Outsourcing is one of those words that you might associate with major multinational companies. It conjures images of partnership agreements, overseas call centres and the like. However, when you look at what outsourcing is and why businesses really do it, it becomes obvious that it makes even more sense for a small business than for a large one.
Doing what you do best :
Unless you work as a financial advisor or an IT consultant, the chances are, taking care of the accounts and the website are not areas that fall within your core skills. For a big business, there is always the possibility of having an in-house IT team and finance department, but many make the decision to focus their attention on what they do best and outsource these peripheral functions.
As a small business owner, the decision becomes even easier to make. Chances are, keeping the IT and finance in house means doing it yourself. This is why most small businesses engage the services of a local accountancy firm to take care of their tax returns and so on. Doing the same with IT by using a company like Probrand makes sense on every level.
Perfecting your online presence :
Your website is your shopfront, and when it appears on the Google search results for a potential customer, it will be alongside a dozen other possibilities. Featuring high on the results page, and then having a homepage that will keep visitors interested and stop them from hitting the back button is not easy.
You could spend weeks developing your site, creating new content and following all the other SEO tips that are so easy to find online, but would not achieve results anywhere near as good as a professional would manage in a quarter of the time. Why? Because that’s what these guys and girls do day in and day out.
The latest tools and techniques :
From content marketing to SEO to web design to online payment platforms, the digital world is evolving at a rapid rate. Many of today’s cutting edge techniques and tools will be obsolete in a few months time. If you keep your IT in-house, you need to be prepared to invest time and effort in staying on top of all these aspects if you want your site to generate the best possible returns.
By outsourcing, it is all taken care of. Your partner will have access to the latest innovations and will have his or her finger on the pulse, to keep your site fresh, secure and best in class.
What to outsource? :
Of course, “IT” is a very broad phrase and you can outsource as much or as little of your IT function as you wish. Aspects might include IT systems administration, development and implementation of apps, SEO and digital marketing, cloud services and backups, service desk support, maintenance and even business process outsourcing, where either back office or front office functions are operated and run by the third party.
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