The Advantages of Working with a Global It Support Services Provider

Traditionally, for a few decades now, IT support was provided to organisations by their respective in-house IT teams. Over the years, the need to keep up with the ever-growing technology, increasing workloads, smaller budgets, a downward-spiralling global economy, globalisation, and lack of experienced and highly skilled staff has led organisations to partner with IT support services providers.By ensuring that problems and setbacks are rectified as soon as they arise, IT support services help boost other IT functions like IT management and IT maintenance. IT projects are completed on time and close successfully. The in-house team also benefits in terms of more free time that can now be used to pursue other more important core business functions. Also, the in-house team benefits from the experience across various environments that the IT support service providers bring in: they learn of modern and the latest techniques used around the world. There is an improvement in the organisation’s overall performance thanks to the best practices implemented by the provider.With their vast experience of working in different IT and business environments, providers are in a better position to train the in-house team. This drastically reduces in-house training costs. Providers can help improve internal processes and ensure smooth operations. For instance, a provider can help oversee technological integration or data migration, thus making the process easier. This helps alleviate the pressures faced by the in-house IT team.Projects face delays and IT systems face increased downtime when response time is delayed due to problems with staffing. Organisations face staffing and recruitment challenges when ad hoc requirements arise or when there is a contingency. A global IT services provider provides resources 24x7, thus overcoming the challenge of finding replacements ad hoc, and will also be flexible when the organisation wants to scale up or down, as per the current requirements.One of the biggest challenges an organisation faces is the management of a large workforce spread across the globe, and/or management of numerous vendors located across the globe. Costs are high when managing multiple vendors. Global IT providers can mitigate the risks associated with having to deal with multiple vendors. Organisations can now deal with a single vendor who has a single point of contact to address all issues that arise. A centralised help desk system boosts support by offering flexible 24x7 helpdesk support solutions. They provide their extensive know-how through multiple channels. Support can be increased during peaks and reduced during contingencies, and can availed of either part time or full time. Support is also provided in the local language or languages: resources are either bilingual or multi lingual, reporting to the centralised help desk in English, thus eliminating language barriers.Other challenges that organisations face are high travel and communication costs, which tend to recur, and global legislation laws, as well as employee liability problems. Global support services providers are usually well-versed with different employment laws around the globe. A European and global IT support servicesprovider, for instance, will ensure that employees are TUPEd over or adhere to IR35 – laws that are specific to Europe. Therefore, European IT support can be made use of as and when required.Organisations the world over have resorted to cost cutting. Therefore, it makes sense to hire global support services providers as they always provide their service for a competitive price. Moreover, the organisations can pay only for the services they use – there is no need to spend money on a standard service.Providers also help increase operational efficiency and gain competitive advantages.