The Cost of Outsourcing IT

If you’re an SMB, you might not have the budget or the time to hire your own in-house IT support team. Fortunately, there is another option - you can outsource your IT support to an external company instead. 

Price is often the most important factor that businesses look at when comparing outsourced IT service providers so, naturally, many business owners want to know the average costs involved.

Unfortunately, there’s no one-size-fits-all answer to this question. The costs of outsourcing IT can vary dramatically from market to market and depending on the level of IT services provided.

To help you to find the best price for your company’s needs, we’ve put together some more information about the costs of outsourcing IT below.

Different IT Support Pricing Structures

The first step in budgeting for IT support is to decide on the kind of pricing model that will work for your business. There are many different pricing models offered by IT support companies, but businesses usually choose to adopt one of the following:

• Monitoring Only- under this pricing model, your IT support service will offer limited network monitoring and alerting services, like patch management and backup monitoring for a fixed fee.
• Per-User Flat Rate- This is probably the most common pricing model. Your IT support provider will charge a flat fee for all IT support needs based on the number of users. As you scale up your business and take on more employees, your IT support costs will scale with you
• Per-Device Flat Rate- This is similar to the above except the rate is charged per device rather than per user. As users often have multiple devices, this can work out more expensive.
• Ad-Hoc Fees- Under an Ad-hoc model, you’ll pay as and when you require support. It can be a good option if you rarely need support, but if you get hit by a major IT issue, it can be very costly.

Average Cost of IT Support

The average cost of IT support it around $100 to $200 USD per user, per month. This assumes the IT support provider is adopting a per-user flat monthly rate and is based in the US. 

However, it can vary dramatically across states and countries, and also depending on the level of service provided, as well as the experience of the company and the complexity of operations. More well-established IT service providers with integrated line-of-business applications will typically charge more, but they’re also more likely to deliver more efficient, effective support services.

Is it Worth It?

You might think that you don’t have the budget to justify outsourcing IT. However, I’d argue that, in most cases, you do - you just need to think of it not as a cost, but as a strategic business investment. IT support is an asset in and of itself and can generate its own ROI in cost savings.

“Managed IT support services are cost-effective and contributes to the knowledge and skills to your IT operations. Outsourcing your IT functions leaves your management team with fewer distractions as your internal team are no longer responsible for business-critical services. An IT support provider leaves your business with better strategic focus and high-level of performance allowing you to grow your business and increase sales. HTL Support has been providing technology services to London-based businesses for decades, and is one of the most trusted IT company in London.” - HTL Support

For one, it’s usually much more economical than employing you own in-house IT support person or staff. Plus, it’ll help to reduce any hidden downtime you deal with across the year, thus reducing internal expenditure and boosting your bottom line.

Ask yourself if there’s ever any time where your staff or company performance is negatively impacted by IT issues, whether that’s network issues, problems with printers and other hardware, lost documents, or anything else.

If the answer is yes, outsourcing IT is probably a worthwhile investment that will actually save you money in the long run.