There’s a reason why computer and IT jobs are expected to grow by 13% over the next decade. In the past, IT departments were typically reserved for certain industries.
However, these days it’s hard to find an industry that wouldn’t benefit from some form of IT support. As a result, many companies are turning to outsourced solutions for their IT support.
While this is a valid solution, there are still plenty of mistakes that companies make when it comes to IT support outsourcing.
That’s why we made this guide. In it, we’ll go over ten common mistakes, as well as advice for avoiding them. Let’s get started!
1. Outsourced IT That Has No Experience In Your Industry
When you don’t know much about computers it’s easy to think that a base-level technical skill in IT systems is all you need for your business. However, the reality is that this is rarely true.
Different industries require different IT skills. For example, let’s say someone in the healthcare industry needs outsourced IT support. They would need a team that knows healthcare software, as well as cybersecurity to keep patient information safe.
This is much different than say the accounting software that’s required of people working in the financial sector.
So, before you start looking, make sure you confine your search to outsourced IT that has experience in whatever industry you work in.
2. Not Properly Interviewing Your Outsourced IT Support
All too often, businesses go into their IT support interview with only a few questions prepared. Or, worse, they don’t interview them at all. Instead, you need to create a strategic interviewing process.
This can involve one in-depth interview or several smaller ones with different leaders in the company.
Everyone should be on the same page in terms of what’s being asked. What are some good questions to ask? Here’s a good starting place:
- Where are most of your employees based?
- How many hours do you work online?
- What are your working hours?
- What do you charge as an hourly rate?
- How do you communicate as a company?
- How much experience do you have?
- What would you bring to the role?
You should also ask them specific scenario questions that are related to your company. As long as you perform a comprehensive interview like this, then you’ll be able to root out the less desirable IT companies.
3. Picking the Cheapest IT Solution
More affordable pricing is one of the main reasons why most businesses choose to outsource IT support. However, this shouldn’t be your only consideration when selecting a provider. Why?
Because like most things in life, if you go with the cheapest option you’re going to notice a huge drop in quality. It’s not hard to see why.
Cheap outsourced IT solutions often exploit workers with long hours, too many clients, and a lack of experience. This means that many of the employees don’t have the time or skills to help your businesses properly.
That translates to long wait times, poor communication, and solutions that don’t work. The solution is to spend a few extra bucks on an hourly rate.
Outsourced IT support can still save you a lot of money even if you don’t go with the cheapest choice.
4. Not Making Your Expectations Known
Imagine a situation. You’ve hired an outsourced IT team and it’s the first week of the job. Things are running smoothly on the task you assigned for them. You leave them to it, but don’t hear from them in two weeks.
Then, when you go to check on them you realize they’ve been doing the task wrong the entire time. So, who’s fault is this? Sadly, it’s yours as their employer.
The problem is that outsourced companies and freelancers typically work for multiple companies. And, each one of those businesses has different guidelines, communication rules, and expectations for how work will be performed.
You can’t just expect an IT support team to read your mind to know what you want. You need to make it clear from the get-go. So, during the hiring process make you make these expectations known.
Do it before you even start the onboarding process. That way you’re all on the same page in terms of the work that’s needed and the communication schedule that comes with it.
5. Not Providing Your IT Support With Onboarding
If you’re having trouble finding and keeping good IT support, then the problem might not be outsourcing. Instead, it’s likely your onboarding procedure. So, what is a good onboarding procedure?
First, let’s go over what it’s not. Onboarding isn’t walking the outsourced team through a task, then monitoring while they perform it. Instead, it’s creating a detailed guide for the role and tasks that you expect of outsourced IT support.
It’s also scheduling multiple onboarding sessions with screen sharing to make sure everyone is on the same page in terms of the task at hand.
This can seem tedious to craft. But, you will thank yourself by setting up your IT support for success in whatever task you want them to focus on.
6. Picking IT Support That Isn’t Scalable
Scalability is one of the main benefits of outsourced IT solutions. With an internal team, you would need to search for the perfect candidates. With outsourcing, you can gradually add on services, features, and employees as you grow.
However, this isn’t true if you pick an IT service that’s only made for small to medium businesses. So, if you plan on growing in the coming years, then make sure you pick IT solutions that are easy to scale up.
7. IT Support Not Fixing the Root of the Problem
This isn’t just a problem that outsourced IT support faces. Many internal teams make this same mistake. They go around fixing the problems whenever they arise. Many managers might not see this as a huge deal.
But, the reality is that it takes away valuable time from your teams. When someone is having IT problems it can completely stall whatever project they’re on. And, sadly the issues tend to get exasperated over time.
It’s helpful to think of it as a leaky ship. If there’s a hole leaking water, then someone might try to cover it up. This only causes more holes to spring up. Instead, what’s needed is a complete repair of the whole ship body.
The same goes for IT support. It’s their role to weed out what’s causing the problem. A temporary fix isn’t good enough.
In some cases, a complete overhaul might be necessary. But, this is an important part of fixing the problem.
8. Failing to Listen to IT Support Advice
We just talked about the importance of getting to the root of IT problems. Sadly, sometimes this can involve an expensive overhaul of your current systems.
If your outsourced IT solutions provider advises that this is the best course of action for your business, you should seriously consider it. All too often, managers and owners will make the mistake of shooting the messenger instead of biting the bullet.
Sadly, when this advice is ignored it will only get worse and more expensive as time goes on. So, make sure you take whatever advice your IT team offers you seriously.
9. Not Investing In Cybersecurity
Information technology has created a new landscape for many companies to do business in. That being said, it’s also created new vulnerabilities. In particular, cybercrime is a new threat that many businesses still don’t take seriously.
This is a problem because one crime report found that business email compromise schemes cost businesses roughly $1.8 billion. The good news is that most IT support can help you out in defending your business from this threat.
But, you may need to put additional resources toward cybersecurity software and features. Just know that the alternative — waiting until your target — will be much more costly.
10. Forgetting About Time and Language Barriers
Many IT support outsourcers will use labor from countries like India or China to save money. This is a problem for two main reasons. For one thing, these countries are likely in much different time zones than you.
They might also be a serious language that prevents you from understanding each other. This is a huge problem because IT support requires a lot of communication to be effective.
So, if you’re able to, try to limit your search to outsourced IT support that’s found in the same country and time zone as you.
Appreciate Learning About IT Support Outsourcing Mistakes? Keep Reading
We hope this article helped you learn more about the common IT support outsourcing mistakes that many companies make. If you’re in a rush to find an IT solution, then you’re already setting yourself up for failure.
So, take your time and follow the advice in this article.
That way, you’ll have the best possible chance of finding the right IT solution for your needs. Appreciate this educational content? If you want more like it, then keep exploring our site.
