More South East companies outsource IT

Categories: CNC News

Many companies in southern England are making the wise decision to outsource their IT services in 2015.

A growing number of companies across the UK are choosing to outsource because there is increasing evidence that external IT consultants can run a company’s computing and telephony services better than an in-house IT department — both in terms of cost and quality of service.

One reason for this growth in outsourcing is that computer consultants are more proactive at helping their clients keep up-to-date with the latest solutions. They can also share in-depth knowledge acquired from dealing with many different customers and IT suppliers.

Gary Jowett from CNC, near Brighton, explained: “An in-house IT director should be making the big strategic decisions to support the growth of his or her company. Unfortunately, in many organisations IT directors spend much of their time fire-fighting daily service issues and don’t have time to take a long-term view of their company’s IT requirements. This is often because there is only one person responsible for IT which also presents a big problem if they fall ill or leave the business as the company suffers.”

What happens when the IT manager leaves?

When an in-house IT manager leaves it’s a good time to review how computing services are managed.

Should a company employ someone new who may not have as much in-depth knowledge as their predecessor? Or should they consider an outsourced solution using computer consultants who have a guaranteed knowledge of all the IT technology and applications available?

Certainly, the emergence of reliable and scalable cloud services located on secure and remote servers makes the decision to outsource much easier. The transition to a new cloud-based platform is swift and painless with minimal downtime.

IT tailored to customers’ needs

However, cloud-based solutions may not suit everybody so a well-managed IT provider will carefully evaluate what suits a client’s needs best. Some companies may prefer an outsourced solution which runs off servers located in their own offices.

Whatever option is chosen, an expert IT consultant will assume control of the existing IT platform and manage it for a number of months without making any radical changes so there is no disruption to business as usual activities. Then, over time, they will identify any gaps in provision and recommend improvements.

The only thing that many users may notice from day one is the central helpdesk they need to call to report any service issues.

More control of IT quality

Managed IT services consultants sign service level agreements so they have to deal with service issues within a set timeframe. Outsourcing therefore gives a company much more control over IT because the external provider will face financial penalties if they don’t deliver the agreed service.

Ultimately the IT provider will lose an outsourcing contract if they underperform which motivates them to deliver the highest quality service at all times.