Your Options for IT Management

Every company comes to a point in growth where IT management goes from an hour a week to a full-time job. Putting out fires is suddenly taking up half your day, and you can’t seem to find time for things like software upgrades. You can’t simply ignore IT, so the only solution is to find someone else to take care of IT management. But who?

You have three primary options when it comes to hiring someone to take care of your IT management needs: hire a new employee, hire a remote IT service company, or hire an in-house managed IT service company. All of these options have their benefits and pitfalls, so it is imperative that you figure out which route will work best for the long-term success of your company.

One-Man Army of IT Management

Your first thought is probably to hire an employee as you would for most other positions. This is an option, but before you post that job listing, you need to make sure that you have all of the information.

First, you need to ask yourself if one person can really handle doing the job effectively. If you have 5-15 workstations, one person can likely handle it, but if you have more (or expect to have more) one person may not be enough. They can only be in one place at a time, so if two employees are having computer problems (which seems to happen) then one employee is going to have to wait.

Even the best IT guy out there can only help one person at a time. On top of that, what if there is a server issue that takes half a day to fix? Who will be able to help employees then? Also, no IT guy is an expert in every aspect of IT. You may hire them initially because they know Microsoft products well, but when you need help with Linux, they know just about as much as you.

A related problem with the one-man army approach: they only have so many hours in a day. With such a full plate, vital IT maintenance tasks get pushed off to the side. They can’t find time to create the necessary backups in case of a crash, and software isn’t updated, which is cause for security concerns. The 8-5 workday becomes an unrealized dream as servers can only be updated after work hours. Finally, at 9:00pm, the server is updated, and they have to go home to rest before coming into work early the next morning. It is no wonder why IT staff has such a high turnover rate.

Lastly, recognize the costs of hiring an employee. There are many good resources for this, so I won’t go into detail, but keep in mind that there are a lot of costs to consider when hiring. The overtime they will likely have to work, taxes, and the insurance it takes to hire a quality employee – it all adds up. Hiring your 20-year-old nephew for $25,000 a year may seem like a good deal initially, but when your servers crash you may have a different opinion.

While there are definitely negatives, if you are a small outfit with a handful of employees and minimal IT needs, hiring may be a good option for you. Just be aware of both the positive and negative attributes of hiring a new employee.

Managed IT Service Providers

If you have more than a handful of employees and need more significant IT support, then hiring a team is probably your best option. These outsourced IT teams are usually called “managed IT service providers” and are, in essence, a way to hire a whole IT team for a fraction of the cost. There are generally two types of managed IT service providers: local and remote.

Remote IT Managed Service Provider

Remote teams are located in various places around the world and are available via phone or internet. Because these companies are remote, they are able to have lower prices. They also have lower prices because they can’t do as much. If Microsoft Word crashes, they will likely be able to help. If you get hacked or your monitor breaks, however, they won’t be able to help much beyond asking you if it is plugged in.

Local IT Managed Service Provider

A local managed service provider is the second type of IT provider. They are an easily scalable team that is available both in-person and remotely, depending upon your problem. They can do anything, from updating your software to helping you move your servers around. The availability to come in-person is a very important advantage as your company grows and your needs change.

This is generally accepted as the best solution. When picking a company to help your company’s IT management, make sure to pick a local company like Swift Systems that truly has your best interests at heart.

Every company will need to figure out what solution works best for them. A small startup may find an employee to be the best solution, while a mid-size company needs the scalability and response time of a local managed service provider. Call Swift Systems to see if a local IT managed service provider is right for you!

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