Every business, no matter the size, has an IT department. IT is usually made up of a complex series of duties and networks – hardware, software and experts that keep your law firm able to fulfill every day operations. IT is responsible for workflows such as accounting and financial processes (ERP) customer relationship management (CRM) email and other document creation.
The success of your legal company depends on how well your IT department performs.
So why are so many people outsourcing one of the most essential parts of their business?
It’s cost effective
Running your own IT department can be hugely expensive especially if there are problems with hardware or system failures. Managed Service Providers offer cloud hosted solutions where you can rent hardware and have them regularly maintained and monitored, meaning you don’t have to pay out for expensive equipment that quickly becomes outdated, and you can do it all at a fixed monthly cost. Outsourcing converts fixed IT costs into variable costs and allows you budget effectively. In other words, only pay for what you use when you need it.
As well as the technology, outsourcing your IT can give you access to the kind of in-house support that larger companies have, giving your legal firm a competitive advantage of other SMBs. Hiring and training your own staff to the level that an MSP can give would be very expensive and there’s no guarantee that once they’ve been trained they’ll stay with your firm. Temporary staff aren’t always a good fit. They don’t understand your legal needs and don’t always do the best work.
Renewed focus
Dealing with day to day IT activity is normally very doable for your IT department, but what happens when things go wrong? If a system fails and you can no longer access important files? What if your legal business is expanding and all your IT department’s energies are focused on bringing your networks up to the challenge? Your IT department should be there not only to keep your offices running, but to help you make money. Whether they do that by focusing on new marketing strategies or chasing up new customers they simply cannot if they’re always having to stop to deal with a crisis or are busy managing an update. Outsourcing your IT will give your employees the chance to focus on your core activities and help make your business a success.
Increased productivity.
Knowing that your IT is in the hands of professionals and that you won’t be met with any expensive surprises any time soon means that you can focus on making your legal company the best it can be. Having access to up to date technology means you can streamline your processes and make them more efficient and productive. Having an MSP deal with all your IT needs ensures that there is little to no downtime so client and legal data is always available to you and system failures are immediately dealt with. MSPs constantly monitor your IT network by predicting, preventing and quickly responding to any problems that might occur.
So, the question isn’t, ‘why is everyone outsourcing their IT?’, it’s why aren’t you?
