Cyber

Outsourcing IT support

by Mark Rowe

By now, most business leaders have heard of digital transformation; the use of technology to transform business processes and remain competitive, writes the IT support company TSG (Technology Services Group).

The struggle is taking it from concept to reality. There’s a misconception that digital transformation is about splashing the cash on technology that has a lot of bells and whistles, or that it’s only for large enterprises. This couldn’t be further from the truth. It’s imperative to recognise that digital transformation can be achieved without a large internal IT team. Whilst it’s imperative to have IT representatives at the highest level in your business to drive true digital transformation, reducing the burden of an in-house IT team could actually allow your business to focus on innovation and growth. Many businesses are finally realising that digital transformation on a budget is achievable, with Computer Economics research showing that companies are outsourcing more than ever, particularly in the IT space. Unsurprisingly, the fastest-growing area for outsourcing is IT security; 47pc of respondents plan to spend more on outsourced IT security services.

For businesses that don’t have that in-house IT team, outsourcing IT security ensures they’re protected from the increasingly wide cyberthreat landscape. Highly-skilled cybersecurity experts are hard to come by – a record 51% of organisations say they’re experiencing a “problematic shortage” of cybersecurity specialists (ESG). However, managed IT service providers are guaranteed to hire more of these specialists. Instead of struggling to hire an in-house cybersecurity whizz, particularly if you’re a small-to-medium-sized business, why not tap into the resources of your IT support provider? It’ll undoubtedly have a wide skillset simply because it’s their job to have one in order to serve its customers.

Another key task businesses are outsourcing is GDPR compliance. It makes sense, as the two go hand-in-hand; cybersecurity is critical to ensuring compliance with the General Data Protection Regulation, with fines expected to be dished out for a lack of security implementation in the event of a data breach. In fact, not having robust security measures in place is seen as a bigger red flag than experiencing a data breach in the first place.

It’s important to note that, while you can outsource many elements of your GDPR compliance, you’ll still have some responsibilities. You’ll most importantly have to review your policies and procedures in light of GDPR, with data protection policies at the top of your list. But your managed IT services provider can help you understand the best security measures not only for your data, but to protect your business against all kinds of malware and hacker activity.

The good news for small businesses is that the required role of Data Protection Officer (DPO) can be outsourced. For a long time, there was confusion around whether small businesses – defined as those with fewer than 250 employees or 5000 records – required a DPO, but the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) cleared this up by stating there was no exemption for SMEs. However, rather than requiring an increase in headcount, small businesses could appoint the DPO responsibilities to an existing employee or, more realistically, outsource the role of DPO and even ‘share’ a DPO with other small organisations.
Another benefit of outsourcing the DPO role is that, like outsourcing IT support generally, saves a lot of budget. You shouldn’t, of course, outsource your IT support services solely for cost-saving purposes, but if done correctly, outsourcing can allow your business to grow through freeing up resource to focus on transformation. M&S has recently outsourced a large portion of its IT support as part of its 5-year Technology Transformation Programme; however, the business retained a smaller in-house team, demonstrating that outsourcing doesn’t mean getting rid of your entire IT department if you have one.

When evaluating whether to outsource your IT support and GDPR compliance, you should weigh up the pros against the cons. Outsourcing certain IT projects – for example, the implementation and support of your CRM solution – means there’s an additional party with access to sensitive data, which could potentially increase your business’ attack surface. To mitigate this, it’s important to choose an IT services provider that is fully committed not only to its own GDPR compliance, but to the compliance of its customers too. A high-quality IT support company will have in place the most sophisticated technologies to protect its data and yours – technologies that you could take advantage of as a customer.

Potentially increased response times to critical IT tickets is another legitimate concern business leaders have when it comes to managed IT services. It’s understandable, as depending on the level of staff you retain, your IT helpdesk could very well be situated in an office hundreds of miles away. However, IT support services are ever-evolving, with many businesses offering remote services supported by unlimited telephone support. Some are so sophisticated that they’ll designate a support agent to be on-site with you every day. This again depends on the business that you’re dealing with; if they’re hard to reach, you might not want to entrust them with your business-critical systems that need immediate attention.

It’s encouraging to see the role of IT shift from break-fix to driving digital transformation at the highest level. But when it comes to in-house IT support, for many it’s expensive, time-consuming and only exists out of necessity rather than innovation. Outsourcing IT services, and in particular IT support and IT security can take this off your business’ plate and allow you to focus on the ambitious transformational targets that will set your business apart from the competition. If your business doesn’t have the time or the budget to truly focus on GDPR compliance and IT support, you could realise a lot of value in outsourcing those areas. There are some careful considerations to make, however; your decision to outsource some or all of your IT shouldn’t be based on saving money alone. You need to ensure you choose a robust and established IT support provider that follows best practice rules. The benefits, such as cost-savings and a wider talent pool should be weighed against the potential downfalls, like an additional third-party business accessing your data or unworkable response times. With more businesses than ever outsourcing IT support, it’s time this became a real consideration.

Visit https://www.tsg.com/tsg-it-support.

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