Managed Services VS an Internal IT Department

When it comes to IT, a business has two clear choices. They can build out a department on their own or contract a third-party managed service provider (MSP) to give them a hand. Each takes lots of research and know-how. Whether they are your own employees or working on your behalf, you need to trust the people you have on the job and they need to have a higher level of experience in order to be successful. IT is not something you can leave up to the new intern. It needs to be handled with precise care and the proper advanced tools. With data breaches and cyber crimes on the rise, the risks are too high for businesses to allow their IT to get into the wrong hands.
It’s a lot like designing a home. You can either become a DIY master or hire a professional. Each has benefits and drawbacks. Doing it yourself will save you money, but it is going to cost you lots of time and you run the risk of doing a poor job given your lack of experience. Hiring a professional may be more costly, but might be a better long-term investment to ensure the job is done correctly. Information technology is not any different. Still, many businesses overthink the matter and wrongly assume their capabilities. Let’s take a deeper look at the advantages and disadvantages of contracted versus in-house IT, specifically how each choice will impact your business.
Cost
There is no clear cut winner when it comes to the cost of an MSP versus an internal team. Initially, hiring an MSP is going to be expensive. It will introduce a new cost to your monthly list of expenditures, which may take some getting used to from a financial standpoint. However, hiring a new MSP means you no longer have to hire new people or need a team of your own, so you will be saving on payroll expenses. You may find you need to, unfortunately, layoff your IT workers or assign them a new role within the company. But you will also find that an MSP can do the same amount of work as your department, if not more work, with far fewer workers. This is because they are more experienced and have access to all the necessary tools. Speaking of tools, hiring an MSP will save you money with software and technology updates since you no longer have to worry about equipping an IT department. So, as far as the battle on cost goes, it really depends on your business and the number of IT workers you need for an in-house team versus the price of hiring an MSP.
Time
Managed services take home the title when it comes to the time involved in managing your IT. Their sole job is to manage your technology and data. This allows your own employees to focus on their own day-to-day business operations. A big part of this time consideration is also the time it takes to keep up with IT trends. Let’s be honest, tech is changing so fast that no one can really keep up with it all while managing a business. That’s where an MSP comes in. They prioritize staying on top of trends and ensuring your business’ IT is kept up to date, leaving you with more time for what matters in your line of work and less time stressing out over your technology.
Investment
While we already discussed the cost differences between the two choices, the level of investment is another major consideration. If you hire an in-house employee, you have to invest time and money in training them whereas MSPs handle this all on their own without any disruption to your business. Additionally, a third-party team has all the right resources to ensure your IT is secure not just for that day of business, but for years of business to come. They can predict trends better than anyone else in the industry because they have multiple clients to learn from, benefitting your company since they have more knowledge of the latest in information technology. The work an MSP does to protect your business’ security is an immeasurable investment in your future that severely lowers your risks of being hacked or facing other threats, all of which can be very costly to recover. So, when it comes to long-term planning, an MSP will help you stay on track and ahead of the curve.
Both managed service providers and an internal IT department have their benefits and drawbacks, however, the scale leans heavily in favor of MSPs. With lower long-term costs and less time involved, they have proven themselves to be an investment in your business’ future. Information technology is just going to get more advanced and risks are only going to rise. If your business is serious about protecting itself and staying current with technological trends, a managed service provider is the clear choice for their IT needs.