What if your IT manager resigned today? What if two or more of your internal IT team needed time off at the same time? What if maternity/paternity leave for multiple IT staff overlapped? What if everyone in the IT department got food poisoning from the takeout meal they shared?

We’re getting a little melodramatic here but the point that we’re making is that when you have a small internal IT team, you’re just one situation away from big trouble, especially in a tight job market. How can you make sure that you’re always staffed even if something happens to pull IT staff away from their work for a short or long time?

People with the Right Balance of Skills and Knowledge

Your hiring managers could always bring on more full-time employees but in the end, that might not solve your problem since you don’t just need people, you need the right balance of skills and knowledge. It’s also very expensive to be over-staffed and while the extra people will probably find something to keep busy with, how they spend their days might not be what brings your business the most value.

The solution for more and more businesses struggling with long term IT employee retention is to outsource all or part of their IT needs with managed IT services. It’s a cost-effective way to not only get the IT staff they need, but to ultimately turn technology into a driver for growth and competitive advantage.

Managed IT Services – Your Cost-Effective Solution to IT Staffing

1. Consistent IT Staffing

With an internal team, you’re almost always going to be in an over or under-capacity situation. When you’re under capacity, there are tasks or even whole disciplines that may not get touched because of time constraints or lack of knowledge. When you bring on more people to share the load, all of their time or their core skills may not be fully utilized. Working with aManaged Service Provider (MSP), gets you the right amount of IT staff that you need with no worries about gaps in service when people take vacations or time off. Plus you won’t need to worry about high turnover.

2. Access to IT Expertise

Access to all of the IT disciplines that make up a comprehensive IT department goes hand in hand with consistent IT staffing. Small businesses these days have sophisticated needs and one person, or even a small team, can’t be expected to know everything. A managed IT service company is made up of many professionals in all of the specialties you need for comprehensive IT and security management.

3. Scale Up or Down for Just Right Capacity

Managed IT services scale with your business, providing you with exactly what you need of each role when you need it. For example, if your employee numbers go up and down with the seasons, or if you’re growing fast, IT won’t be stretched too thin or spread too thick.

4. No More Specialty Recruiting

The market for technology professionals is fierce, and it’s not going to get better any time soon. In fact, the talent shortage in the field of cybersecurity is especially severe. One study reveals that the global shortage of cybersecurity professionals is estimated at 2.72 million. When you have managed IT services, you don’t need to worry the hiring process. They take care of recruiting, hiring, training, and retaining the highly skilled professionals who are going to work on your behalf.

5. Just Right Price

Take IT staffing off your plate and add to that the benefits that you’re going to get from an MSP’s proactive approach to IT management, and outsourcing IT to a managed IT services company makes a lot of sense. It makes IT not just cost-effective, but a great investment in your business.

Related: Get the Guide to Managed IT Services and learn how to enable operations

Bellwether Technology Solves IT Staffing Problems

Here at Bellwether, clients get access to all of the IT specialties they need to meet their biggest staffing challenges from a team of professionals who are committed to their success. We provide a workplace for our employees that allows them to continually grow their skills and knowledge, and empower them to tackle any challenge, while enabling a great work-life balance. We’re also a New Orleans Top Workplace.

Interested in what it might look like to have us as your IT partner? Get in touch.