Cut Costs by Outsourcing IT

It might be just the thing to beat the recession and increase productivity.

by Pam Ostermiller

During a recession, businesses of all sizes and types are forced to examine the validity and necessity of every expense and chunk of overhead. If anything good can be said of tight times, it is that they can transform hulking companies or bloated departments into “biggest losers” that emerge leaner and meaner. Under the grip of some economic arm-twisting, companies make policy or personnel changes that had been formerly overlooked — or long overdue.

In this climate, company leaders are taking a long glance at internal IT departments to determine if outsourcing will save money — and if it makes sense. Fortunately, there are no new rules; the decision-making process for determining if outsourcing IT is right for your company should be the same process for outsourcing any task or project, with a few finer points.

Are we there yet?

Of course, the first consideration is cost. If you need to reduce your IT budget, can this be accomplished by outsourcing? Are you paying five people to do a job that could be managed by one? Determine if your IT department is helping your business grow. Is managing IT in-house draining resources that could be better used elsewhere? Is your department attempting to manage IT problems that are beyond its capabilities?

Too many hats

The IT environment is constantly evolving, yet for most small to medium-sized businesses, an IT “department” usually equates to one person with a supporting staff of a few. The skills that qualified yesterday’s top IT manager may not be the same skills required today.

The problem is that most companies still have this IT “generalist,” the go-to guy for all disciplines, including managing the applications that the business uses, plus e-mail, phone service, security, patching, and network and server management and monitoring. While this IT manager or team may be the best in town, they may be stretched thin or forced to spend time learning new technologies and applications instead of managing current systems.

Corey Davis, chief marketing officer of Vucci Technology Solutions (www.vucci.com), says that while today’s IT professionals are expected to do more with less, it can be done. “Most IT professionals are so swamped and find there are not enough hours in the day. But there are solutions to help them do what’s expected,” he says. “This is the managed service provider (MSP) model, to provide enterprise-level solutions to small and medium-sized businesses.”

Outsourcing solutions

There are a number of companies, many with headquarters in Utah, that offer a variety of IT outsourcing solutions. Lehi-based Vucci, for example, helps companies consolidate their servers and storage through virtualization or virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI), which Davis explains can include taking a physical server and expanding its purpose, helping companies tap into their IT resources.

“You can take 50 different computers or workstations and with VDI, you reduce those workstations to a monitor, a keyboard and a mouse,” Davis says, which saves physical space, server space, time, energy and money. “These virtual desktops can be managed remotely; an IT person doesn’t need to come to your computer when there is a problem.”

One hitch for CEOs is that they may not understand what the IT department manages in the first place, or what the company’s IT needs entail. In others, a company is ready to grow and is in search of an IT solutions partner. In both cases, there are companies that offer multi-service solutions that are approachable and easy to understand.

DirectPointe, headquartered in Lindon, provides a package of IT outsourcing solutions nationwide, including network security, virus and spyware, backup, troubleshooting and system administration — all for a flat monthly rate. “Our concept is simple, manageable IT service,” says Jim Martinos, CEO of DirectPointe, which helps firms reduce downtime and end many of the frustrations related to running business IT systems. “DirectPointe offers solutions at a higher level — affordable and predictable base services, plus additional systems the customer needs, such as security.”

For many company leaders, what DirectPointe offers is peace of mind. You — and your staff — aren’t required to be experts in every aspect of IT, giving you time to focus on other aspects of your business, like being profitable.

The benefits

Cheryl Snapp Conner of Snapp Conner PR in South Jordan formed her company two years ago with five people and a file server that consisted of a CD that was passed hand-to-hand. “We did that for nine months,” says Snapp Conner, who was the PR director for Novell for 23 years. “Then we hired DirectPointe.”

Snapp Conner pays a flat rate of $2,000 per month for her now 12 employees, for virus protection, file server protection, wireless, support, and most importantly, no worries. “We are a PR agency and we are all PR but one. We try to work really efficiently and we like the outsourcing model,” she says. “We feel a lot better protected, knowing that our critical data and client information is safe.”

In addition to assurance and predictable cost savings, outsourcing can also offer savings up front or down the road. Through inContact, a call center SaaS provider based in Salt Lake City, businesses can take advantage of contact center solutions without the capital investment or the in-house maintenance. And through VDI, the device Vucci uses is made by Pano Logic (www.panologic.com), and is a 2-by-4-inch box that Davis says saves companies an average of $1,500 per year, per computer and uses 3 percent of the energy used by a PC.

A final benefit may be a more relaxed, focused IT staff, as opposed to a harried, sleepless staff that is always “on call.” When MSPs are available 24/7, a company’s staff can get back to finding other ways to conquer a sluggish economy and help your business thrive.

One minute Vocabulary

MSP: Managed service provider. An information technology provider who manages and is responsible for a set of services and tasks, often remotely over the Internet, and including technical assistance, server storage and data back-up and a remote desktop. The MSP model was commonplace among enterprise-level companies, but has now been adapted to fit small to medium-sized companies.

SaaS: Software as a service. MSPs are also known as SaaS providers, offering “ownership” in one robust infrastructure to many shared customers.

VDI: Virtual desktop infrastructure.

Pano device: A purpose-built desktop virtualization device. Contains no CPU, no memory, no operating system, no drivers, no software and no moving parts. The Pano device connects over an existing IP network to an instance of Microsoft Windows OS virtualized on a datacenter server.