Your IT support help desk is the first point of contact and first line of support for employees and customers alike. From troubleshooting access issues and onboarding or offboarding employees to addressing questions and updating security patches, help desk technicians are essential to providing optimal customer service, monitoring and maintaining security measures, and ensuring seamless access and system utilization. 

With so much value placed in the help desk function, business leaders must monitor its effectiveness and proactively address issues that may affect its success. Could it be time to outsource your IT support help desk? If you notice one or more of the following signs, the answer is yes. 

#1: Slow response time 

When you or your customers have an issue, they need an answer and a resolution fast. If your IT support help desk team is overwhelmed or overloaded with new requests, or if they are simply lacking a sense of urgency in their communications, your business could suffer the consequences. Outsourcing can help you deliver consistent, reliable, and quick issue escalation and resolution, 24/7. 

#2: Lack of specialized expertise 

IT support is a broad term that encompasses several specific areas of expertise. Unfortunately, many IT professionals are expected to be a master of all of them, which is simply unrealistic. For example, cybersecurity is a specialized field that requires constant learning, monitoring, and escalating of potential threats. Although most, if not all, IT professionals have some awareness and skill in cybersecurity, those who dedicate their primary focus to cybersecurity will be the ones who have the necessary deep understanding and expertise that is required for optimal success. Outsourcing will enable your team to bridge the gaps in expertise to ensure you have the best coverage for your business.

#3: Escalating costs 

IT is a cost center, albeit a necessary one. That said, as costs continue to rise in all areas of business, the impact on your business can be significant. It’s unwise to cut IT support, but outsourcing may be a great way to control some of your costs. For example, you know you need a cybersecurity expert or more support for your help desk team. Although hiring an additional FTE sounds great, it may be cost prohibitive. In these situations, outsourcing may be the best option. Not only can outsourcing help control costs associated with FTE overhead expenses, it can give your team access to skilled professionals and systems that you may not have otherwise. 

#4: Suboptimal IT support 

Beyond slow response times, suboptimal IT support may include persistent or recurring issues, ineffective or nonexistent communication, reactive approaches to issues, lingering support tickets, or limited support windows (e.g., support team clocks out at 5, but an urgent issue happens at 10). You have worked hard to build your business; don’t let poor IT support destroy it. Outsourcing your IT support can eliminate these headaches by ensuring your team and customers always have access to the best support, with dedicated help desk technicians, cybersecurity experts, strategic advisors, and a carefully curated ecosystem of IT systems and applications.

#5: Inability to focus on your core business

If you’re spending too much time managing your IT support or addressing grievances associated with it, you’re taking away valuable time from managing your core business. Not only is this frustrating, it can prevent you from scaling your business and reaching the success targets you’ve set. Outsourcing can help you delegate some of those tasks and eliminate unnecessary frustrations, so you can get back to growing your business.  

If you’re looking for a sign, here it is: GainSide can help

Sometimes, even your help desk needs some help. As your business grows, the demands on your IT support team will naturally grow as well. If they don’t have the right skills, resources, or time, your business will feel the impact.

At GainSide, we can serve as either an extension of your existing IT team – providing added manpower and specialized expertise to speed up response times and decrease your risk profile – or even step in as your primary IT support to cover more of your business needs. Take this as a sign … connect with one of our IT experts to learn more.