Wondering if You Should Outsource Your IT? 3 Red Flags That Mean It’s Time

When you first started your business you probably wore a lot of different hats. Whether it was customer service, IT, or human resources, you were managing it all. But as your business is growing, you might find that you and your current staff can’t do it all, especially when it comes to IT. You might be wondering if it is time to outsource your IT.

A vibrant, growing business has a lot going on in IT: new systems, new workstations for new employees, and cybersecurity updates and tools.

If you or your IT person is struggling to keep up with it all, you’ve got two options: you can hire more staff or you could outsource your IT. Here are three red flags that it might be time to find a managed IT service provider.

Red Flag #1: Unreliable Backups are Putting Your Data at Risk

Some business owners underestimate the importance of a bullet-proof IT infrastructure. If the worst happens, will you be able to run your business? What happens if your business is leveled by a tornado? Catches fire? Experiences a ransomware attack?

Hopefully, none of that will ever happen. But could your business survive if it did? The answer to that question often depends on one thing: do you have reliable, consistent, and up-to-date backups of your data?

The fact is that we all get busy. You’re focusing on customers and managing staff. Your IT manager may be overwhelmed just responding to the day-to-day needs of your growing business.

Things like system backups can get pushed to the back burner. Sometimes, a business may think they have a backup system in place, but what if those backups haven’t happened for months due to a system failure? Without someone monitoring the backups, a failure may be discovered when it’s too late and catastrophic for your business.

If you haven’t examined it lately, check your backup today. Could your current backup get your business up and running after a ransomware attack that locks access to all of your data? If the answer is no, it might be time to outsource your IT. A managed IT support service would give you peace of mind that backups are being monitored and the continuity of your business is guaranteed no matter what happens.

Red Flag #2: You Can’t Find Qualified IT Staff to Hire

If you’re having a hard time filling IT positions with qualified, experienced individuals, you’re not alone. According to Gartner, “IT executives cited talent availability as the main adoption risk factor for the majority of IT automation technologies (75%) and nearly half of digital workplace technologies (41%).”

Driving this shortage is the increase in demand for IT workers. Due to the pandemic, most businesses have had to implement new technologies to accommodate remote work. In 2021, a whopping 58% of IT leaders reported that they had planned to invest in emerging technologies.

Yinuo Geng, research vice president at Gartner, stated, “‘The ongoing push toward remote work and the acceleration of hiring plans in 2021 has exacerbated IT talent scarcity, especially for sourcing skills that enable cloud and edge, automation and continuous delivery.”

If you’re struggling to find qualified IT staff, it might be time to outsource your IT. Best of all, with managed IT support services you can scale staff levels up or down easily depending on your IT needs, without the hassle of interviewing and hiring.

Red Flag #3: You Aren’t Doing What You Love

Warren Buffet once said, “In the world of business, the people who are most successful are those who are doing what they love.”

As a business owner, you’re passionate about the service or product that you are offering. But the reality is that many day-to-day business tasks have nothing to do with the work you love. Many of those tasks probably aren’t in your areas of expertise or strengths. Are you finding yourself frustrated that you can’t focus on doing what you love?

IT management is an especially time-consuming necessity for business operations, but most business owners don’t have the expertise or desire to spend time on IT. Are IT issues becoming a time suck that keeps you from doing what you really love? If so, outsourcing your IT might be a great option for you.

You’re Seeing A Red Flag: Is it Time to Outsource Your IT?

If you’re seeing one of these red flags in your business, it might be time to look closer at how you’re managing your IT support services. 

If you’d like to learn more about managed IT services, SandStorm IT offers an array of IT services that can be customized to fit your business’s needs. With our managed IT support services we monitor all aspects of your IT for potential problems before they happen. We work to keep your hardware running at peak performance and your network protected from ransomware and malware.

And should anything happen, SandStorm IT also offers a variety of premier managed backup services that can be customized for you, including a hybrid approach that combines cloud storage with an on-site storage system. Let’s talk about how we can partner with you to be your one-stop source for IT solutions.