In a highly competitive business landscape marked by rapid technological advancements, your company’s survival and competitive advantage greatly depend on having a robust and savvy information technology (IT) department, among other factors. Technology has been overstepping most business functions to establish itself as a critical part of many organisations’ backbone.
Most businesses today depend on technology significantly, and a minor hitch in their computer networks and systems can be considered a crisis. Imagine a bug or hacker infiltrating a financial institution’s IT system or a system breakdown in a healthcare facility. In both places, a delay in fixing the technical issues could lead to devastating consequences. Information technology facilitates efficient solutions to various business and institutional challenges.
IT Functions
Most organisations require one or most of the five primary IT functions, which include:
- Communication: This is a critical business function made more effective by technology. Most organisations today use different platforms to communicate in real time with clients and employees in different geographical zones.
- Data Management: Companies generate vast amounts of data daily. This is why IT enables quality data-driven decisions by facilitating efficient data collection, analysis and reporting.
- Information Security: Your data is valuable, and keeping it secure is a critical IT function because data leaks can be costly.
- Customer Relations Management: Your current and future customers are major business growth drivers. This is why IT should enhance the quality of your interactions with clients, resulting in higher sales.
- Operations Management: Lastly, IT enhances your systems processes through automation, curbing wastage of resources like time, money and raw materials.
Given the above IT functions, are there notable IT support vs helpdesk differences? The answer is yes.
IT Support vs. Helpdesk
An IT help desk is the team that monitors and resolves your employees’ technical challenges, enabling them to work uninterrupted. In the era of hybrid and virtual workplaces, the IT helpdesk ensures employees’ IT-related problems are addressed quickly.
Due to time-zone differences, most organisations require a 24-hour IT helpdesk to resolve the challenges of virtual employees or clients from various parts of the world. Understanding your company’s products is necessary to enable your IT helpdesk to offer basic client service.
On the other hand, IT support refers to the team that takes on the more complicated and specialised roles within information systems and technologies. Some IT support roles include:
- Ensuring a company’s systems and networks run smoothly
- Resolving hardware and software problems
- Performing regular system maintenance checks
- Providing support to employees and customers
So, should your company go for IT support or an IT helpdesk? The answer depends on the nature of your business. For instance, a helpdesk will do if your company mainly deals with frequently asked questions such as desktop support issues. However, if your company sells software or other technical products, the host of IT issues reported by your clients may necessitate an IT support team.
IT Outsourcing
Running a functional IT department can be a costly affair, more so if your business is still growing. Outsourcing a team to handle your IT functions provides a cost-effective IT department for most small and medium businesses.
Next, here are some factors when outsourcing IT functions.
Expertise
Getting the right skills to handle your company’s resources and equipment is important. You must consider the skills and experience of the company you hope to outsource. For example, if your greatest need is data management, your providers must prove their capacity to handle various data functions, including backup, security and recovery. Consider a company with a good pool of experts. It’ll save you time and money to allocate to other projects.
In-House Staff Morale
Before outsourcing, it’s essential to communicate the decision to your on-site staff. Explaining the short- and long-term benefits of the outsourcing exercise while assuring them of their job security can increase their cooperation and compliance.
Costs
Compare and contrast the costs of hiring employees and purchasing IT equipment against outsourcing costs. However, price shouldn’t be the only factor to consider. Evaluate the after-sale services that come with the outsourcing package.
Ability to Meet Deadlines
The outsourcing company must have a reputation for sticking to the set timelines while delivering quality IT functions. Ask relevant questions before picking a team. Also, ask for recommendations and look at online reviews.
Confidentiality
When outsourcing, you entrust your company’s sensitive data, such as client information, to outsiders. Therefore, hiring a company that’s never been associated with clients’ data leaks should be a non-negotiable.
Conclusion
Outsourcing IT functions is a cost-effective way of ‘establishing’ your IT department. Outsourcing a critical function like IT enables you to focus on your core business, giving you peace of mind. Depending on your business needs, consider outsourcing parts or all of your IT functions to a reputable and genuine company of IT experts.
