IT departments are once again looking at outsourcing some or all of their work to Managed Service Providers or Managed Security Service Providers. Aside from the obvious concern for the people working in our organizations that this decision would impact, we also have a responsibility to the company to make the best decision. So what is that, and how do we know? More importantly, if we decide to go down this path, what do you ask prospective partners to be sure they can handle it?
When I researched this for an impending decision for our IT department, I realized there is a ton of material written by the MSPs and virtually nothing written by the IT department—the so-called Voice of the Customer. Here I am; hear me speak.
First, let’s get out of the way of whether to outsource or not. The first consideration is the size of the company being supported and the budget for tech support. My experience is that you need about one end-user support person per 250-300 users. Honestly, if you have less than 2500 users, you are likely better off with a hybrid support model. By hybrid I mean have one person in your HQ office to whiteglove the executives and handle hardware requests, then out source the tier one and phone support. That works until you get up to a point where the hardware and executive requests require a new person, but you will likely grow branch and field offices much faster than HQ, and the MSP can scale up cheaper than you can. So, point to the MSP.
When it comes to Infrastructure, things get a little bit less cut and dry depending on your company culture. If your company leadership loves to see innovations and cutting-edge tech that may or may not move you forward, then having a staff on hand is essential. No off-shore or near-shore company will understand your company’s needs or culture like a local person or team would.
The problem is when you try to pull off a hybrid team model for Infrastructure. It looks appealing to say the MSP handles day-to-day operations and leaves the full-time employees to handle innovations and technical progress. The truth is the back and forth about who owns what and who does what takes up so much time that it almost negates the point of having an MSP in the first place. At the end of the day, if you want innovation, keep an Infrastructure team in place; if you want the lights kept on and things in maintenance mode, hire an MSP to handle your infrastructure.
