5 Signs Your Dallas-Fort Worth Enterprise Could Use the Support of Co-Managed IT Services
If you want to take advantage of managed IT services without completely outsourcing your IT department, then you can go for the in-between option, known as co-managed IT services. In contrast to the regular managed IT services where you hand over your IT needs and services in entirety to a 3rd party company, in co-managed IT services you outsource only a portion of your technology needs to the company. This is an especially useful option for larger Dallas-Fort Worth organizations, that want to maintain an in-house IT department and also get the external help needed in select IT areas. It can be a great way to ease off the burden on the company’s IT department, bringing on board a 3rd party managed services provider who is willing to take care of some, not all, of your IT services.
So, is your IT department doing fine all on its own or is it crying out for help? There are certain telltale signs that should tell you if your IT department could use some extra help in the form of co-managed IT services:
1. Your IT People are Overly Occupied with the Routine Tasks
Take a look at the tasks on which your in-house IT employees spend most of their time. If most of their time goes into providing technical support, upgrading software and hardware resources, installing and maintaining systems, and other similar routine IT tasks, then they naturally would have little to no time to focus on the overarching IT goals of your company.
The job of your IT department is not only to keep your organization functioning everyday, but also to research, brainstorm, discuss, analyze, and implement new IT strategies and processes for organizational growth. But if the department is too busy with the present to think about the future, then you wouldn’t be making any real progress. Outsourcing the daily IT tasks such as technical support and hardware and software installation, maintenance, and upgrades to a co-managed services provider can be advantageous in such a case.
2. Your IT People Don’t Have the Know-How to Do More Than the Routine Tasks
Unlike the previous case, this is a situation where your in-house IT employees are skilled and trained in specific IT areas only. For example, they may be great when it comes to resolving the technical issues or ensuring that your technology infrastructure like network and servers are maintained properly. But when it comes to areas that require more technology proficiency, like strategy and initiative planning and policy implementation, they simply may not have the skills and experience to deliver what the organization needs.
While you could hire more experienced IT professionals for accomplishing these bigger tasks, there will be a hefty cost associated with hiring these senior level professionals full-time. A more cost-effective way to get the enhanced expertise that you are looking for would be to go for co-managed IT services. You can let your in-house IT professionals manage the day-to-day IT operations, and let your co-managed services provider take care of the bigger IT goals.
3. Your IT Department is Getting More and More Expensive to Manage
As your organization grows, the size of your IT department and infrastructure would grow too. You would want to buy more technology resources and hire more IT professionals to make sure that you are ready for the business growth on the technology front. But more growth on the IT front would also mean more IT expenses. From the cost of hiring more expert IT professionals to the cost of managing your more complex IT operations, there will be many more expenses for you to worry about as you grow. So, if your IT expenses have been getting out of hand lately, then that’s a good sign that you need co-managed IT services to cut back on the costs. After all, you don’t want an increasingly expensive IT department to consume a large chunk of the revenue that you’re generating.
4. Your IT Department Has to Deal With Frequent Surges in IT Needs
For a thriving organization, experiencing phases of sudden fast growth is not uncommon. During these phases, the pressure to deliver more would naturally increase on all departments of the organization, especially on your IT department. You would need more IT resources to handle the increasing IT needs. If your organization frequently undergoes such situations, where the temporary expansion of your IT department becomes necessary, then that’s a pretty good indication that you need a co-managed IT services provider to come to your rescue.
Since you would need the additional IT resources only during the phase of growth, it wouldn’t make sense for you to hire more in-house employees, as once the phase is over they would no longer be needed. A much better option would be to hire co-managed services provider during the growth phase. You can engage the provider for as long as the phase lasts and extend your IT department temporarily for the duration. When things slow down a bit and your IT needs go back to normal, you can just stop the co-managed IT services and scale down your IT department too back to normal.
5. You Keep Working on Special IT Projects On the Side (Or Want to Start Doing So)
If you like to undertake special IT projects from time to time, or want to initiate the practice of doing so, then opting for co-managed IT services to help you out with these projects may help. Say, you want to implement a new software technology across your organization. Now, an organization-wide implementation of the technology may take a couple of months. You will need resources who can devote all their time and attention to this project, so that the project doesn’t keep dragging on. Hiring co-managed services to work exclusively on your special projects like these will ensure that projects are completed on time under the supervision of expert technology specialists.
