What’s the Right Budget for IT Services in Kalamazoo?
Failures in business technology are expensive, when you consider losses in productivity, a decline in employee morale, missing key business deadlines and not being able to communicate with customers. When technology fails, progress screeches to a halt.
How do we know how much it should cost? Like many costs in a business, there are multiple dependencies in how much IT services in Kalamazoo will cost. There are three key models that small to mid-size businesses utilize to create a secure, reliable IT infrastructure: internal IT staff only, internal IT staff supported by consultants or service providers and a fully-outsourced model.
Costs Associated with Self-Managed IT Support
Companies that rely fully on internal IT support are rare in the SMB world, simply due to the complexity of technology needs. Cybersecurity, cloud-based data storage and applications, videoconferencing and VoIP — all of these solutions require a significant amount of overhead time in maintenance and upgrades from your staff. Plus, there’s a level of knowledge that it can be difficult to cultivate in a small IT department that is already stretched thin. If you are able to hire highly-qualified individuals in each of these areas, the costs could be staggering as talented IT specialists are able to demand top-dollar and added perks from their employers.
In this scenario, you’re covering the internal costs associated with staff overhead plus the added charges of break-fix support from local vendors. It’s also important to consider the risks associated with internal cybersecurity support, as the costs can quickly mount. A recent CNBC article noted that the average cost of a cyberattack is in the range of $200,000, a staggering sum for small business owners.
Hybrid IT Support Model
Small to mid-size businesses are often more comfortable with a model that allows for partial external support, with oversight and management retained internally. This model may provide the “best of both worlds” scenario for larger companies, providing access to trained and vetted service providers in a wide range of specialties without the heavy burden of overhead that can easily exceed $60,000 per year, per IT professional. What is also appealing about this model is that the cost structure can change over time — often allowing companies to scale up or down during the course of the year with ease.
With fully internal staff, a spike in technology requirements could slow down business trajectory while finding the right staff members. When you’re working with an IT managed services provider, you’re essentially tapping a larger team to extend greater support for your business in times of need. This is particularly important if your company experiences an outage, as external teams can quickly expand to handle short-term requirements without needing to find external IT staff that can be quickly brought up to speed on the unique requirements of your organization. The cost of outsourcing a portion of your support is highly dependent on which IT functions you retain internally, but you do have the cost of both managing internal and external resources to add to your budget.
Fully-Outsourced IT Services in Kalamazoo
Some organizations simply don’t have the internal resources — or the time — to properly scale their IT infrastructure. Size is no requirement for fully outsourcing your IT infrastructure, it could also be the complexity of your business needs. There are dramatic changes happening in the world of finance and healthcare that could cause your business to incur significant penalties for being non-compliant with ever-changing government regulations. Finding an IT services provider who is familiar with these needs and is able to support them can greatly benefit your business and reduce the complexity that business leaders are required to absorb. IT services are often contracted annually, with quarterly payments anywhere from $15,000 to $30,000, depending on the size of your business.
What Should I Really Pay for IT Services in Kalamazoo?
Average small businesses should expect to budget between $1,000 – $2,000 per month for outsourced IT support from a trusted local partner. Ultimately the budget for your IT services will depend on a variety of factors, which could include everything from how quickly you expect a response from your IT company to the number of devices that will be covered. Getting an estimate from several companies allows you to properly vet their various offerings and puts you in a better space for negotiation when you’ve selected a final partner for your IT services in Kalamazoo or surrounding areas.
Since its inception, tca SynerTech’s goal has been to provide enterprise-level IT practices and solutions to local companies from Grand Rapids, Kalamazoo, to South Bend and all of Michiana. Email us to schedule your consultation or contact our team at (269) 428-7000 to see how we can help reduce long-term expenses through a proactive and timely approach to IT infrastructure support.
