Inside Small Business | Small Business & Home Business Marketing

Outsourcing your IT support

David Grenda, founder,
Grenda Computer Consulting
Part 3 in a series or articles on IT and Small Business.

Outsourcing your company’s IT support is becoming a more popular option with each passing year. The reasons for this are many. Hiring IT staff can be an expensive proposition. Turn over in the IT industry is very high as workers who have well developed skills are in demand and often leave one job for a better one. IT professionals take time to train and become familiar with the detailed knowledge that each computer environment requires. When they leave, it often causes a traumatic gap for the company. My next installment will discuss how to properly handle an IT staff in house, but for now let’s discuss getting outside help.

There are many variations of what would be considered “outsourcing IT”. If you are small and can handle many of the most basic tasks yourself, then an on demand “Geek” service may do the trick. The upside is help only when you need it. The downside is they are a frontline sales service for the backing company and will treat you that way. Read the internet commentaries on which services are good and bad.

The next level is to associate with an IT support firm. You want to use one that is established and can provide references of customers that are close to your profile of company. Make sure they will know you at a level that will allow you to pick up the phone and feel “known” when you call them. Make sure they approach their work from a mainstream standpoint. I’ve said before in other columns that Microsoft rules the world. This is simply a fact and not an endorsement of Microsoft. Don’t fall for an IT firm that wants to take your organization too far out to the fringe of computing. If you do, you will be locked into that firm too deeply to easily extract yourself if the relationship sours.  Try finding an affordable Linux expert, good as Linux may be.

Ask if the firm will provide a variety of payment options (like a flat retainer) and if they will bill you on a regular cycle. I bill my clients on the first of the month for all work done in the previous month. I also install equipment and then bill the client at the first of the next month to make sure they like what I’ve installed. A sign that an IT firm will politely decline to accept a project they can’t handle, or a deadline promise they can’t keep is also a good characteristic. It shows they have enough experience to call a shot that will consider both of your interests.

Make sure the firm documents everything they do, especially passwords and configuration issues. I call this the “hit by a truck” theory. A lot of firms will want you to be tied to them so you can’t leave. I tell my prospective clients that if something happens to me, another mainstream consultant can step in and keep them running. That is perhaps one of my strongest points in winning a new client.

Posted on Saturday, February 7th, 2009 at 2:06 pm and is filed under Computers, Internet. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.