As technology continues to make a greater impact on how companies conduct business, organizations are finding it increasingly difficult to manage their complex and ever-changing IT systems and the users who engage with them. Midsize businesses are in an especially difficult position as they cope with limited budgets, shortage of IT expertise, and mounting security concerns. To maintain a competitive edge, forward-thinking organizations are examining how they approach IT management as well as the strategic focus needed to drive innovation and profitability.

Is It Time to Make a Change?

Infrastructure ages, innovative software becomes available, and new threats get introduced; this continues to drive demand for more IT expertise. But how do you justify the expense of hiring more resources? What skill-sets should you be looking for? And when do you know it is time to make a change?

Here are some of the issues you may be running into as the demands of the business outpace IT’s ability to keep up:

• Repeating issues are going unresolved. IT is spending more time putting out fires rather than getting to the root of the problem.
• Your deployments are growing more complex, leading to more deployment failures and slower results.
• Managing the flow of break/fix work is distracting the internal IT team from focusing on strategic solutions that could lead to a more profitable future.
• System outages are becoming more frequent or taking longer to resolve, resulting in a loss of productivity and profit during the time when key business applications are unavailable.

Building an Effective IT Team

The role and responsibility of IT is expanding. Not only is more support staff needed, but the ability to tap subject matter experts for all the potential risks and impact of cybersecurity, cloud migration, data mining, etc. has forced businesses to rethink their traditional staffing models. As a result, the majority of midsize organizations are realizing the benefits of strategic outsourcing through Managed Services.

When building a comprehensive team of IT staff, both internal and through outsourced partnerships, you’ll want to be sure you have these three types of resources covered:

The Generalist

While technical support is becoming more granular, you still need a reliable front-end support team focused on delivering fast, reliable, high-quality service to the end-users. I’m talking about everyone’s favorite “IT Guy or Girl” who knows enough about everything to quickly direct you to the right resolution. Often, customers come to BDO Digital because their tickets are constantly escalated back to their internal teams instead of being resolved at the Tier 1 level. Make sure to build up your team of Technical Analysist within the service desk who exceed the industry standard for First Call Resolution.

The Specialist

Not only are today’s IT departments overworked and understaffed, but they are now expected to be subject matter experts in a seemingly infinite number of ever-changing, advanced technologies. Cloud security and execution, next generation security solutions, data mining and machine learning, and other emerging technologies are adding new layers to an already complex system. In order to tackle new ideas, you need access to a wide range of specialized skillsets at the drop of the hat. But is hiring all these IT specialists in-house really the answer? This is where you can benefit from the collective experience of a good Managed Services Provider who can provide a dynamic suite of implementation or development services.

The Advisor

IT is no longer an add-on facility that runs independently from the business. It is the catalyst for innovation and the foundation for future growth. While the conversation around bridging the gap between business and IT is nothing new, organizations still struggle to use IT to achieve better business outcomes due to differences in departmental goals, culture, and point-of-view. Companies need an IT advisor who is able to speak the same language as the business and deliver top-level, strategic recommendations. IT professionals who are able to communicate in terms of ROI, business value, and corporate strategy are in a unique position to drive change across the organization.

The Bottom Line

Your organization needs a variety of IT expertise to keep pace with modern business demands. However, the reality for most mid-size businesses is that it’s too financially prohibitive to staff a comprehensive team of IT generalists, specialists, and advisors in-house. For many organizations, this is where teaming up with a Managed Services partner is the solution that provides them with the strategic and technical expertise they need – when they need it.

BDO Digital's award-winning Managed Services team can help you develop cost-effective, flexible support options right-sized to fit your needs. Our customized solutions can provide fully outsourced IT services, or complement your existing internal teams by filling the skill gaps and coverage.