Many basic IT services are very general and not business specific. Services such as anti-virus protection, data backup and IT support can benefit from the economy of scale an outsourcing organisation offers. For a small business taking care of these areas effectively may prove difficult. While there is a cost associated with outsourcing there is a far higher cost to not maintaining and looking after IT services.
The main benefit outsourcing can offer is expert support without the associated inhouse costs. It can take care of systems security, data backup or even provide complex system support. For small business the key attraction here is that expert support. Even in organisations with their own IT support there may be some benefit through the outsourcing of selected IT services.
A further advantage of outsourcing is that a business can choose which individual services to allocate to an outside provider. Different services can be provided by different suppliers, although this may involve extra management.
A potential downside of outsourcing can be the loss of control over IT systems and possible loss of expertise to the business. This is true if there are...