"Outsourcing your IT support has been recognised to potentially have many important potential benefits for any organisation" - Bahli & Rivard, International Journal of Management Science

Outsourcing your IT is a simple way of making sure your IT systems constantly work and don't eat up your time. Organisations don't employ a mechanic to maintain or fix their vehicles,. They just want to know they, work are safe and secure. So why do they use so much of their resources trying to manage a constantly changing vital piece of their company; the IT systems? Below are eleven reasons why outsourcing your IT is any size company's IT solution.

1. Expertise
Outsourcing your IT gives you access to a team of people who are constantly working in the IT Support [http://www.ceservices.co.uk/it-support/it-support-overview.php] Industry. This means they are coming across issues facing businesses in the United Kingdom each and every day. Your problem will be an easy solution for them. The IT support industry is constantly evolving with new technology where as in house IT support can become stagnated and co placement.

2. Cost
70% of IT spend is spent standing still (Gartner, 2003). Outsourcing your IT support saves money. Every size of company can make significant savings through outsourcing. For example a company of 25 employees would save £40,000 per year! if they outsourced their IT support. A company of 400 employees would look at a saving of £107,250 per year! The biggest single saving is wages and all the costs and time associated with that such as, tax and NI payments, recruitment, pension contribution, training, accreditations, overtime, mobile phone bill, company car, fuel card, sickness pay or holiday pay

3. Full time cover
Outsourced companies offer cover 365 days a year, 24 hours a day. Usually no call out fee is charged. What does your company do when your IT support manager is on holiday or sick?

4. Consultation
An outsourced company can advise on the best way forward for your IT infrastructure with a totally business focussed mind as they will not hold any emotion towards previous projects that they have implemented or only buy kit because, 'they know how to use it'. A large proportion of in house IT spend is spent on buying hardware which is totally unnecessary for its purpose. An outsourced IT company will save you money by buying kit that is fit for the job.

5. Risk Management

In today's litigation world sharing risk is essential for many businesses. By using industry expert IT outsourcing companies they will be accountable

6. Issue spotting not problem stopping
Through constant live monitoring of your servers, network and hardware an outsourced IT company can spot any issues before they become problems. This will minimise any downtime your company will ever experience.

7. Virus and Spam filtering
An outsourced IT company will setup your virus and spam filters to the exact severity you desire. Any viruses or spam will stop at their filter before it gets anywhere near your systems

8. Skills shortage
There is a lack of experienced qualified IT support experts in the British job market place. This has 2 main consequences. Increased wages for the skilled IT support engineers and in turn a higher fixed cost for companies who do not outsource their IT support. The other result is that businesses with their own internal IT support often end up with IT staff who would not get the position if there were more highly skilled workers available.

9. Focus on your business
IT management and support is one of the most time draining processes of any business. Why let it take up so much of your valuable time when as identified it is less expensive and quicker to have an outsourced IT solutions company to take on this responsibility.

10. Fixed Costs
Outsourcing your IT allows you to budget for the entire year with certainty. With the majority of outsourced IT contracts parts and labour of all your hardware are covered at no extra cost. If you have an in house IT department these costs have to be absorbed by your business and they can run into the tens of thousands of pounds.

11. Reputation/Staff Morale/Profitability

Customer interaction with your business through your IT systems is one of the biggest determinants of customer's perception of your business. A poorly managed IT department can reduce staff morale and lead to your company being inefficient and losing profitability.