Business leaders with an eye on expansion are opting for managed IT support services to cut costs and focus on their core business objectives. When it comes down to protecting the bottom line, outsourcing IT requirements is substantially beneficial to grow companies.
Irrespective of the overall mission, almost every organization finds value in the specialized expertise that comes along with the diversity of managed IT services plans available on the market today. IT infrastructure, cybersecurity, and disaster recovery response are altogether ubiquitously underestimated, especially among businesses in the early stages of rapid growth, a time when in-house IT departments find themselves the most overworked.
So, how do you go about calculating the cost of managed IT support services? The business climate is rapidly changing. Many companies have had to pivot their operations abruptly in response to the ongoing COVID-19 health crisis. Resiliency in the face of change has proven astronomically difficult for many companies. At least a quarter of businesses that were forced to close for various reasons has shuttered permanently since the outbreak began in the final months of 2019.
Factoring the cost of managed IT support services
There are several pricing formulas IT service providers use. Most common among them is the flat-rate all-inclusive model. On average, companies that opt for all-inclusive pay around $150 per month. If the managed IT provider offers customer-facing and integrated business line applications, monthly rates can run considerably higher. As always, with a managed service, you get what you pay for. The higher the cost, the more support you can expect.
Estimating the value of outsourced IT Support
Robert Half Technology reports on their website that the salary range for an on-premises Network Administrator in the Chicago area falls roughly between $92,000 and $160,000. And remember, these figures don’t account for the additional costs associated with benefits, training, bonuses, travel and relocation expenses, and more.
With those expenditures averaging about 30 percent above the offered base salary, you can expect to pay in excess of $200,000 a year to fill a full-time in-house Network Admin position. Presuming your Network Admin rests somewhere in the middle of the salary range, the estimated cost is around $14,000 per month. In comparison, a 40 person organization with no onsite servers costs approximately $50,000 a year.
The upside to full-time IT staff is that you’ll always have someone onsite for support during business hours, and you’ll have complete control over delegating the various responsibilities within your in-house IT department. Your Network Admin has a comprehensive understanding of your corporate culture and is immediately available to physically repair any hardware or other critical IT infrastructure.
Facilitating an on-premises IT department is optimal for small business owners who are reticent to work with third parties and don’t want to risk any disruptions or downtime resulting from making the transition to a managed IT support services model. Most reputable IT service providers, however, are fully prepared to move your company onto their platform with little disruption.
For many small and medium-sized businesses, the cost of hiring a well-qualified full-time Network Admin at nearly $200,000 a year is simply cost-prohibitive. Moreover, sourcing a single candidate who is adept at monitoring and facilitating all of your IT requirements is next to impossible. While these prospects do exist, their salaries are simply unaffordable.
In general, when you go with an in-house Network Admin, you often sacrifice one area of expertise for another. One prospect might be strong, possessing good management skills, but still lacks the specialized knowledge required for more hands-on support. An employee such as this may even struggle with setting up an individual workstation. Furthermore, your Network Admin is bound to go on vacation and can’t be on call 24/7 for after-hours support. Employee turnover is high in the IT industry, and there’s a strong chance you may have to replace a candidate you just hired and trained.
Flexible outsourced IT
We’ve already mentioned that just one in-house employee can cost as much as $200,000 annually, while the monthly per-user average of a managed IT service is around $150 each month. That aside, the flexibility that goes along with a dependable managed IT service plan allows you to realize even more cost savings.
Outsourced IT operates on the basis of two distinct models:
- Fully Outsourced IT – All IT employees are off-site. The managed service assumes complete responsibility for troubleshooting, network monitoring, software updates, and much more.
- Co-Managed IT – The managed service partners with an existing IT department for additional specialized support.
Either model can help your company increase efficiency while lowering IT-related costs considerably.
Outsourced IT with PCH Technologies
Is your company experiencing a rapid growth stage? Is your in-house IT overwhelmed? PCH Technologies can help. Dial 844-754-7500 to learn more about managed IT services plans today.