A lot of small businesses are using third-party services. Sometimes automated tools replace a lot of administrative tasks, which mean the employees can focus on sales or human-powered creative tasks. SaaS can even replace invoicing management, basic cybersecurity, and financial projections. But for the remaining tasks that need to be handled by people, it’s important to decide if your business benefits more from dedicated employees or a hired service. Here are two logistical reasons to hire out:

There are no legacy problems.

Even though the trend of staying with the same company for one’s whole career is fading away, most employees assume they’re going to be with the company for several years. While that can be a good thing because they’re not just running out the clock or making short-term decisions, it can cause a few problems in the IT department.

If your company is employee-based, people will make custom tweaks and idiosyncratic fixes because they think they’ll be around to explain them or fix what goes wrong. That means you can be left with a jumble of unsolvable problems when the employee leaves or you have to scale the network. But if your company uses a third-party service, everything is transparent and standardized with no hidden surprises if you ever change services or transform your infrastructure.

You can forecast expenses.

Managed IT services are very different from traditional IT support. Instead of paying to bring a technician in and solve immediate problems, a managed service is paid monthly to prevent problems in the first place. Not only does that help reduce downtime costs and cybersecurity risks, it’s a predictable expense. The better you can accurately forecast your annual budget, the more comfortably you can take risks into new markets.

You can take advantage of standardized IT procedures.

Small businesses involve a lot of self-management. If you’re self-employed on a team of one, you have to manage your own time, expenses, and output. With a small group, you can turn to each other for support and time management. But there are some tasks that can’t be left entirely manual, especially as your business grows. Make sure you have a managed IT service that can:

1. Automate malware and cybersecurity software updates.

Every week there’s another patch. Operating systems need to reboot to install updates. Your anti-virus program has a frequent pop-up asking you to update to the latest version. It can seem like a headache or an attempt to upsell you. But when it comes to computer and network security, keeping up with the latest versions of your programs is essential. Give the task to your IT service, which can ensure that all of your company’s devices are updated regularly. Individual employees might just delay updates or have the pop-ups turned off. Automating the system not only guarantees the best adherence to security, it can be scheduled for common downtimes.

2. Manage business technology during employee turnover.

If someone quits the employee or they’re let go, a lot of information can go with them. A lot of assets can, too. Look for a managed service that can remotely track down business technology so you can retrieve it as needed. You can also set up a system to remotely wipe or disconnect technology so you don’t have to worry about data leaks and potentially malicious users after the fact.

3. Solve problems before they’re problems.

Most outages don’t strike without a warning. The warnings are just rarely seen. But a managed IT service usually starts a contract by installing software that lets them remotely monitor your network for system slowdowns, peak use times on the network, and suspicious CPU draws. They can track down the warnings signs and strengthen your security or suggest network growth before disaster strikes.

Go to SystemsNet to find out more about what IT support services can do for your business.