It can seem like a daunting task to determine the right time to outsource your company’s IT. If you’re a startup, you might reason that it’s best to do what you can to manage your own technology until you reach a certain scale and can afford to hire a full-service outsourced provider. Or you may be the leader of a growing company weighing the options of an in-house IT professional against outsourcing. Or you may even have one or two IT professionals, wondering if a managed service provider could address some needs that your current staff isn’t getting to.

So, what’s the right size to be considering outsourcing your IT to a managed service provider?

The answer, perhaps unsurprisingly, is, “It depends.” Generally speaking, most managed service providers target small and midsized businesses (SMBs). But, as evidenced by Gartner’s definition of the term, SMBs include a wide range of organizations, with employee counts up to 999 and annual revenue up to $1 billion.

And while the size of an organization’s budget or its headcount may place some limits on whether hiring a managed service provider is possible or desirable, what matters most in determinations of outsourcing is the company’s goals, and their strategy toward meeting those goals.

But we won’t leave you hanging. Here are some questions to consider, which will help you decide whether outsourcing your IT to the right managed service provider is the right move for you.

What Role Does Technology Play In Your Organization’s Strategy?

In other words, how much do you value technology? If your organization is very small—say, fewer than 10 people—and you don’t see technology as important to your company’s success, then the cost of a full-service outsourced provider might seem steep for your budget.

But in today’s disruptive business climate, most organizations—regardless of their size—recognize that without leveraging technology to gain efficiency and expand their reach, they could be at a competitive disadvantage.

This is where the right managed service provider can make a huge difference in a company’s success. If staffed and organized appropriately, an outsourced provider affords small and midsized companies alike the opportunity to work with a team of technology professionals who address both tactical needs—like support for everyday IT issues and keeping basic hardware functional—and strategic needs—like planning for how the organization can utilize the right technology to achieve its goals and get a leg up on the competition.

How Much Do You Value Security?

As data breaches and social engineering attacks become more commonplace in the news, most business leaders recognize the serious risk that unsecured systems pose to their organizations’ success. And recent studies show that, far from flying under the radar of cyber criminals, small and midsized businesses are actually huge targets for cyber attacks.

Managed service providers, if they have a proven cyber security process, can help all small and midsized businesses establish security strategies and safeguards that mitigate the risks they face—safeguarding the company’s reputation and revenue. Even for medium-sized businesses—say, those in the 100 – 500 employee range—it can be more effective to work with a proven outsourced partner than to hire security-focused IT professionals in house.

If You Have Internal IT Staff, How Are They Utilized?

It’s a common misconception that keeping internal IT staff and outsourcing IT to a managed service provider are mutually exclusive. If your organization is on the larger side of the SMB range and you have internal staff, it’s important to consider how they are used, and what gaps might still exist in your technology strategy as a result.

If your internal staff are primarily focused on user support, who is focused on proactive maintenance and systems optimization? And who is focused on strategy—making sure the organization’s IT matches its current and future needs based on projected growth? Or, if your IT staff are more focused on, say, leveraging advanced software solutions to achieve your company’s goals, do they also have time for user support requests and proactive maintenance?

The right managed service provider will have a full staff of technology professionals that mirrors an enterprise-level IT department, ranging from support technicians to systems administrators, project engineers, and CIOs. This means that they are equipped to work alongside your current IT staff, and to fill in the gaps to make your current staff—and your company as a whole—more successful.

Interested In Talking Through Whether Outsourcing IT Is Right for Your Organization?

Because the decision to outsource depends on so many factors other than size, it can be helpful to meet with managed service providers to hear how they could help your team. Affinity works with organizations of various sizes throughout the SMB spectrum in the Nashville area, and we would love to discuss your IT needs, and what managed services could do for your company. Contact us today to set up a conversation.