A 40-person company has one IT specialist. That person knows every system, every password and every workaround that keeps the old server running. Then they go on holiday for two weeks — and that is exactly when email stops. Another company pays an outside provider every month, but nobody can say precisely what that fee covers.
Both situations point to the same problem: the 'in-house or outsourced' decision was made without analyzing functions. The choice is rarely either/or. For many organizations the best answer is hybrid — what matters is that it is chosen deliberately.
Which functions need to be covered
Start with 'what', not 'who'. In a typical organization, IT includes:
- User support (helpdesk) — everyday requests and problems
- Server and network administration
- Security: updates, firewall, access rights, account management
- Backup monitoring and periodic restore testing
- IT asset inventory and license management
- Relationships with suppliers and service providers
- Projects: new systems, office expansion or relocation
- Planning: budget, refresh cycles, risks
- Documentation
One person is rarely an expert in all of these. So the yardstick should be coverage of functions, not headcount: which function is covered, by whom, and what happens when that person or team is unavailable.
In-house IT: strengths and weaknesses
An in-house employee is on site, knows the business, the people and the priorities, and their time belongs entirely to your organization. That is a real advantage, especially where there is a lot of local equipment or frequent on-site requests. The weaknesses are just as familiar: dependence on one person (holidays, illness, resignation), limited breadth of expertise, knowledge kept in someone's head rather than in documentation, and the cost of hiring, training and tools.
Managed IT: strengths and weaknesses
Managed IT services give you the breadth of a team: network, server, security and support specialists under one contract. A good provider brings processes and tools — monitoring, a ticketing system, documentation — and scaling with the organization's growth is easier. The weaknesses: less knowledge of business context, especially at the start; on-site presence is defined by the contract; and quality depends directly on the quality of the contract. A poorly defined scope turns the relationship into a 'tickets only' mode.
Hybrid models
- In-house coordinator + external team: the internal person covers daily requests and the link to the business; the external team covers infrastructure, security and projects
- Co-managed IT: your own IT team stays, and an external partner takes specific areas — monitoring, firewall administration, backup control
- Project support: in-house IT runs operations, and an external partner joins for expansion, relocation or new system roll-outs
How to decide
- How many users, locations and servers do you have, and how will that change in the coming years?
- How complex is the environment — on-premises servers, sensitive data, several offices?
- What does one hour of IT disruption cost the business?
- How dependent are you on a single person today?
- How often is on-site presence needed?
- Do you have someone who can manage an external provider and evaluate their work?
Compare costs properly. The real cost of in-house IT = salary and taxes + training + tools and licenses + cover for holidays and absence + management time. The cost of managed IT = the service fee + the internal time needed to manage the provider. Often the real issue turns out to be not price but which functions remain uncovered in each option. In tightly regulated environments such as healthcare facilities, security and data protection requirements are added to this analysis.
What to check in a managed IT contract
- Scope: what is included and, just as importantly, what is not
- Service level agreement (SLA): response priorities and times, as defined in the contract
- Terms for on-site visits
- Reporting: what information you receive and how often
- Documentation — who maintains it and who owns it
- Joiner and leaver procedures — creating and removing accounts
- Allocation of security responsibilities
- A transition period at the start and an exit procedure at the end
Wondering which model fits your organization? Write to us — together we can assess which functions are covered, which are not, and what your environment actually needs.