October 21, 2019
A chief concern for every business is the efficiency in which its employees are completing their day-to-day tasks. No matter how large or small your company is, it will never be able to operate at a pace exceeding the productivity level of the employees that form its backbone. While the advancement of IT systems and software has made it possible for employees to achieve more each day, it also has the potential to grind productivity to a halt when there are network issues.
If your business is like most, it no doubt has an IT department on-site to help deal with these issues, while also monitoring network systems. Believe it or not, your IT department’s efficiency can drastically impact the productivity of your employees. It is becoming increasingly popular among businesses of all sizes to outsource IT help desk services.
The efficiency of working with a managed service provider brings a number of benefits to those companies that decide to outsource these services.
Outsourcing It Help Desk Services
Computers, software and other hardware pieces are all vital to the day-to-day operations in your office. Unfortunately, IT staff is being stretched to the breaking point keeping up with the demands of network and hardware maintenance while also helping out employees in times of need.
Outsourcing your IT help desk services to a third party provider can help by pushing the reset button on your IT department’s daily operations. Everything from desktop to printer support to network maintenance assistance can be outsourced, allowing your IT department to focus on important applications for your business.
What Can an Outsourced It Firm Offer Your Business?
Take a moment to think about all the little things that your employees need to remain productive on a daily basis. Each employee within your company has a workstation with a PC (or laptop), an operating system, application software, access to a printer, an email account and a network connection. Traditionally it has been the IT department’s job to maintain these services for your employees.
Now, imagine your IT department trying to keep up with problems in any one of these areas for each employee in the company. Often times there simply are not enough hours in the day to tackle these problems quickly and efficiently.
An outsourced IT firm can offer your employees help desk assistance remotely; this will relieve some of the burden on your IT department. Outsourced IT firms can help tackle operating system errors at workstations, password resets, setup email accounts for new hires and even troubleshoot email, network connectivity and printer access issues. Rather than waiting on someone to come to their individual workstation, employees get this help more quickly with a simple phone call.
Here are a few reasons many businesses have cited for choosing outsourced IT help desk services:
1. Lower Costs
Whether businesses are keen to admit it or not, money is often the most important driving factor in decision-making processes. By making the switch to outsource IT help desk services, your company can save money in the form of increased productivity of your employees, and most importantly your IT staff. Quality outsourced IT services provide a help desk that is available to all of your employees for issue resolution as well as answering user questions. This keeps all of your employees productive because help is readily available and IT personnel won’t have to take time away from their priorities.
2. Rapid Response Times
With an outsourced IT help desk, your employees will not only enjoy a swifter response when issues arise, but your on-site IT department will also become more flexible as well. When problems arise, your employees will be able to pick up the phone and immediately get in touch with a customer service professional (staffed by your managed service provider). This eliminates wait times in the office, specifically when the IT department becomes swamped with requests or they have more urgent matters to focus on.
As for your on-site IT department, it can now more rapidly respond to on-site issues that require its attention. No longer bogged down with simple user issues, your IT professionals can respond faster to network connectivity problems and stay ahead of hardware and software updates.
3. Refocus on the Core Mission
It is not uncommon for entire departments or companies to lose focus of the business because of troublesome technology issues. When your IT department is heavily focused on solving help desk problems, it loses focus of its core mission within the company. Once you outsource IT help desk services, you will find that your IT department is now able to refocus on the business priorities.
4. Industry Expertise for all Your Employees
Finally, it can be difficult to put together an IT department with a staff that represents a broad spectrum of industry expertise, especially if you have minimal IT staffing resources. Although most IT specialists possess general knowledge of various IT services, they are likely challenged to swiftly address all technology requests that come their way.
Outsourced IT help desk service providers hire large, diverse staffs that represent a variety of areas of expertise in IT. This means that without expanding your in-house IT department, you get access to some of the brightest minds in the industry, capable of tackling your employees’ issues in a timely manner.
Impact on Your It Department
The impact of outsourcing your help desk services for your employees to a third party provider will be felt immediately within the IT department. Rather than running around the building all day putting out small IT fires, your IT staff can refocus its efforts on the long-term stability of on-site IT infrastructure.
By outsourcing, your employees will have flexible and reliable access to IT support in their moment of need. At the same time, your IT department can maintain its focus on core responsibilities including network infrastructure installation, maintenance and improvements for your customers.
Impact on Your Company as a Whole
With your IT help desk services now outsourced and your IT department happily refocused on its core responsibilities, you might even find the productivity level of other departments on the rise as well.
The employees in your customer service department can’t help your customers when staring at a frozen computer screen. Fortunately, with your help desk services outsourced to an IT firm, your customer service employee can make a quick call and get immediate help addressing the issue with their hardware. At the same time, your IT department employee has remained on task maintaining the network, monitoring security or preparing vital software updates. And this is just one of many examples that could occur any day of the week.
Outsourcing your IT help desk services is a win-win for your business and its employees, both in and out of the IT department. Request a free consultation with a Managed IT specialist to discuss this opportunity for your business in further detail.
The Most Important Takeaway…
If there is one thing to remember about outsourced IT help desk services, it is the improvement in productivity that will be realized. Your office workers won’t have to wait on in-house staff to solve problems, and the IT employees won’t be bogged down with everyday user issues. Your employees will enjoy greater uptime and your IT department can focus on long-term priorities.
Request a consultation with a Managed IT specialist to discuss how your business can benefit from outsourced IT help desk services:
