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5 Hidden Costs of Full-Time IT
While there are several compelling
reasons to not keep the overhead of Full-time IT staff, companies are not
always aware of the biggest reasons their Full-Time IT is hurting their
bottom line and performance. Here are a list of the top reasons you may
want to fire your Full-Time IT person:
o
Inefficient Hiring Practices: - When companies
hire IT staff, they often hire to the highest level of expertise. When
hiring a candidate, they search for the hardest-to-find skills that they
need to work on the network systems. For example, a company may say:
"we have Microsoft Exchange, SQL databases, Cisco routers, Linux and
Unix web servers, etc." "Therefore we need an individual with all
of these skills". And then they proceed to hire the individual at a
pay rate that really does not justify the job. Over the years, this IT
individual will likely spend 80% of their time setting up computers and
performing desktop support tasks that a much less-skilled technician could
perform. The other 20% of upgrades, new technology implementations, and
advanced troubleshooting (where necessary) could have been performed by IT
consultants at a great savings to the company.
o
Liability: - Surprisingly,
several businesses rely exclusively on the expertise of a single computer
support person. With today’s complex computer systems it is
unreasonable for a business owner to expect their computer support person
to know everything. Most business owners cannot afford to send their
support person to continuing education and it is unlikely they have the
systems and expertise needed to manage technical resources. Also, what
happens when the IT support is out sick or leaves the company? It is never
a good idea to have all of your eggs in one basket. When you hire Locke
Systems to be your IT Dept, you get your entire network setup and systems
documented and supported by a help-desk service, onsite technicians, and a
full team of Network Engineers and consultants.
o
Outdated Expertise - Business owners
rarely realize that the computer technologies they implement are largely
limited by the expertise of their IT staff if they don't utilize outside
vendors or help. Full-time IT staff have very little incentive to obtain
training on their own time, so unless the company has paid to keep skills
up-to-date (very costly), chances are that their networks and technology
are already behind the times. In many instances the only thing holding
these companies back are actually the in-house IT staff who do not feel
confident or comfortable in newer technologies that would otherwise propel
the company forward. Who wants to work themselves out of a job or implement
their replacement? Several times we have found networks that are setup in
the most inefficient ways or utilizing old defunct technologies to
administer and run the network. The reason: "that's what the IT guy
liked and he knew it well." Unfortunately, many IT technologies are
chosen for selfish reasons. By contrast, outsourced IT firms can offer
greater depth in their expertise and make a living by keeping their skills
up to date for their customers.
o
Lower HR Costs - Probably the most
obvious cost of having Full-Time IT staff is the overhead of salaries, paid
time-off, health insurance, benefits, training, lunches and breaks,
L&I, unemployment, federal tax matching, etc. Some less-obvious HR
costs may include office space, tools such as laptops and cell phones, and
employees wasting their time in general doing non-work related activities
(a recent salary.com survey indicates that employees waste 20% of their
time on the job. IT staff often sit and wait for things to break and sometimes
waste even more.)
o
Pricing and Acquisitions - When it comes to
researching, pricing, and purchasing IT equipment, many companies end up
paying through the nose in several ways. Valuable time is spent researching
and reviewing bids and when it comes to pricing, companies are often at the
mercy of a single vendor. Locke Systems has the ability to offer customers
lower pricing through vendors such as Dell, Symantec, HP, Microsoft, AVG
Antivirus, and many others. This is because we have several customers who
purchase through our reseller channels and the combined volume of our
"technology co-op" motivates vendors to offer lower pricing and
incentives. Also, it may not make sense for a single company to stock items
for emergencies such as servers, computers, hard drives, etc. But in the
interest of many customers, Locke Systems always keeps an inventory of
these items for your new IT team to deploy if necessary.
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