It was a small dream when a few colleges wanted a way for them to share information over huge distances. Now, a far cry from that purpose, we have made use of the internet in a myriad of ways:

• Communication

• Information

• Finance

• Gaming

• Entertainment

• Shopping, and of course—

• Employment!

What we thought was a passing fancy, the current pandemic has made permanent—working from home and leaving the offices for the comfort of their homes.

This change has brought about a renewed strength into Managed IT Services, as a lot of people and companies shift their digital work to a home-based environment, IT Services will not fail to adopt to the circumstance.

So we ask the question—What are the Pros and Cons of an in-office IT vs a Managed IT Service? Let’s answer the call.

An in-office or onsite IT, as the name suggest has the company keeping a dedicated team of specialist in their payroll inside the office for IT issues. Let’s see the Pros and their Cons.

1. The team is already on hand.

a. Pros: How do you beat the fastest runner in a race? Already be on the finish line. That’s where onsite IT beats everyone. They are already there, if the issue was a simple hardware issue– wrong cables plugged in somewhere, bad USB ports, failed hard drive. They can take it, replace it, re-mage in minutes, or use a back-up device.

b. Cons: They are always there. Let’s face it, gone are the buggy days of Windows 95, and the weird interface of Office 97 and how we all hated Clippy! Computers today are robust, excellent, microprocessor beasts that will not really break down on most days. They are also using user-friendly software that your 6 year old knows how to use. Keeping the IT team on the payroll may not always be a good cost to keep, not to mention that maintaining a team needs their own tools, equipment and office to boot.

2. You are the only client.

a. Pros: You are not wrestling with another company for the IT’s attention. Since the IT team works for you, if it crashes, they come.

b. Cons: The IT team works for all of you. This means they have to handle all your tickets at the same time, they have to juggle across the entire company and other departments. How can they say “no” to one manager and “yes” to another is quite a conundrum!

c. Cons: No one likes a call center. When an employee calls an external IT, they feel like going through a call center, and thoughts of their mobile provider creeps into their heads.

3. Face to Face Interaction.

a. Pros: They are the only IT team every employee will see day-in and day-out, relationships can be made and communication becomes easy. That’s how they breed in a zoo, stick ‘em in a cage. This interaction can create familiarity with errors and common issues, making solving them faster and easier as opposed to going the full nine yards of questioning (have you turn off and turn on again, unplugged, re-plugged, ran antivirus, what were you doing when it happened…).

b. Cons: What happens when the IT tries his best and fails right in front of an employee who really needed that email to go through, or did not save that document the boss wanted? Animosity. That employee would want to get another IT the next time and gossip this one through the office. Getting too much of the interaction may not be so beneficial after all.

4. Targeted Knowledge. Specialized skill set.

a. Pros: You can hire an IT team with special skills targeted to your business and its vulnerabilities, say If you keep customer information or a large amount of data, you can get a security expert who can plan and protect your assets.

b. Cons: Too expensive. There are too many areas of expertise in the IT Service industry. Very few can hire a team for each. Also, a specialized IT comes with a special price tag.

c. Pros: When that issue that you know would hit you and have expected and planned for all this time comes, you are one step ahead.

d. Cons: Most of the time, the guy is just sitting there, taking resources that the company can put in elsewhere. Plus, when the person is on vacation or out sick, your company is on pins and needles, hoping nothing will happen.

Let’s check the side of Managed IT Services’ Pros and Cons.

Here are some Pros:

1. There are problems where a remote solution is faster than an onsite IT. The truth, you don’t call an onsite IT and they immediately come. You have to go through reporting, a weird ticketing system, and you have to wait out a schedule. An MSP can be right on the problem at a call, chat or email. MSP’s have what is called an SLA (Service Level Agreement) that they have to follow when resolving your concern.

2. MSP’s are scalable. This means if your company grows, you just get more people from the MSP. If your company wants to stay small, you can simply get what you need or even find a reduced plan.

3. MSP’s are relatively cheaper. You don’t need a constant staff, you don’t need a big office, you don’t need to hire an expert in every field. MSP’s have a wide array of talents and expertise in most areas of the IT Service industry. They also need less training than a targeted on-site team.

4. There’s always someone there. An internal IT team is subject to the limits of the workforce. It would be unlikely for a company to hire 2 Security experts, what happens when that person is out or sick? MSP’s are made of a great number of people and they can support each other’s needs.

Here are some Cons to an MSP offsite.

1. Everyone just hates call centers. Back in the late 70’s when telemarketing started, almost everyone hated it immediately. It has been seared through our brains to hate them. This means when your employees call the MSP, a layer of intensity is already there. If they go through a hold and hear elevator music, they’re already boiling.

2. MSP’s are remote, this means issues that could have been solved by a simple re-plug or a quick re-image takes a longer route.

3. Although an SLA (Service Level Agreement) exists, you will never be the only customer of an MSP, this may mean that you are competing for their attention.

What does this mean for a company looking into an IT solution? Should you go the onsite route or an MSP? Both have their pros and cons. Surely a traditional office setup can benefit from an onsite IT wherein the help is already there. But the new normal has pushed most of our workforce out of the office, making onsite an impractical choice. An offsite MSP is starting to look like a smarter, more convenient option for the workforce of today, especially with the fact that it has more expertise and carries a lower price tag than onsite IT. It would always be a great choice to achieve a hybrid of the two.

One of the main things that Boom Logic, as a full service MSP is addressing is how the workforce sees them. By making sure that the service is delivered with the best intentions and care. Boom Logic immerses the team with their customers so that they can give not only the best service, but the clearest advice, not as an MSP but as a family. They have also gained great results with their hybrid approach of actually allowing a part of their team to be onsite to solve problems that remote computing cannot.

If the choice still seems difficult at this point, let Boom Logic help make the decision for you. Reach out anytime.