The Pros and Cons of Outsourced IT Services ? Simple Business ...

There are many reasons that a business or corporation might choose to outsource its information technology (IT) services. Usually, it?s to control costs as IT expertise and needs may be out of reach of the company?s budget or capabilities. Some companies retain in-house IT personnel for core services and outsource specific parts of their IT infrastructure while others outsource it all.

The decision to outsource depends on the needs of the business. What doesn?t change, no matter the reason for and amount of outsourcing, are the general pros and cons of outsourced IT services. Like any other decision, it has good and bad points and these should be weighed carefully before the choice is made.

=== The Pros

The advantages to outsourcing are many. Whether you choose a local provider or someone half a world away, you will see some benefits:

Economies of Scale ? in today?s sophisticated world of communications and IT infrastructure choices, companies and businesses often find themselves in competitive need for specific services that are very expensive to implement in-house. Many of today?s services, even by very large corporations that could afford to build their own, are outsourced through Cloud Computing, database storage systems, software as a service (SaaS), etc. By utilizing the resources of providers who have built the expensive infrastructure and employed the experts required to maintain it, the corporation can save itself the costs and requirements of building their own. Whether the need is great or small, economies of scale can often lower the price point considerably.

Personnel Specialization Costs ? many of the IT services businesses require today must have specially-trained or hard-to-find personnel to handle them. These experts can be expensive and if the justification for their annual salary is not there, management is likely to find itself having to outsource.

Flexibility and Expansion ? back to the economies of scale above, the ability to outsource to experts with the infrastructure and trained personnel to accomplish the IT service needed, the growth and expansion (or changes) of the company can be dealt with more easily with quality outsourcing.

=== The Cons

Of course, there are down sides to everything. Outsourcing IT is no different. Here are some problems that outsourcing can have:

Loss of Control ? losing direct control may be a security or liability issue for the business. For some businesses, offshore outsourcing may pose bigger problems than outsourcing locally. Many firms actually outsource to nearby providers (near-sourcing) so as to allow easy and frequent face-to-face or voice-to-voice communications without time zone barriers or cultural misunderstandings.

Security Issues ? mentioned above, these are nearly always the top reason companies will not outsource all or some part of their IT. Some firms are legally bound not to outsource because of government security requirements while others may only be able to outsource to specifically-licensed providers, making them cost-prohibitive. The security and legal ramifications of outsourcing can be a complex issue to deal with.

PR ? companies who choose to outsource may find themselves in a tangle of public relations problems when former employees or current workers threatened by the outsourcing alert the press or create PR problems. Even firms who never lay off a single employee when outsourcing, can find local unions or activists causing them problems because of the choice to outsource.

Whatever your situation, making the decision to outsource or not to do so is likely to have ramifications for your business for years to come. Weigh the choice carefully.

Maximum IT is a Burlington Ontario based high-tech consulting firm specializing in IT Training and Solutions. Services include Microsoft Office certification, network support and computer hardware repair. For complete details visit http://www.MaximumIT.ca

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Source: http://www.wkccradio.com/science-technology/the-pros-and-cons-of-outsourced-it-services

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