Risks of not outsourcing your IT Support in London

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The changing IT Support landscape

Keeping IT in-house used to be considered as the most risk-averse option but recently there have been some dramatic changes in how IT is used and its relative importance to the business. There has also occurred a noticeable shift in the dynamics of the IT labour pool. These changes have created some major risks which now have to be considered.

The Risk Factors with not outsourcing your IT Support in London

Risk 1 – Fire-fighting

Most IT managers are very busy carrying out a “fire-fighting” role, fixing symptoms and addressing short-term needs rather than resolving underlying root causes. This leads to a very inefficient use of the resources’ time, poor quality of service delivery to the business, and the creation of our next risk – lack of change management.

Risk 2 – Lack of change management

Effective management of modifications to IT systems through the use of change controls and configuration management is essential to deliver a stable and reliable service. Knowing what has changed, when, and the impact of that change is a powerful tool in understanding the root cause of problems.

Change control also puts in place an audit trail of the modifications to the systems, so that the knowledge of the configuration changes can be shared, removing the dependency on individuals. Where individuals do not have the time to implement these systems and tools, or to use them properly, it limits the benefits mentioned earlier and can lead to poor systems reliability.

Risk 3 – Skills

By relying on a small number of individuals a company is limited to their IT Support knowledge, experience and ideas. To understand how this can affect your organisation, you should consider the following:

  • Are you sure your IT support investments are being maximised?
  • Are the systems up-to-date and efficient?
  • Are they configured consistently, using best practice?
  • Do the systems integrate with, and support, the business processes?
  • Do you think that IT is being managed effectively?

The skills risk is often exacerbated by the fact that an SMB organisation may not be able to attract the most highly skilled Technical Architects with experience of controlled corporate environments. As a result, the effectiveness of your IT support systems can be adversely affected by the skill limitations of the in-house resources.

Risk 4 – HR considerations

There are many costs, both expected and hidden, when directly employing IT support resources which also need to be considered. Sickness, holidays and training are typical expected costs but there are other, less obvious, including management, staff retention and staff replacement.

For IT Support London, please contact us on 020 7307 5008 or email askanexpert@syntax.co.uk