IT outsourcing is nothing new.
It’s certainly been around since the eighties, and arguably even earlier. Over the decades, the scope and flexibility of IT outsourcing has changed, mirroring that of technology itself. Today, IT outsourcing should be part of the mix for every organisation, including those in the IT business themselves!
What is outsourcing?
IT outsourcing is simply the act of using a third party to run some, or all, of your IT infrastructure. It can cover all aspects, including support, operations, hardware and software provision, equipment maintenance, provision of spares, security, and disaster recovery.
Outsourcing allows a business to decide what they want to do in-house, and what can best be done externally. Outsourcing of support gives an organisation access to a larger team of resources, skills, and knowledge, which can be drawn upon when required. Outsourcing of hardware is a similar concept, where a business can simply decide what they want, where and when they want it, and let someone else worry about things like procurement, installation, maintenance, support, and disposal.
Why would a channel business outsource IT hardware?
It intuitively makes sense for a non-tech business to outsource parts of their IT infrastructure and support. It’s not their core business, developing and maintaining in-house skills would be expensive and time consuming. Conversely, tech-centric businesses can sometimes by default, try and do everything IT related in-house. However, that may not be the most logical, or indeed profitable approach.
Valuable and skilled resources are best deployed looking outwards, supporting your customers and their needs, rather than focusing on internal tasks. It’s far more profitable to place resources where they can earn revenue and margin, rather than simply providing internal IT support and procurement. Let’s take a more detailed look at a few of the benefits of outsourcing hardware.
Six key benefits to outsourcing your hardware
1. Focus on supporting your customers
As mentioned, when someone else is looking after your IT hardware needs, you don’t need to focus valuable resources on it. Your skilled people can spend their time supporting and growing your customer base, increasing revenue, and earning margin from higher value opportunities.
2. Get the technology you need, when you need it
Outsourcing your IT hardware requirements means you can get the technology you need, where and when you need it. Let someone else worry about providing the latest hardware, configured to your specific requirements, alongside real-time stock reporting and alerts. Other device services include swap, data wiping, reverse services, and desk-to-desk support. IT hardware outsourcing can provide device repurposing, retirement, and recycling, in a data-secure environment.
3. Get the skills you need, when you need them
One of the problems with providing in-house support is ensuring you have the right depth of skills and breadth of resources, available when and where you need it. Too few skills and you can’t provide the right level or service at peak times, too much resource and it can become very expensive. Outsourcing gives you access to a much wider range of skills and knowledge, and far higher levels of resource. You get the right skills, when and where you need them, and no-one is left twiddling their thumbs when it’s quiet!
4. Lowering your costs improves your profitability
It goes without saying that lowering your costs will improve your profitability. Not having the expense of recruiting, training, and managing an in-house IT hardware team, can lower costs significantly. You don’t have to consider factors such as employee salary increases, benefits, or unpredictable hardware replacement costs. Lower and more predictable costs mean higher profitability for your business.
5. Security and compliance
Cyber security is an ever-increasing issue for all businesses. A good outsourcer can not only supply you with the right hardware to minimise cyber-risk, but ensure your systems are kept up to date. They can also help ensure you keep on top of ever-changing industry regulations and privacy laws, avoiding the risks of legal and financial penalties.
6. Taking your own medicine
One final thought, if you offer outsourcing services to your customers, what better reference than your own use of outsourcing? The same benefits apply, and Smart CT can even offer a hardware outsourcing service to your customers, through your channel business. An additional revenue and margin opportunity for you, the benefits of outsourcing for your customers!
Smart CT and outsourcing
We are an innovative IT services organisation, which is 100% dedicated to the channel. We can offer you and your customers a range of outsourcing services, from hardware and devices, support and maintenance, inventory-as-a-service and more. To find out what we can do, and how we can work with you, please get in touch. We are constantly improving and developing our services, to ensure they continue to evolve and offer the very best to our customers.
