IT support for businesses: outsourced support or an in-house IT person
For a business with up to about twenty employees, outsourced IT support is almost always more cost effective than an in-house IT specialist: you pay a monthly plan instead of a full salary, and support does not stop when one person is on holiday. An in-house IT hire makes sense when there is enough work for a full day, every day.
Most small businesses do not have that much work. The computers run, email works, and then one morning the printer will not print, a password has expired or a new colleague needs an account. What matters then is a fast response, not someone sitting in the office for eight hours.
Outsourced support means you sign a monthly plan with a company that maintains your equipment, software and accounts, mostly remotely. You pay a predictable amount and know exactly how many workstations are covered.
An in-house IT specialist is there every day and knows your people well, but that means a full salary, payroll taxes, holidays and the risk that knowledge of your system walks out the door with them.
Below is an overview of what IT support covers, a comparison of the two models, a checklist for before you sign and the prices of IT Expert plans.
