Co-Managed / Co-Sourced IT Is A Great Solution for a Growing Business
3 min read
Today’s small business typically starts without a clear picture of how they are going to manage IT. After all, the firm probably started with one to three people, all with computers but no networking, and maybe sharing documents through A) a consumer-grade document sync app (bad idea), B) Microsoft 365 (good idea to a point), or C) thumb drives (very bad idea). Security is probably sketchy, at best, and if something goes wrong, well, there’s always your brother-in-law, Malcolm, who at least knows a little more than you do.
As the company grows, you are faced with the reality that you need access to more IT knowledge than Malcolm, good soul that he is, possesses. You have two choices: 1) hire an IT guy, or 2) retain the services of a managed IT company like Novatech. If you compare the costs of the two options, you are likely to find that they are the same. The advantage of your own in-house IT person is that he is always available…except when he isn’t. Like when he is on vacation, or over the weekend, or after business hours. And then you soon find out that in today’s IT world, no one person has all the knowledge and training you are going to need, which the managed IT service can provide.
Either way you go at the start, as your company grows, you are going to face the next decision: expand your one-person IT department to two or three or four people, or now that your company is larger, drop your managed IT support provider in favor of building your own in-house team. Ah, but there is a much better solution!
Co-Managed / Co-Sourced IT
Under the co-managed and co-sourced IT scenario, you have your own in-house team, along with the services of the managed IT support provider. You and your provider can determine which services are best performed in-house and which are best handled by your provider. For example, in the treacherous IT world of today (and there are many, many things that can go wrong), you should consider using the 24/7 X 365 services they provide. The right provider will spot small issues and fix them before they become major problems. As your company grows, you also might want to use the provider’s technical help desk, and other services they provide.
One of the major advantages of using a managed IT service like Novatech, is that it frees your IT person (or people) from mundane, routine, day-to-day tasks and allows them to participate in long-range planning and decisions that help the company grow. You can also call upon the executive team of your IT provider to help in determining and even developing technology that can power your R&D, production, sales and marketing, HR, finance, etc.
By the way, through all of this, you will probably find that the combination of a smaller in-house team and an experienced and qualified managed IT services company will cost you no more, often less, than building up your own team, and will bring to the table more knowledge and expertise than even a small team of three or four can offer.
At Novatech, we have been providing IT support, either full service or co-managed, to small to mid-sized businesses since 1992. Want to know more? Call us today at 770-569-4600.
