To grow your business, you must consider how best to achieve its growth potential. Many operations stagnate because owners don’t want to loosen the reins on control, but successful businesses know how to delegate certain operational assets to maintain and achieve overall objectives. Jonathan Adams and other IT industry professionals suggest that small and moderate-sized companies consider outsourcing their IT departments.
Jonathan Adams Addresses the Importance of Outsourcing IT
Every company eventually needs to face the question of whether it is more practical to maintain an in-house IT department or outsource. For most businesses, keeping operations in-house is too costly and does not add value. If anything, supporting an in-house IT staff strips money from other sectors, meaning you might actually hurt your business by trying to keep everything under one roof.
Don’t make the jack-of-all-trades mistake – trying to master everything but failing to master anything. The American Psychological Association suggests that multitasking can lead to a 40% drop in productivity — ouch! Most experts agree that outsourcing helps a company meet and manage operational goals. Adams also suggests that besides helping you maximize in-house production, outsourcing also allows owners to maximize budgetary dollars.
Outsourcing and Cutting Costs
Outsourcing reduces costs by reducing staffing needs and transferring workloads to a third party. Attempting to handle all IT needs in-house requires a qualified team of experts managing your digital portfolio 24/7. You cannot expect inexperienced team members to split their focus into production tasks and IT management effectively. Also, hiring the experts you need to run an IT department requires onboarding several full-time or salaried professionals.
Working with a third-party operation means you do not have to take on the additional expense of employees, training, and benefits. Also, according to Adams, you gain access to focused experts for a fraction of the cost of in-house teams.
Coming to Terms With Quality Control Issues
Loosening the reins on your business is difficult. You likely put in a great deal of time and sacrifice to get your company where it is, and delegating any task outside your orbit is hard to fathom.
It’s true that outsourcing your IT needs limits your control over the outsourced tasks, but it is not as bad as it sounds. You are sharing the load with experienced IT professionals, individuals more qualified than you to handle the demands of your IT needs. With open communication, there is no reason to worry about the quality of the outsourced work or whether it will meet your demands.
Bringing IT Back Into the Fold
According to Jonathan Adams, outsourcing your IT needs is part of operational advancement. During the growth phase, you need to focus on your service and customers. Once your business reaches a certain level, you can and should consider folding IT into in-house operations, but save that for after significant growth and corporate success.