Outsourcing Your IT

1. A permanent "desktop support" member of staff will cost between £13,000 - £20,000 p/a (excluding benefits). A good outsourcing company can supply more, and end up costing less.
   Why? because they've put in place processes and systems focused on offering support services. They have far more resources available so your problems get resolved quicker.
   An outsourcing company will have employed some very high-level engineers, not appropriate for general support, but their knowledge allows for the quick resolution of even the most complex problems. Which, no matter the size of your business, will occur from time to time.
2. At times, an individual within a company takes onboard the IT support role as this is perceived as a cost affective solution. This is not only a poor use of the individuals time but a common myth that costs the company more through downtime and future system instability.
3. Understandably, some companies like having someone on-site. Logixs can supply a permanent engineer with all the resources of Logixs to back them up.
4. A permanent person can only be at one place at a time. Logixs use NETi which allows them to work on either multiple problems, or where problems occur which involve a number of PCs or PCs and servers, Logixs can deal with each aspect simultaneously.
5. A permanent person will get ill and needs holidays. So do our engineers, but we have more that can provide cover.
6. A permanent person has a finite skill-set. Supporting a business requires an in-depth knowledge of various technologies, amongst others, email, networking, firewalling, Operating Systems, and back office systems.....
   Businesses sometimes assume that because network problems occur infrequently, there is no need to employ someone with that skill-set. And someone with that skill-set won't want to perform desktop support. But problems requiring that experience occur all the same.
7. When problems occur outside the skill-set of a permanent support person, they have an interest to learn and expand their knowledge. Unfortunately, this often means that they make the wrong decision when attempting to resolve a problem, causing:- more downtime for the business, the likelihood that a third-party will need to be brought in at additional cost, and a raised probability of data loss.
8. Do you have someone with the appropriate skill-set inhouse to interview this new person? How do you know if he/she is any good? Logixs have developed a sophisticated test which all engineers need to pass to be considered as a Logixs engineer. If Logixs supply an permanent engineer and you're not happy, we'll give you someone else*. *notice required
9. "Why don't I get my own support person and if she/he's stuck, give you a ring?".
   Good question. And sounds like a perfect solution for larger companies. This scenario can work as long as the responsibilities of each party are clearly defined and management has defined appropriate processes. There also needs to be sufficient resource within the company to manage their IT person(s).
   What can often happens is the permanent person tries to fix a problem for which they have little knowledge and creates a more complicated problem, they then pass it to the oursourcing company informing them that nothing has been changed. Inevitably this takes longer to resolve, and the company ends up paying more than they would have if they'd outsourced everything.
   Also, it's important that unless you're employing a senior engineer, most individuals need to be managed. Imagine what some of your employees would do left to their own devices, and just imagine those employees had access to all your company data, unlimited privileges, and unrestricted access to external resources!!
10. If a permanent person makes a mistake, he spends time fixing it - at your cost. If Logixs makes a mistake, we fix it - at our cost (not that it happens often).
11. You don't get a guaranteed service level with your own permanent support person. With an outsourced support contract, you do. And, we provide you with detailed reports to show how well we meet these.
12. If the permanent support person doesn't work out, he/she may be difficult to remove and, if he/she has passwords and other administrative access, it can become a problem if there is any bad-will when they leave.
13. When your own permanent support person is involved in the future IT planning of the business, their opinion is often biased towards their own skill-set, not necessarily the best solution for the business.
14. But, if you still need someone on-site, that can be outsourced too.
    Logixs can provide you with an engineer for 5 days a week or less, your needs may only warrant someone on-site for a couple of days a week. The engineer will have far greater resources at their disposal and, have cover for holidays / sickness. And your business will receive all the other benefits of being a Logixs customer.

So, it comes down to a couple of things:-

• Money.
• Speed of resolution.
• Cover.
• Available resource.
• And, Skillset.

Is there any comparison?