When it comes to your IT, you may just not have the time or money to spend as much time on it as you'd like. So you're faced with two options, do I hire employees to run my infrastructure or do I outsource? While we're slightly biased, there are a few concrete factors to consider before you make your choice...and we hope you see the value in a partnership with an outsourced Managed Services Provider (MSP).
Outsourcing IT Benefits
Reduced Costs
Rather than hiring a full-time staff of security specialists and paying a hefty sum to support them, a Managed Services Provider (MSP) allow you to use much of that sum for other areas of your business. On top of the savings, an MSP exercises more availability, therefore able to analyze, identify, and prevent threats across the entire organization around the clock. With this benefit, you'll maintain a team of security specialists with experience in securing systems against ever-evolving cyberattacks 24 x 7.
Consider the following potentially hidden costs that outsourcing an MSP for your IT doesn't have:
- Expertise and Certifications
In order for your team to continue growing, you need to train them. Not only should some of your in-house IT employees have certifications that the bring to the position, but if they're going to continue growing and understanding the nuances of IT, you will have to pay for their ongoing certifications. Additionally, if they don't come into the position with enterprise-level experience, you're started the race with a last place team. You then have to pay additional fees on top of their salary and benefits to make sure they're experienced enough to qualify for the position but also, not quit their jobs. Often times a lack of certifications equals higher employee churn within your company anyways.
MSPs, however, never charge you to certify their employees. We want to make sure we're always providing the best quality service, and this means you have to have the right employees in the right seats with the right certifications to give you the service you need. It's not rocket science, we get better, you get better IT services, and you don't have to worry about churn or certification processes.
- Employee Labor and Benefits
Not only do you have to worry about the certifications and expertise of your employees, but you also have to consider salaries and benefits that will be competitive enough to keep your IT team in-house. If they're not appropriately compensated for their time and efforts, you have two problems on your hands: 1) unhappy employees that will most likely leave your company, causing cultural and financial issues and 2) therefore a company at risk. Not only this, but you also have to consider those who come in late, leave early, and aren't as experienced as you thought they'd be.
Outsourcing an MSP alleviates those issues. Labor is included in your cost and you don't have to worry about providing benefits or employee churn in the outsourced company. Your employees are alleviated the stress of being "THE" IT guy and focus on their expertise. MSPs take care of the issues so your end is easy.
- Utilizing Your Budget Efficiently
We work hard for our money. We want to make sure that when we spend money, that the hard earned cash-flow is being utilized at its best. You wouldn't continue paying $350 a month for your cell phone when an upgrade would lower your monthly cost to $200. It's the same with the company's budget. Spending more for outdated systems because you can't keep up with the rate of change is an easy problem to fix. Don't pay more when you don't have to.
Centre offers to be an extension of your IT team with the specific solutions that you need like IT consulting services, Managed and Co-Managed options for services, or CMMC compliance assistance. By outsourcing, you don't have to worry about your budget being spent wisely because your fixed cost solutions are always up to date and working to help you accomplish your business goals.
Decreased Cybersecurity Risk
There is a new cyber attack every 39 seconds. That equates to 2,200 cyber attacks per day. Cyber threats aren't decreasing in number because of the defense systems in place. They are persisting, finding new ways to push through defense systems. To ensure your business stays protected against intricate (and steadily increasing) cyber threats, you need to purchase and maintain a long list of applications to create a secured environment.
You may think you're not at risk. But maybe it's not a cyber attack, maybe it's increased downtime due to a natural disaster or even a lack/failure of backups. The point is, you're at risk.
Consider the following reasons why you should be outsourcing cybersecurity services:
- Dedicated, 24x7 Team Monitoring Your Threats
While remaining in-house with your cybersecurity protection can seem like a good idea, and for some it does work, you will encounter difficulties with monitoring and executing certain cybersecurity requirements. Think about it, you hire 3 in-house employees to run and monitor your systems, but one has a sick kid, one is sick himself, and the other just started his week long vacation. You can't anticipate a breach - just as much as you can't always anticipate your employees' PTO. So when a breach does happen (this is an a when, not if situation), you become a part of 60% of business that paid out over $5 million dollars in ransoms last year.
On the flip side, if you choose to outsource to an MSP, you don't have to worry about PTO or 24x7 monitoring (by the way did you know most breaches occur on Sundays?). Instead of 3 employees, you have a team of 150+ that are ensuring your security around the clock. You get to sit back and relax on the weekend while we keep you protected.
- Modern and Up to Date Tool Systems in Place
Unfortunately, without a dedicated and certified team keeping computers up to date and systems appropriately patched, your business not only opens itself up to an attack, but also adds on the hassles of slow running speeds, outdated certifications, and problems with insurance premiums.
However, outsourcing cybersecurity services means that company (in order to remain compliant and provide services) is always updating their systems to keep you as safe as possible. From patches to monitoring, MSPs like Centre are committed to keeping your systems up to date.
- Compliance with Cybersecurity Insurance Requirements
In order to receive cybersecurity insurance protection, your inhouse team must be able to meet multiple requirements. If you don't then when that breach occurs, you won't get the payout protection. Not only is the process arduous and filled with booklets of paperwork, but in order to remain compliant, oftentimes small teams have to lie to keep themselves covered. This fraudulent action will then cause further damage down the road.
But outsourcing to an MSP gives you the peace of mind to know if anything happens, you're covered. Once again, that dedicated team will help you meet CMMC compliance rules which keep you compliant in the event of a breach. This is a moment when you really want to have more people working on this than the 3 experts you hired.
Outsource with the best IT managed service provider
MSPs give you the ability to adapt not just an expert or two but a suite of experts on every aspect of your organization's network. If you're looking for a partner that promises technical expertise, flexibility, and maintains transparency, reach out to us and we'll prove just how valuable we can be to your organization.
We specialize in providing 24x7 managed security services, around-the-clock IT consultants, and customizable solutions. If you have any questions about how we could work with your business, contact us today!