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Just curious whether you think it is better to outsource your IT functions or hire in-house? Does it matter how many employees you have? Would love to hear your experiences, good or bad!
Cheryl
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Is it better to outsource IT or hire a staff?
#2
jbking 
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Posted 12 September 2007 - 01:27 PM
Depends on the company to a large extent, in terms of what they do. Where I work which is for an application service provider, there are some IT functions outsourced to contractors while other stuff is done in-house. The question is whether or not there is enough work for an in-house staff all the time. Where I work we have about 20 employees and I can picture companies of almost any size using outsourced help in some cases and in other cases having it be in-house can be beneficial as well.
Currently where I am, the outsourced part is setting up machines, server maintainence and other low-level tasks that don't require tons of work and thus it isn't really something for the company to have an administrator here full-time. Previously, at a couple of dot-coms there wasn't an outsourcing and everything was handled in-house which had its moments for being good and bad. If the administrator isn't doing much then one can wonder how good is it for the company? Meanwhile, in other companies I can easily see the need for various administrators and other folks which I did have at the largest place where I worked that had 64 people in the IT department.
Regards,
JB
Currently where I am, the outsourced part is setting up machines, server maintainence and other low-level tasks that don't require tons of work and thus it isn't really something for the company to have an administrator here full-time. Previously, at a couple of dot-coms there wasn't an outsourcing and everything was handled in-house which had its moments for being good and bad. If the administrator isn't doing much then one can wonder how good is it for the company? Meanwhile, in other companies I can easily see the need for various administrators and other folks which I did have at the largest place where I worked that had 64 people in the IT department.
Regards,
JB
#3
Spaatz
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Posted 12 September 2007 - 01:36 PM
A question like this is best answered by looking at your company's technology architecture, organizational structure, business plan and needs.
If your company owns all your own equipment, servers, printers, and operates a traditional office full of cubicles, nothing can substitute for having someone on site who knows what they are doing. You can hire a company to manage the functions for you as an in-house consultant that operates on a contract but you traditionally get less than stellar performance out of them and a hard learning curve if you are forced to seperate their employment. In this case, I would recommend an in-house IT or, the complete migration of your data to a server farm if it is possible or feasible given your budget.
If your company is a software development firm or is designing software for in house use, you absolutely need your own staff and expect to pay top dollarfor them. You will need to be able to work closely with them on a daily basis and this is practically impossible with an outsourced staff. They are also absolutely invaluable and are hard to come by.
If your office is primarily laptops and your staff are mobile, you can easily opt for an off-shore or outsourced firm to handle all of your maintenance, troubleshooting, e-mail, servers, and other functions. Several large companies in the US have centralized all of their in house systems off shore with a high rate of success fiscally. For the occassional problem that needs immediate attention stateside, you can always hire third party consulting firms on annual contracts for printer repair and hubs/switches. Heck, if your office is fairly standardized and has a reasonable network you can also hire a third party firm. Just expect aggravation with your staff having to talk to people on the phone all the time and sit thgrough remote connection sessions.
Overall, outsourced or not, look at the bottom line first, productivity second.
If your company owns all your own equipment, servers, printers, and operates a traditional office full of cubicles, nothing can substitute for having someone on site who knows what they are doing. You can hire a company to manage the functions for you as an in-house consultant that operates on a contract but you traditionally get less than stellar performance out of them and a hard learning curve if you are forced to seperate their employment. In this case, I would recommend an in-house IT or, the complete migration of your data to a server farm if it is possible or feasible given your budget.
If your company is a software development firm or is designing software for in house use, you absolutely need your own staff and expect to pay top dollarfor them. You will need to be able to work closely with them on a daily basis and this is practically impossible with an outsourced staff. They are also absolutely invaluable and are hard to come by.
If your office is primarily laptops and your staff are mobile, you can easily opt for an off-shore or outsourced firm to handle all of your maintenance, troubleshooting, e-mail, servers, and other functions. Several large companies in the US have centralized all of their in house systems off shore with a high rate of success fiscally. For the occassional problem that needs immediate attention stateside, you can always hire third party consulting firms on annual contracts for printer repair and hubs/switches. Heck, if your office is fairly standardized and has a reasonable network you can also hire a third party firm. Just expect aggravation with your staff having to talk to people on the phone all the time and sit thgrough remote connection sessions.
Overall, outsourced or not, look at the bottom line first, productivity second.
#4
prologic
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Posted 18 March 2013 - 04:53 AM
CEngland, on 12 September 2007 - 12:51 PM, said:
Just curious whether you think it is better to outsource your IT functions or hire in-house? Does it matter how many employees you have? Would love to hear your experiences, good or bad!
Cheryl
Cheryl
hi me prlogic form India, i am new to this forum.
Using it to hire a staff is a better time because it saves your time.
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