How to Know When It’s Time to Outsource Your IT Projects

The role of IT in an organization is more critical than ever before. As an organization’s technical footprint grows, so does its threat landscape, and maintenance obligations. Burdened with standard management, firms of all sizes are increasingly moving to outsource their IT projects to meet demand, need, and deadlines.

Regardless of what prompts them to, there is no doubt that outsourcing IT tasks does result in faster implementation and integration of technologies. From reducing your business overhead costs to meeting your company’s pressing requirements, outsourcing can be the right-size solution your IT department needs.

It can be tricky to figure when the right time to outsource is, the obvious preference is to do things in-house. However, delaying the search for the right IT partner can set you back on both time and money. If you are grappling with uncertainty too, here is some helpful information for you.

The Right Time to Consider Outsourcing
When Other Business Operations are suffering

The demands on an in-house IT department, without ongoing projects, can be exceedingly high – especially in environments that have to be maintained, secured, and supported with remote and disparate users.

When your team has to handle multiple projects, daily maintenance and support can sometimes take a back seat – or the inverse will occur, where daily demands will force a project to stall out. The optimal method of avoiding debilitating strain on your internal resources is by bringing on temporary resources to help you meet your operational deadlines.

IT infrastructure is not a department that exists in a silo, what your team manages affects every department in the firm. It is critical that you don’t burn out, that you pull on the right resources, and that continue to maintain your standard operations without missing a beat.

Capital Shortage

According to LinkedIn, the average starting salary of a CTO is around $163,255. For a CISO, it is even higher at $225,205.

With such staggering figures, most small to medium-sized businesses cannot afford to have an in-house CTO or CISO. The most common approach now is to outsource to an IT consultancy firm for pro-rata services. Commonly referred to as a ‘vCIO’ or Virtual Chief Information Officer, this approach allows you to not only have access to the expertise that you need – but also to the other technical resources from the consulting firm that they work with. Another benefit? As a vCIO that operates on a consulting basis, they very likely work with many firms similar to yours – which means that are much more familiar with industry trends, pitfalls, and best practices.

Lacking Talent

The field of information technology is a rapidly changing and dynamic field. Many projects that firms are taking on require a specialized skillset to get off the ground. However, it may not make sense for your firm to hire a full-time integration specialist for the specific software that you are implementing, or it might not make sense to bring on a full-time technical operations auditor or IT project manager. Even CISO’s and CTO’s lend a very specific set of skills that many firms can not afford to keep on staff.

Some firms will look to supplement their teams with off-the-cuff freelance hires. However, finding freelance talent is not a sustainable practice. Not only is this a costly and risky method, but freelance talent is often hired on a project basis, which means they are only accountable to the limited terms of their engagement and if for whatever reason they elect to exercise the right to exit your arrangement there is often little recourse for the hiring firm. There is also little you can do if your freelance hire becomes ill or unavailable, as you are wholly dependent on them. When working with firms like ours, our team is at your disposal, and because we have a contingency feedback loop you will never be without PM and IT resources that are intimately familiar with your project and requirements.

A Growth Gap

Is there a visible gap between your skills and growth? Seasons of high growth can often leave firms without a solid technical team to help facilitate. Sure you can hire quickly, but making sure you have a team with the technical skills, organizational and reporting abilities, and past performance is a hard task. You can fill the gaps that your organization currently has in the IT department through outsourcing, by bringing on an outsourced team, they already have internal and external processes, controls, and experience to meet your deadlines, support your growth, and help you identify the long term resources that you will need.

Seasonal IT Needs

Businesses that exist in highly regulated industries will often face cyclical or functional compliance reviews and audits. Best practice is to bring in an outside, third-party firm, to help prepare you for the audit to conduct their own technical audit so that you can be sure that you meet the compliance terms of insurance, acquiring, or partnering firms. Penetration testing, wholistic scanning, reporting, documentation review, behavioral analysis, vendor review, and disaster recovery audits are almost always recommended for outsourcing as most firms do not keep the correlated specialized skills in-house.

An Overly Complex IT Project

Does your company have a complex project to tackle? Is your in-house team not trained or qualified enough for it? This happens to even the best of teams. New software demands a level of familiarity in order to implement in your environment, and train your team accordingly. Consider outsourcing to get the level of technical expertise and know-how your particular project demands.

This will also ensure that you remain safe from downtime and speed bumps during the course of the project.

Final Thoughts

Outsourcing IT projects means finding the right professionals to help meet your technical and operational goals. At times, businesses lack the required talent pool and resources to update or implement new technologies in-house. This can lead to negative impacts on the business operations, never mind the detrimental burn out of your in-house team. By outsourcing with the right firm, you can enjoy the dynamic benefits of competent, qualified and trained IT professionals at your service. They not only reduce your overhead costs but also bring their expertise to the table so that you can get where you want to go.