Support Your Internal IT With Co-Managed IT

Does Your Internal IT Department in Dallas Need Some Back-up?

Comprehensive IT support is hardly a one-man job. Today’s businesses rely heavily on the smooth running of their IT environments. Whether it’s communicating with clients or business partners or business partners, a healthy network is crucial for practically all aspects of your operations.

What’s more, as your organization grows, your IT demands are bound to rise as well. Therefore, having access to competent IT services plays a significant role in ensuring you remain progressive and ahead of the competition.

At Integrated365, we’ve been providing reliable IT solutions to businesses throughout Dallas for quite a few years now. In that time, we’ve come across a huge misconception among many business decision-makers. Many of them wrongly assume that there are only two viable options for IT management: in-house IT and outsourced IT services.

While those are the two most common scenarios, the past few years have seen the emergence of a new trend in IT management. More and more businesses are now moving towards co-managed IT services. This model offers the best of both worlds for both large and small businesses.

We know that having an internal IT department has its benefits, but it also has plenty of drawbacks.

You May Feel the Need to Supplement Your it Department for Various Reasons, such as:

• Your in-house team has to focus on high-level IT plans and needs support with daily routine tasks like troubleshooting, software updates, data back-ups, etc.
• Your IT department lacks the expertise to handle your overall IT strategy.
• Your business is expanding rapidly.
• You need reliable IT solutions for a remote branch of your organization.

That said, deciding on outsourcing your IT solutions to a Managed IT Services Provider can seem like a drastic change.

To help you leverage this handy third option, our team at Integrated365 came up with this blog article. We feel morally obligated to educate businesses, so they can make well-informed decisions that help them meet their objectives.

Find out how you too, can have the best of both worlds.

What Are the Pros and Cons of an In-House IT Department?

Pros: You may prefer sticking with your IT department for various reasons such as:

• Control: Hiring full-time in-house staff that is dedicated to providing IT solutions gives you greater control over certain aspects, such as:
  • Quality of work
  • Time
  • Task prioritization

This could result in timely technology solutions that are also in line with your preferred procedures.

• Convenience: It’s easy to call in your IT department as soon as an IT issue comes up.
• Cost Savings: Generally, hiring and training an internal IT department is always going to be more expensive than outsourcing to a Managed IT Services Provider (MSP). However, in some cases, in-house IT solutions could be cheaper. Take an example of a situation whereby an unforeseen IT setback has cropped up. An internal IT team would take care of it without disrupting the monthly budget.

However, an IT Company usually charges additional fees for any extra work (on top of the flat-rate monthly payment).

Cons: Despite having its benefits, internal IT support does have some downsides. Here are the two main ones:

• Limited Expertise: Despite the world of IT being incredibly diverse, most in-house IT departments are made up of a few employees. What’s more, they might lack essential qualifications, as is often the case with entry-level employees. On the other hand, our clients enjoy IT support from adequately-staffed teams of qualified IT professionals. No, the IT problem is too complicated for our guys.
• Limited Support: Typically, in-house IT staff only work within the normal business hours. As a result, there’s a significant period during which your network is vulnerable to several threats, including attacks by cybercriminals. Alternatively, outsourcing to an IT company would allow continuous monitoring, management, and maintenance of your IT infrastructure. Are you worried about weekends? What about the holidays? We’ve got you covered.
• Higher Costs: Recruiting a qualified IT professional with experience in your industry doesn’t come cheap. In fact, the running costs involved in maintaining an in-house IT department could be twice what it would cost to outsource to an MSP.

Do You Have to Choose Between Internal and Outsourced IT Services?

Not at all. We understand that you may wish to improve the level of IT support your business receives while still retaining the advantages of an in-house IT department.

How? Through co-managed IT services.

So, what are co-managed IT services? To put it briefly, you will be working closely with an MSP to enhance the capabilities and availability of your internal IT team. This will enable you to choose how functions are shared between your IT team and your MSP.

What Are the Benefits of Co-Managed IT Services?

Some of the main advantages of co-management are:

• Higher Productivity: This model allows round-the-clock IT support, which in turn lowers downtime and increases productivity.
• Reduced Spending: Co-managed IT support is generally charged at a fixed monthly rate making it more convenient to budget for your IT expenses. Furthermore, this model reduces overall IT costs and overhead.
• Increased Security: Outsourcing some of your IT services to a trusted MSP will give you access to the latest tech as well as the best IT practices. By sharing some of your cybersecurity roles with an experienced MSP, your systems are less open to cyber threats.

Ready to Leverage Co-Managed IT Services for Your Dallas Business?

Our team at Integrated365 is eager to help your business enjoy the benefits of co-managed IT services. We are a trusted IT company that is interested in offering you technology solutions that are to satisfy your unique needs.

Let us give you a helping hand.

Click here to get in touch with us or call us at (469) 634-7653 and schedule a consultation.