With the U.S. officially experiencing a recession and the novel coronavirus continuing to cause outbreaks across the nation and around the world, this is an incredibly challenging year for business leaders. Because it isn’t clear when we’ll have the COVID-19 pandemic under control, the world must grapple with not only the current economic downturn but also uncertainty about the future and when we’ll be able to recover, according to KPMG.
As a result, many companies have sought to contain costs as much as possible to stay afloat during the ongoing public health crisis. At the same time, reliable IT support remains vital, especially for organizations that need to empower remote workers while also combating COVID-19-themed cybercrime. Subsequently, as we discussed in a previous blog entry, outsourcing IT is an appealing option for small and midsize businesses (SMBs) looking to spend less while ensuring optimal performance and security.
Of the numerous advantages of working with a managed service provider (MSP) for IT support and more, cost containment is one of the biggest benefits, especially in the current economic climate. If you’re considering turning to a third-party provider for IT and need to rein in spending, here are some specific ways outsourcing can help you save while still meeting all your tech support and cybersecurity requirements.
1. Only paying for what you need.
Odds are you’ll spend less on third-party support since you’ll just pay for services and resources when you use them instead of maintaining an internal staff at all times.
2. Lower personnel-related expenditures.
With an internal IT team, you have to worry about the costs associated with the hiring process, on-boarding and off-boarding, training, turnover, sick and vacation days, and so on. Outsourcing your IT to an MSP means you get access to a team of tech experts and their skillsets without dealing with any of those factors.
3. Access to high-level cybersecurity expertise and lower data breach risk.
IT security risks evolve rapidly, with new threats emerging daily. At the same time, cybersecurity talent has been hard to come by for a while. By outsourcing, you can leverage high-level security skills via services such as virtual Chief Information Security Officer (vCISO) without having to invest time and money into an arduous talent search.
This will also help you minimize your chances of experiencing a data breach and shouldering the cost associated with that kind of incident: The global average total cost of a data breach is $3.86 million, according to IBM’s 2020 Cost of a Data Breach Report.
4. Less downtime due to proactive 24/7 support.
In-house IT staff members can only do so much. By turning to a third-party provider with more resources for support, you can get access to a team of techs who conduct proactive monitoring and can respond to potential issues at all hours.
By identifying and resolving problems fast, an external IT support provider can reduce the amount of downtime you experience, which can result in significant savings: Businesses that experience regular brownouts and outages report costs 16 times higher than companies without as much downtime, according to LogicMonitor’s 2019 IT Outage Impact Study.
5. Consulting services that help you quickly find the best IT solutions for your business.
MSPs that offer strategic IT consulting can save you time and money by streamlining the process of shopping around for new solutions. For example, our senior IT consultants leverage an advanced technological tool and our extensive partner network to produce comprehensive comparison matrices and help our clients quickly identify solutions that meet their needs and support their organizational objectives. They also help our clients make the best possible decisions with another advanced tool that offers a holistic view of technology, sets high-level budgets, and aligns priorities with business needs.
Overall, outsourcing your IT is almost always less expensive than maintaining an in-house tech support team. If you’d like to learn more about how working with an MSP could help your business spend less while improving your security posture and increasing productivity, our team of tech experts would be happy to discuss what we can do for you. Don’t hesitate to give us a call at 877-599-3999 or email sales@stratospherenetworks.com.
