 Flex, allows those organizations to reap the all benefits of MSP partnership, while still retaining in-house staff to help maintain complex or proprietary systems.

Complete Network Provides Decades of Outstanding IT Service Experience.

For over 20 years, Complete Network has been offering businesses in both Albany, New York and Charlotte, North Carolina, award-winning managed IT solutions. If you’d like to partner with an MSP that has both world-class technical capabilities and a deep commitment to customer satisfaction, we encourage you to contact us to learn more.

Our friendly team is available any time at 877.877.1840. We look forward to speaking with you!