Hiring for IT vs an MSP - how to decide what's best for your business?

So you've reached your limit on time or knowledge to handle your business IT Needs – now what?  Deciding between part-time or full-time internal IT support, contractors, or bringing on a managed IT Service provider isn't a complex choice. However, with so many options, it helps to know what aspects of your situation and business to consider when making decisions.  Organizations grapple with the cost, risk, and logistics of internal vs. external IT help, and there are clear pros and cons to each. 

Here are some tips on choosing the right kind of help for your business: 

1. Cost of Hiring vs. Outsourcing

Cost is often the heaviest factor in deciding what style of IT Support to get. Most companies need an IT Generalist:  a technical "jack of all trades" capable of handling customer service, keyboard issues, server replacements, and everything in between.  An IT Generalist full-time hire will earn $52,000 - $65,000 annually.  Of course, you'll need to account for at least 20% extra for HR costs, software, hardware, and office space. 

For companies with less than 25 employees, you can expect to pay between $1,200 and $3.500 per month, depending on the complexity of your IT Environment for standard managed services.  Companies with 25 – 50 employees might pay as much as $6,000 per month, and costs may rise with the number of employees and devices in place. 

2. Scalability

Consider business growth in the next 2-4 years. If the reason you're considering IT Help is a change in your own role or the person who's been managing IT and help is needed for routine IT tasks, then a part-time or full-time employee may fill that time gap nicely. Internal hiring may be best for businesses that have experienced slow and steady growth with predictable needs and businesses that go through more incremental change.

If, instead, your business has seen fast growth and additional resources are needed to support changing business systems or a spike in new employees, then an MSP may be better suited for scalability and responsiveness. MSPs can provide reliable, skilled support for fast-changing business environments and highly agile organizations.  Some MSP Support can be scaled up and down as business needs change.

3.  Specialization

Companies with home-grown custom software solutions or specialized technology needed to run operations outside of standard office and IT equipment may find hiring internally more efficient and cost-effective than finding an MSP who'll charge extra for supporting "custom" solutions or "specialized" hardware. Finding an MSP willing to support custom-built solutions can be challenging, as it falls outside standard IT Support.  MSPs build teams of highly skilled individuals across a range of specialties to support various industries with vastly different technical needs.  MSPs may offer a better ROI if you have standard "out of the box" technology solutions.

Internal hires are better suited for becoming masters of custom, specialized applications and processes that require extra attention to detail and deep knowledge of the system's code or inner processes. Internal hires are the best RIO when your operations rely on 24/7 uptime of finicky applications where immediate response is needed from someone with deep troubleshooting knowledge.

4. Responsiveness and Availability 

I'll also add "familiarity" here, as it often comes up when discussing responsiveness in terms of customer service.  Internal hires typically have better response times when handling incidents overall.  Whereas MSPs generally require email and phone troubleshooting before coming on-site, an internal technician down the hall can be hands-on, often fixing issues much faster than phone calls to a helpdesk with time-consuming troubleshooting techniques.  Internal hires can often triage technical issues better and fix common issues faster but may lack advanced skills to tackle more extensive or complex issues that MSPs excel at.  Some companies elect for "Co-managed" IT support when on-site support is critical to keep operations running and more advanced systems expertise or cybersecurity services are needed. 

5. Focused Growth and Core Business

Hiring in-house IT can divert management's time and attention from core business initiatives and activities.  Outsourcing IT to an MSP saves the business time and effort in managing internal HR and departmental planning.  Typically, MSPs will develop IT Roadmaps that align with business goals and alleviate internal employees from as many IT Tasks as possible.  MSPs often suit lean or growing organizations through heavy change eras.  As companies mature and stabilize, some opt to switch back to the more responsive, personalized, specialized support that internal IT departments can provide. However, some remain flexible and agile into maturity because they utilize outsourced IT.  Consider agility vs. reliability.