Frequently asked questions
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#1 Is Outsourced IT support more expensive?
✔ External IT support can cost 2-3 times less than in-house specialists. An external provider of such IT services has much more advanced IT tools and an automated IT support process based on the experience of hundreds of companies.
✔ Do internal employees get sick, go on vacation, or leave? And what if you need them 24/7, including weekends? With external IT specialists – no headaches for you.
✔ External IT specialists have a wide range of skills that can be utilized immediately, as needed and in the required amount. For internal specialists to acquire new skills, additional time is needed, and if those skills are used rarely – it’s hardly worth the effort at all.
✔ External IT can adapt to changing workloads – whether you need three times more or twice less. But internal staff is fixed in number, and regardless of the workload, you will always pay them the agreed salary.
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#2 When you have in-house IT specialists, do you need external IT experts?
An external IT team doesn’t replace but rather strengthens and expands internal IT competencies:
✔ Internal IT employees often have a broad but not deep range of knowledge, and certainly not all the necessary competencies. When help is needed to solve complex, specific IT problems, the external team can do it much faster and more accurately.
✔ Internal IT specialists face numerous internal challenges. Let them focus on developing the company’s IT strategy instead of wasting time putting out IT support fires. Aim for an 80/20 ratio: 80% of the time for development, 20% for support — though for many, situation is opposite.
✔ Internal and external specialists, by complementing each other, ensure an optimal balance of competencies, IT costs, and IT pace.
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#3 Is external IT support slower?
Faster! To wait for an IT specialist to arrive after call, or to solve the problem immediately? External IT specialists resolve most IT issues here and now.
✔ Using modern automated tools for IT support, IT problems can be identified and resolved much faster, and some of them can be solved before the user even notices or calls IT.
✔ More than 90% of IT failures are solved remotely – usually much faster than it would take an in-house specialist to physically come to the calling business user.
✔ Up to 10% of cases are solved on-site, for example, when IT equipment needs to be replaced or a new workstation needs to be prepared for an employee. But even this can be taken care of remotely: having a reserve of replacement equipment on site, or using modern IT tools to prepare a new computer without touching it. This is particularly relevant for companies with centralised IT, working in different locations internationally.
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#4 Outsourced IT support = is it a risk to corporate data security? Is it safe to trust an external IT provider with access to your sensitive and confidential company data?
Not only safe—it actually is safer! External support will improve your company’s resilience and data protection.
What does an external IT provider need to be like to give you peace of mind about the security of their services?
✔ Apply the highest standards for data protection and service provision: EU GDPR regulation, ISO 27001, ISO 20000 and others.
✔ Continuous automated backups of data (not just servers and databases), stored encrypted in several different trusted European data centres to ensure maximum security.
✔ Continuously test whether backups can be properly restored, within timeframe and to other backup equipment, in case primary equipment is unavailable (hacked or encrypted).
✔ Take daily care to prevent security threats to prevent fraudsters and hackers: constantly scan your IT infrastructure for vulnerabilities, keep track of the logs of your IT systems to assess whether there are any traces of malicious intent, keep up-to-date the security of your employees’ computers, servers, databases and the applications they use.
✔ Use cutting-edge automated data security tools and IT solutions.