Best IT Outsourcing Services in 2024: Compare Reviews on 530+ Services

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What are IT Outsourcing Services?
Why Use IT Outsourcing Services?
Who Uses IT Outsourcing Services?
Kinds of IT Outsourcing Services
Software and Services Related to IT Outsourcing Services

Learn More About IT Outsourcing Services

What are IT Outsourcing Services?

A modern business can live and die by the efficiency of its computer systems and hardware infrastructure. If an internal network crashes, or data is corrupted, a company’s operations can be slowed to a halt. It can also be set back a great deal with regard to money, time, and resources. The value of technology and an qualified team of professionals has become equally important, if not more important, to a functioning business than any other department. Countless businesses, regardless of industry, do not dedicate the appropriate resources or simply do not have the experience necessary to handle information technology (IT) as a whole. Other companies simply want to scale quickly and need a helping hand during this period of growth.

With the help of outsourced IT services, businesses can offload this continuous tech support—or select components of it—to an experienced services provider. The solutions offered by IT services providers can range from basic consulting to complete oversight of your hardware and software operations and everything in between. You may enlist the help of a virtual CIO to lead an internal IT staff, or forego an in-house IT staff entirely to leverage an agency’s full-time employees for completely managed IT services. Whatever role these providers play in your operations, these infrastructure services can be an invaluable part of your business process strategy and ensure your business never falls short when it comes to technology.

Key Benefits of IT Outsourcing Services

Improve the security and stability of critical systems and software
Reduce the responsibilities of in-house staff
Optimize overall IT strategy and execution
Save costs through less internal training and faster incident response

Why Use IT Outsourcing Services?

Enterprise businesses are made up of hundreds or thousands of people who each contribute their own expertise and can specialize in a certain facet of the well-oiled machine. In these cases, the sum is greater than the parts, and dedicated departments are given the proper support to perform at the highest level. It is a different story for small and midsize businesses, where strategy is continually improved upon, and the infrastructure is a work in progress. Regardless of industry, these businesses do not always have the luxury of fully formed departments, and often need to make sacrifices to keep a competitive advantage as they define their brand and gain traction.

The IT outsourcing industry can help a growing business execute the many and varied tasks of a modern IT department, from cloud computing operations to data collection and auditing. These professionals can help deploy and monitor business applications, removing this stress from staff so they can focus their attention elsewhere. For businesses with a minimal technology demand, it may be unnecessary to seek out service level agreements (SLAs) with these services providers. But if you are a vendor that relies on a wide portfolio of tech solutions, and you lack the current staffing but cannot risk any gaps in your IT service, the potential costs you face far outweigh the costs associated with these services. Moreover, the right provider can propel your business into the future by increasing your capabilities and your ability to serve more customers.

Who Uses IT Outsourcing Services?

If your business does not already have a comprehensive IT program but has the demand for one (or will have the demand in the near future), the solutions offered by these providers are a sensible consideration. Management teams might consult with an IT services provider to help plan and execute the entirety of IT operations or select components based on the specific needs of an organization. In other cases, an existing IT team may enlist a services provider to fulfill certain roles that are currently lacking or assist with particular initiatives or periods of high demand.

Creating a work relationship with an IT outsourcing company is a significant investment in your business, and can quite literally transform your organization for the foreseeable future. You should research the pros and cons of outsourcing and discuss in great detail with your in-house technology experts before deciding if it’s right for you. For thousands of brands across the world, the benefits of outsourcing are substantial, and these providers often unlock potential in an organization at pivotal moments in their journey.

If your company has a chief technology officer, lead engineer, or other IT specialist, they may be the main point of contact when working with an IT outsourcing team. With that said, the duties performed by these industry experts are essential to the entire organization, and the benefits will be felt regardless of your place within the business. Your executive team may choose to reach out to an IT infrastructure consulting provider who can help identify problem areas and explain how outsourcing might be a worthwhile extension of the department.

Kinds of IT Outsourcing Services

When you hire an agency for IT-related work, this can entail a variety of services. A service level agreement with one of these providers will be tailored to fit a company's particular needs at the moment and can be adjusted along the way to add or subtract different solutions. Your provider of choice may specialize in certain hardware systems or only offer a portion of services compared to others in that category. There are also a number of other services categories that your provider may fall into. Some will offer innovation and development solutions in addition to more standard processes, whereas others may specialize in strategy or consulting but provide some sort of IT management and assistance.

Because each business in this category is unique, it will require some investigation on your end to determine if a specific agency is a logical investment for your brand. If there is not enough information readily available on its website, you may be able to send an email inquiry or call a provider by phone without agreeing to significant costs. Below are some of the primary offerings you can expect to find with these agencies. If one or more fit the bill of what your company could use moving forward, keep these terms in mind when doing your independent research and determining which providers to contact.

Managed IT services — This is a blanket term used to describe any traditionally in-house process of your IT department for which a provider assumes the responsibility. It is a vague label that does not always imply the same features from business to business, but it does imply a degree of task management and oversight that absolves your internal staff of certain responsibilities.

Infrastructure management — Infrastructure management services are designed to ensure that the systems in place within an organization (e.g., hardware, software, networks) are configured and synced properly. An IT infrastructure is like the technology skeleton of a business, involving both physical and virtual environments working together for company-wide technical operations. These individual components will need to be assessed at regular intervals, tested in relation to one another, and updated to run at the optimal level. Infrastructure services involve those tasks related to keeping an IT infrastructure up to date and performing as expected. In some cases, this can involve recommending or facilitating upgrades to individual assets.

IT security — IT security can often mean the same thing as cybersecurity, and IT security services providers will often label themselves as cybersecurity providers or provide many of the same solutions. But an IT security specialist might be dedicated to enterprise systems and handling core company networks. For disaster recovery on these mission-critical systems or reinforcing a cloud computing environment against threats, IT security services can help in these concentrated infrastructures. Some IT security teams will also offer managed firewalls and regulatory compliance services to crosscheck your IT applications and devices against up-to-date security standards.

Service desk outsourcing — With the help of service desk software, IT specialists can facilitate fast resolution of internal company technology issues. Large companies tend to have a local team within the IT department dedicated to resolving employee issues as they arise, such as a broken application or issues downloading a program. A number of managed services providers have the capability to fill these roles, so your staff can report their day-to-day issues over an online messaging system and have them resolved or walked through offsite.

Unlike managed help desk providers, service desk outsourcing is focused solely on internal tech support. This dedicated service can provide many benefits to a growing organization and give the staff peace of mind when it comes to mission critical systems and random support problems that may arise.

Software and Services Related to IT Outsourcing Services

The following are some solutions that can complement IT outsourcing services to help your information technology department perform its best and provide security and confidence to your organization as a result.

IT strategy consulting — Information technology is not a simple science, and each day new innovations and shifting paradigms add to the complexity. IT strategy consulting providers can guide your management team through the winding roads of IT, from developing a hiring strategy to which data systems would best serve your organization. An IT consulting agency can also offer advice when it comes to the advantages and disadvantages of outsourcing, along with whether or not it’s a smart move for your business and specific areas where they would be most beneficial at the moment. Management consulting providers can sometimes offer aspects of IT consulting or help with managing an IT team, whether internal, external, or a combination of the two.

Data center infrastructure — A business can produce an endless stream of data, involving everything from sales numbers to the daily performance levels of enterprise systems. Handling this copious amount of data requires not only a great deal of effort but also powerful, secure storage drivers and other hardware. Depending on the size of the company and its corresponding data output, these devices can add significant costs, hassles, and risks for office staff. Data center infrastructure providers are designed to take the load off of IT departments when it comes to hosting these elaborate, costly machines.

Depending on the provider, they may offer storage and maintenance of company-owned hardware, fully hosted drivers and networks with space for rent, or some combination of both. If your company would benefit from the outsourcing of major IT infrastructure equipment, instead of or in addition to the managed services of some sort, you might consider consulting with a data center such as this. These businesses are also referred to as colocation centers. A number of IT services providers also offer some form of colocation or are partnered with data centers for network hosting and other benefits.

IT management software — IT management is a family of software applications related to the diverse tasks and responsibilities of IT teams. IT management software works in conjunction with IT infrastructure software to help these departments configure, deploy, and maintain company-wide technology. IT outsourcing providers will leverage a number of robust platforms in this category to handle client services, and manage their own internal systems, for that matter. Building out a stack of quality software tools from both these categories is an essential step for getting the modern workplace up and running.

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What are IT Outsourcing Services?

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Learn More About IT Outsourcing Services

What are IT Outsourcing Services?

Why Use IT Outsourcing Services?

Who Uses IT Outsourcing Services?

Kinds of IT Outsourcing Services