Case Study: Cost of In-house IT Support (Continued)

Benefits of an In-house IT Staff

 •  Ability to closely monitor performance.  Staff is always “down the hallway”

•  Predictable employee overhead, they know exactly what the yearly salary and benefit package amounts to.

•  Current staff has institutional knowledge of the firm and its needs.
 
Looking forward, the law firm that we looked at in the previous blog post, Hamilton, Madison and Jay LLC, has identified the drawbacks of maintaining an in-house staff. 

In-house staff drawbacks

•  IT support staff maintains a reactive model of support rather than proactive.   

•  IT Support Staff not always up to date on the latest systems and programs.  They are busy trying to make existing ones work.

•  Absences – whether vacation or sickness, who covers for them and can still handle all the normal tasks.
 

Solution

The ideal solution would accomplish 3 objectives:

1. The benefits of employing an in-house staff must be maintained.
2. The drawbacks that have been identified must be resolved.
3. The costs associated with IT staffing would have to be lower than current costs.