Staff up or outsource? That’s been a conundrum organizations have faced for many years when deciding how to handle their IT departments. According to Forrester analyst Bill Martorelli, it is a decision that is often idiosyncratic and highly specific to each organization. However, with more and more options available, many SMBs are finding that hiring outsiders can be advantageous, especially when the tasks at hand are relatively routine. Here’s some advice from five IT pros.
Marshall Maglothin, the principal of Blue Oak Consulting, LLC, opted to outsource his IT tasks. In his former position as administrative director at the Heart and Vascular Institute at Bon Secours Health System, a large specialty physician practice with 200,000 patients, Maglothin had just two full-time IT people to do all the work and provide 24/7 call coverage. However, instead of hiring additional staff, Maglothin says Bon Secours chose to contract with an external IT company to provide their 24/7 network monitoring, some call coverage, and additional support during special projects.
Maglothin says that, in addition to eliminating the need to hire or make capital investments, the IT firm offered an extensive collection of network support software as a part of their service, “So they managed it and we only paid for the support we needed, not having to buy software licenses.” Also, he notes, Bon Secours was able to schedule only the time/services they needed and they did not have to either
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This was first published in March 2012