For every company, the right time to outsource is different. Some businesses have in-house staff to handle daily activities, but may need outside help to undertake new projects that don’t warrant another full-time employee. When you and your current employees are unable to manage the day-to-day business of your company and build the business satisfactorily, it may be time to consider outsourcing.

With outsourced technology, you can transform most aspects of your organization into an “as a service” offering, allowing you to not only remove the burden of managing technology off of your team’s shoulders but also allowing for immediate cost savings. Are you having a hard time with server management, email hosting, cloud and virtualization services, or in-house phone systems? All of this can be done “as a service,” which helps your business remain competitive and flexible.

Outsourcing doesn’t mean having to move all of your business technology out to a vendor. (See: IT Support – In-House vs Outsource or a little of both?) Ideally, the first thing you should do is identify the strengths and weaknesses of your business in its ability to deliver quality business technology. Once this is established and you have a better idea of what you want (and what you don’t need), you’re in a position to choose the right supplier to add value. Outsourcing anything, whether email, servers, or phone system, takes the same type of thought process for small business owners. While price is a consideration for you, there are many other items to think about when outsourcing part of your business.

• There comes a time for every growing business when efficiency becomes compromised due to load and lack of technology and other business services to help manage it. What are some signs your business is ready to scale:
  • Key employees are spending more time on ‘maintenance’ of the day-to-day than using their skills to grow the business. Additionally, when key employees are wearing many hats:
    • For instance, your finance manager is also in charge of payroll, researching and purchasing tech needs like computers, phone systems, et cetera?
  • Your product or service is in demand, but you don’t have existing capacity (skilled manpower) to pursue growth and development.
  • Your existing business could use the input, experience or expertise from highly specialized positions, but you don’t have the capital to hire someone full-time.
    • Some of these could include IT solutions, Cloud Hosting, Security systems, and Network infrastructure.
• The benefits of Outsourcing. As stated above if your top employees are bogged down with repetitive tasks and spend more time on maintaining existing business needs, then the benefits could quickly outweigh the costs of outsourcing managed services:
  • Free up higher level, higher performing employees to do what they do best and delegate their repetitive tasks to a managed service provider.
  • Provide more efficiency and save money by freeing up capital that would have gone into employing and training new employees.
  • Offers flexibility.
• Three services that could easily be outsourced for relatively little cost so business can free up capacity to move more quickly and efficiently into the growth phase are:
  • VoIP Phone System
  • IT Solutions – Managed IT
  • Data services like Cloud Hosting and Wireless Solutions

A business owner takes on a lot of roles in order to keep the company afloat, but there are cases where outsourcing is easy, efficient and inexpensive. As you look ahead to your goals, consider delegating some of these tasks to other professionals. It will give you the freedom and flexibility to commit to other aspects of your business and will streamline your business operations. By expanding the network of professionals associated with your small business, your overall influence and reach will grow.

Look for a partner that you can give you a strong personal relationship and fit your needs. Let Taylored Systems be your partner and contact us to see how we can maximize your technology to work for you.