Many businesses in the greater Boston area have found that outsourcing their IT support makes sense. When outsourcing, an organization looks to build a trusted partnership with a managed services provider who will then work with the company to take on IT-related tasks that the company doesn’t have the resources or budget to do in house.

Of course, it’s not just Boston businesses that are turning to this model. Thousands of organizations outside of Massachusetts rely on this service as well. Take a look at four reasons why outsourcing your IT support makes sense:

Get a team of professionals with years of experience

There are a number of well-trained IT professionals that have built a strong set of skills. These individuals are an asset to any company’s team. However, all their training and knowledge doesn't necessarily equate to years of hands-on experience.

When you outsource to a trusted professional, the individuals that work with you have direct experience dealing with the issues and variables that can quickly derail a project. They will often know the solution to a problem in the early stages because of their experience and will help you avoid potential pitfalls before they become an issue.

Less time and money invested to train in-house staff on existing systems

Hiring itself is an expensive process, but organizations can often forget about the additional money and time spent training people to support the systems the company has in place. IT leaders are responsible for finding training specific to the systems in their organization, including:

• Software solutions (management and configuration)

• Desktop operating systems

• Server operating systems

• Networking hardware

• Multiple security solutions

Grooming experts in all of these areas gets expensive rather quickly; hiring people proficient in these specialties can be even more costly.

Turning to an outsourced partner solves this problem because trained staff is at your disposal when you need them. When you determine that an IT project is required to meet a business objective, your partner can bring the right staff on board to assist. Once the project is implemented, you can call on your partner as needed, rather than having in-house staff work on projects outside of their expertise.

Rely on experts to keep you abreast of changes in technology

Moore’s law states that computer processing power will double every two years. We can apply that law to almost any other technology as well. Technology advances at such a rapid rate that you no longer have just one "computer guy" at work who can take care of everything related to technology. Now, an organization can have desktop support, a server team, an email team, a networking team, a security operations center, and a host of other specialties, each focusing on their specific area and the changes that take place therein.

If your entire IT staff is in house, you'll need to continually train and get them involved with hands-on situations to keep them up to speed with the latest changes in technology. This need is where outsourcing your IT support can significantly help. Your trusted partner works with other customers as well, so your partner is always on top of the latest technology. A partner’s business model is dependent on knowing the latest tech and having experience to manage it.

No dealing with employee turnover

Let’s say you go the old route of hiring a team of IT professionals, training them on the latest technologies, and getting them hands-on experience. Now, your in-house professionals are worth more than the salary you initially hired them at. Your options are either to pay them more or risk them leaving for another job. If they leave, then you will have to go through the entire process all over again.

When a managed service provider handles your IT support needs, you don’t have to worry about staff turnover. The team assigned to your organization is already trained; you simply reap the benefits without the responsibility of keeping their skills up to date. Should one of them leave, you won't be impacted because someone else will be able to step in and take their place without missing a beat.

Businesses are quickly seeing the benefits of turning over their IT support to a managed service provider. There are a number of different providers in the marketplace vying for your business. As a leader, you need to take the responsibility for finding the right partner for your managed IT support.

Go through your due diligence and make sure that whomever you choose offers you at least the four benefits mentioned above. Ask if they have experience in your industry or with the projects you have on your roadmap. If they aren't experienced and they don’t have a team that understands your business objectives, keep looking.