The in-house appoint a member of staff with some IT knowledge as the IT person.
Pros – This is the cheapest solution.
Cons – It’s a lot to ask an IT expert to be abreast of all IT services, but to ask someone without an IT back ground to investigate why emails are bouncing or not arriving may be too much yet alone implementing a disaster recovery policy.
If your business could manage without computers for a week and can accept data loss this may be the route for you.
Employ an IT Engineer
Pros – this person will be able fix and manage all day-to-day issues and will understand your business needs best.
Cons – bigger projects such as rolling out new servers are not a one-man job
Employing an engineer is expensive and she will have holidays and sick days.
Outsource to a one-man band
Pros – this should be cheap and potentially she can get to know your business.
Cons – when you really need this person she might be unavailable – stuck on another job, sick or on holiday. What is then the back up?
Many businesses have come to us after using a one-man band because of the reliability and the single point of failure risk.
The same applies to a single engineer as opposed to a team; one engineer cannot be a specialist in all areas.
Outsource to an IT support company
Pros – they will have the staff to cover 52 weeks a year. The resources to plan, supply loan equipment, use helpdesks and have broader range of expertise to draw on.
Cheaper than employing IT staff.
Cons – they will not know your business as well as an employee.
Alternatively, is it worth considering outsourcing just ad hoc (break fix) work?
Pros – it is cheap
Cons – no one is taking ownership of the IT and is your system being left venerable? Along with break fix you need to think proactively for 2 reasons;
- Cost, it is more expensive to fix than to prevent
- Inconvenience, the resulting unplanned down time.
Apart from break fix you need to consider the following; Cyber security, Disaster recovery, System upgrades, patching, planning for efficiency and cost.
To add to the mix you could consider a hybrid solution, someone on site to look at the printers, monitors and carry out the first line for the PC that will not boot and use the knowhow of an IT company for security, technical fixes and planning.