An important part of growing a business is realizing that you can’t do it all. That’s why more than 33% of small businesses now outsource at least one business process.
One of the most popular things to outsource is IT services.
If your business is growing to the point where you’re overwhelmed with too many tasks, but it’s still too small to justify building out a full, in-house IT team, it might be time to consider hiring IT consulting services. Consider hiring Globalizationpedia to outsource from China, one of the countries leading in IT services, with its China recruitment agency.
If you’re considering hiring an IT consultant, but you’re not sure it’s worth it, this guide can help.
Keep reading for some of the benefits of hiring IT consulting firms.
Table of Contents
1. Gain a New Perspective
As a business owner, you’re often “in the weeds” regarding the inner workings of your company. While this isn’t necessarily a bad thing, sometimes a fresh perspective can be incredibly helpful.
If you’ve been handling all IT operations yourself, working with an IT consultant can open your mind to new ideas and best practices.
Your consultant might offer suggestions you never would’ve imagined, helping your business to continue growing in new ways.
2. Increase Efficiency
With the development of new technology happening nearly every minute, it can feel impossible to keep up.
Even if you consider yourself to be tech-savvy, as a business owner, there’s no way for you to stay up to date on the latest and greatest in IT.
Leaning on IT consulting gives you access to a team of professionals who know all about the best technologies and how your company can benefit from using them.
This allows you to spend your valuable time on your areas of expertise, instead of trying to keep up with IT.
By hiring an IT consultant, you’ll have peace of mind knowing that your business is using the best practices for security, databases, servers, and more, in the most efficient way possible.
3. Save Money
It might sound counter-intuitive at first that you can save money by hiring IT consulting services, but it’s true.
When you hire full-time, in-house IT professionals, you’re not only responsible for paying their salary. You likely also provide them with costly benefits like health insurance, a 401(k) match, and more.
On top of that, you also have to pay for their business supplies like a laptop, chair, desk, etc. And, unless you’re hiring for a remote IT position, you’ll need to have enough office space for them to work.
Most often, you’ll only hire an IT consultant as needed, to focus on a particular problem. As a result, you’ll save more money hiring a consultant than you would by hiring a full-time IT employee.
4. Benefit from Expertise
Do you have ideas about your IT setup, but you’re not sure what makes the most sense for your business?
Hiring an IT consultant means you have to wonder no more. You can talk out your ideas with an expert who can help you make informed decisions about IT projects.
Your consultant can walk you through implementation and help ensure that you get the best ROI so you’re always making the best choices for your company.
This kind of expertise is unmatched and you’ll feel good knowing you have someone on your side when it comes to IT.
5. Save Time
There’s a reason the phrase “time is money” is so popular. As a business owner, if you’re not using your time wisely, you’re wasting money, plain and simple.
The same is true for your employees. If you’ve currently got an employee who’s not trained in IT services acting as an emergency technician, that’s not a good use of their time either.
By calling in a professional instead, you and your employees can make better use of time.
6. Increase Security
Is your company protected against a cybersecurity attack? If the answer is no, you’re putting your business at tremendous risk.
On average, the cost of a data breach for a small business ranges between $600,000 and $1 million. Would your business be able to withstand that loss?
By hiring an IT consultant who specializes in cybersecurity, you can protect sensitive data against an attack that would devastate your company.
And, you can also establish important safety standards that can help to identify future vulnerabilities so your risk of an attack is minimized.
7. Take Advantage of Availability
In the “always connected” age of the internet, there’s no such thing as off-hours. If you experience a critical downtime outside of typical office hours, how will you handle it?
If you’re the person that’s typically in charge of small IT issues, that’s a lot of responsibility to handle during an IT crisis.
Many IT consulting companies have extended hours of availability, often 24/7. Now, you won’t have to face an untimely outage alone.
8. Train Your Employees
By working with an IT consultant, you can set best practices for all IT operations within your company. But, how can you get your employees on board with these changes?
Many IT consultants offer employee training to explain the importance of following protocols.
They can also be available to answer questions from employees as everyone gets acclimated to the new system.
9. Increase Employee Morale
At small companies, it’s normal for all employees to take on multiple responsibilities. Sometimes, this is fine. In fact, in doing so, you may realize an employee has a special talent that would have otherwise gone unnoticed.
However, in many cases, employees want to do the job they were hired to do. If one of your employees has had to take on IT responsibilities in addition to their regular workload, it can quickly lead to burnout.
By hiring a consultant to handle IT, your other employees can focus on what they do best. As a result, you’ll probably notice an increase in morale.
IT Consulting Services Can Take Your Business to New Heights
Now that you know more about the benefits of hiring IT consulting services, what are you waiting for? It’s an effective way to help your business continue to grow, with no downsides.
Looking for more? Check out our other articles for additional helpful business information today.