How Much Should A Small & Medium Business Expect To Spend On IT Support?
No small or medium-sized business operating can ignore the importance of efficient computer technology. Effective IT infrastructure and services are indispensable. The benefits of the third party IT support also should not be overlooked, as these are vital to ensure the smooth running of the enterprise. Managers will, therefore, want to know what proportion of their expenditure should cover IT support services.
In recent years especially, with the increased prevalence of flexible, and therefore unpredictable, working hours, IT usage should be scalable to your company’s activity levels. At the moment, many businesses are seeing unexpected downtime as a result of the Covid-19 lockdown and subsequent furloughing of a significant portion of the UK workforce. Those pre-paid costs that were dedicated to IT services that are now – temporarily or permanently – out of use are costs that cannot be recouped.
A Personal Calculation
The answer is not straightforward and cannot simply be given as a percentage of total business expenditure. There are many variables involved, and no universal calculation can be expected to answer every situation. The requirements for software, hardware, support, and cloud services are dependent on a particular business context. Your situation will need to be assessed to determine the cost of IT support for each small business in the UK.
Hardware And Software
The company size, the existing internal IT department, and the extent of their knowledge will all have to be considered. While this picture will provide a rough figure for IT expenditure, the breakdown to particular areas needs care. Firstly, up-to-date hardware is important for employees to conduct their work efficiently. It is the bedrock without which the other IT services cannot function effectively.
While hardware costs are amenable to discrete calculations per employee, expenditure on software can be trickier. Keeping up with modern working practices typically means greater use of sharing solutions and applications for mobile devices. Outdated software may not be capable of these tasks and can be a security risk. The benefits of enterprise-level software may come at a high cost, however, and small businesses may be hesitant to invest in the solutions available to larger enterprises.
Getting The Best ROI
With a significant spend on enterprise-level software, SMEs will want to make sure they are getting the most from their investment. Outsourced IT support can provide this level of assistance, ensuring that software solutions are fully leveraged. In-house IT teams are also aided by outsourced IT support, and it is often better to consider in-house teams as empowered rather than replaced by outsourcing. They then become the 'IT champions' of the business.
The ability to link your outgoings to the IT services that you have actually used is vital for cost efficiency. In the case of wasted on-premise software or licenses that are now out of use, there has never been a stronger reminder of the value of pay-as-you-go IT services.
Cloud services are increasingly vital to business efficiency. Cloud services are now more secure and reliable than ever before and allow the mobile working and communication of modern business. Therefore cloud IT support also needs to be factored into support expenditure to ensure interruption-free cloud services.
Working With Fuse Collaboration
Given these demands, SMEs will want to look for experienced and capable IT support solutions. Fuse is a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner, and an extremely professional and reliable IT support and services provider. Fuse operates IT services on a utility model, meaning that the average on-call pay for IT support is more easily calculable, keeping costs competitive and ROI high.
Please get in touch today to find out more.
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About the author
Fuse is a Microsoft Partner, based in Northampton. We help organisations of all sizes to maximise IT efficiencies through the use of Microsoft cloud computing solutions.
