For many small businesses, technology reaches a point where simply dealing with it as and when something goes wrong is no longer practical. Websites need maintaining, employees need reliable email and cloud services, networks need managing, and security needs regular attention. This raises an important question: should these responsibilities be handled internally, or should you outsource some of your IT services for small business to a specialist provider?
For larger organisations, employing dedicated IT staff can make sense because there may be enough ongoing work to justify a full internal department. A smaller company, however, may only need specialist expertise at certain times. Outsourcing allows a business to access services such as web hosting, Microsoft 365, networking, VPN services and business communications without having to employ someone with expertise in every individual technology. It can also give business owners more time to concentrate on customers and day-to-day operations rather than troubleshooting technical problems.
Another advantage is that businesses can outsource only the services they actually need. Outsourced IT does not necessarily mean handing over responsibility for every device and system in your company. You might comfortably manage employee computers internally while using an external provider for your website hosting and domains. Alternatively, you could use Microsoft 365 for business email and collaboration, a VPN service for secure remote connectivity, or a Hosted UniFi Controller to manage your business network. This flexible approach can be particularly useful for small companies whose technology requirements change as they grow.
Using an external provider can also help simplify the number of suppliers a business needs to deal with. It is surprisingly easy for a growing company to accumulate separate providers for domains, website hosting, email, telephone services, networking and cloud software. Where appropriate, bringing several services together with the same technology partner can make support and administration easier. If an email problem involves your domain configuration, for example, having a provider that understands both systems can reduce the amount of time spent trying to determine which supplier is responsible.
Of course, outsourcing does not remove the need for a business to understand its own technology. You should still know which services you use, who has access to them, where important data is stored and what happens if a service becomes unavailable. A good IT services provider should help make technology easier to understand rather than creating unnecessary dependency or complexity. The objective should be a combination of reliable technology, appropriate support and services that fit the scale of your organisation.
At 21st Webb, we provide a range of IT services for small businesses, including domains, web hosting, Microsoft 365, professional email, VoIP telephone services, VPN services, Hosted UniFi networking and bespoke web applications. Businesses can use individual services where they need them or combine several areas of their technology infrastructure with one provider. If managing business technology is starting to take time away from running the business itself, outsourcing the right parts of your IT may be a sensible next step.