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While every business nowadays needs a stable IT infrastructure, inevitably, not every one of them is at home in the field of information technology. This is no problem; companies with a different focus can always outsource IT if they find they’re struggling with it in-house. But it’s up to them to recognize the problem in the first place. Take a moment for introspection: would your company be better off outsourcing IT? Here are some tell-tale signs.
Now that wifi has become a commodity easily available in most public spaces, the fact that there are offices where you still have to take your device to the IT department to have it registered through obscure paperwork is chilling. If an organization operates with highly confidential information, some safeguards have to be put in place, but IT approval of devices is not one of them.
A similar symptom of overcomplicated wireless regulations is if connecting employees’ own devices to the network is not allowed, or if guests can’t use wifi in the building. These measures seriously hinder work and hurt business interests. It’s a good idea then to outsource IT to experts who can strike the right balance between network security and smooth workflow.
As the latest technology has enabled work to become disconnected with the workplace, and with today’s economy being tough as it is, many employers have found remote work to be more efficient than the conventional cubicle model. This has also become the preferred work mode for professionals trying to balance family and career or tired of wasting hours in traffic. Unfortunately, many organizations have turned remote work into a trust issue and barricaded it with obstacles – special permission, complicated VPN – only the hardiest can overcome. Again, this is a sign of a dated digital culture; one possible solution is to outsource IT.
Agile marketing, a hot topic these days, requires instant reaction and flexible adaptation to a constantly evolving business environment. But it should run deeper than corporate buzzwords. If making even minor changes to the website – an almost daily occurrence for an agile company – requires a business case and folders of paperwork, it’ll be increasingly hard to keep up with the competition. Just another scenario which begs to outsource IT so online content management can be brought up to speed.
“Have you tried restarting your computer?” A situation all too familiar in many organizations: the tech support team is so undermotivated and isolated from the rest of the staff that whenever employees encounter an IT-related problem, they’ll try to fix it themselves rather than put up with generic answers and fake solutions from tech support. In these same organizations, tech projects typically reference “stakeholders” but actual people are rarely spoken to – unintelligible jargon and documentation take over communication. A good reason to outsource IT to experts who can handle not only machines but people.
As we discussed in an earlier post, the way tech projects are managed says a lot about a company’s digital culture. If new systems are conceived with features and options, not end users in mind; if they’re rolled out “big bang” style, with minimal testing or backup resources, that undercuts employee morale and profits as well. If your company is also struggling with the “new system blues”, outsource IT or choose custom software development for better results.
And the list of digital deficiencies goes on… Got any more to add?