Greg Wilson is MD of Reflex Solutions

While every good organisation has an IT management strategy, it is not always feasible for an SME to employ the skills required to effectively manage the organisation’s IT, which is why an outsourced IT model will mitigate risk from a lack of skills, threat of staff turnover and budget restrictions.

The outsourced provider should assist clients to determine their IT requirements, how to plan their opex or capex spend, and how to understand the difference between core requirements and business-specific needs. A number of SMEs make the decision to do it themselves simply because they don’t have sufficient information to make the right decisions.

Having a supervisor is great when there is a problem with a PC, but the supervisor seldom has the skills to assist in other areas of IT. This is the challenge for most SMEs – their view of IT is operational, meaning there is little long-term strategy in place.

Going on your own can easily lead to uncontained costs, whereas an outsource service provider is focused on saving you money while providing you with business flexibility and ease of maintenance. The benefits of outsourcing should therefore be plain – moving from a capex model to an opex-driven one; access to a large base of skills and resources; and handing over the management and strategy of your IT to an expert.

Some basic mathematics can show just how beneficial an outsource model can be. For example, an SME that has a 60-user site that needs server and desktop maintenance, hiring an entry-level engineer (at around R12 000-R15 000 per month) and a more senior engineer (at around R20 000 per month) would mean a business would be spending approximately R30 000-R35 000 per month for a basic set of resources.

For that sort of investment, an SME could have access to a network, servers, telephony and desktops as core services, as well as access to a call centre for first-line support. Ultimately, the goal must be to assist the SME to make the right decisions, based on the right information.