Ramblings of a Geek

If you decide to outsource your IT there are a few options.  I’m going to be going over them in my next couple of posts.  I’ll be writing about my experiences as I’ve served as a sole proprietor, as an engineer in a largely break-fix consultancy, as a part of a fully managed organization, and as an in-house IT resource for small businesses.  I’m starting from the most basic – the sole proprietor.  I was a sole proprietor for about four years, and I really enjoyed my time in the trenches.  I am going to highlight some of the positives and negatives about using a sole proprietor (SP) as your IT resource. 

Who your sole proprietor is:

Your sole proprietor is usually one of several things: he/she is currently unemployed and is likely still looking for a new job, working as a consultant on the side of a regular job, or simply has decided to strike out by themselves to make a run at being self employed.  The sole proprietor is usually a jack of all trades – they have to balance servers, workstations, networks, generating business, marketing, and the company finances to name a few things.  It was common for me to work at least 60 hours a week trying to keep my revenue up and clients happy.  As a consequence it’s easy for a SP to be stretched thin.  In my experience I was perhaps over-dedicated to serving my customers as I would handle calls, emails and trouble tickets nearly any hour of the day.  I’ve also met several other SPs that are very similar.  In this job market I also think there’s quite a few people out there that are picking up a few hours to help make ends meet.  I started in the middle scenario as I worked on the side of my regular job for extra cash and then transitioned it into my full time gig once I got laid off from the job I had been with for several years.  Ironically, they outsourced their IT and I was a casualty of that effort.

Why a SP is a good choice:

Choosing a SP is a good for your business if you want to deal with the same tech and decision maker every time.  Chances are that a SP will go out of their way to do everything they can to help.  Also, generally speaking, a SP will either have lower rates and/or will negotiate their rate a bit more than a larger organization.  I know that, especially early on in my business, I would cut my rate for projects if a customer asked – I didn’t want to (and frankly couldn’t afford to) lose the business.  As my business grew and I became more comfortable with how I fit in with customers and prospects I started to raise my rates.  That said, I was still a little bit cheaper than many of my competitors and had the discretion to adjust them if needed.

I think a sole proprietor is a great fit for smaller networks. If your business network is in the 1-10 computer range a SP very likely can handle nearly all of your needs.  If your network is larger than this it might be a good idea to ask your potential SP some questions as to their overall qualifications, other customer sizes and their general availability.  In my experience I could handle a many smaller networks, but the minute you add a 25-50 person network or two to the equation it starts to get a bit difficult to keep everyone happy.  There’s a slippery slope between over-extending yourself and trying to grow your customer base as a SP.  My technical skills grew greatly when I was a SP but there were times when I was definitely in the weeds when I was stretching my tech skills some.

Why a SP might not be a good choice:

Many of the reasons a SP is perhaps not a great choice relate to scale – your SP is a single tech and only has a certain amount of time in a day to work on customer issues.  If the tech is already working on a customer issue across town, is sick, on vacation (though not terribly likely), or is generally unavailable they may not be available to handle your issues immediately which could be frustrating if you’re in a bind.

Most of the issues I experienced around this was for my larger clients.  Since they were larger, they had more users which led to two different types of scale issues that I found frustrating.  The first was emergencies – an emergency at a larger organization will likely result in more panicky phone calls and will have a larger impact on your day.  Additionally, my larger customers typically had more frequent smaller issues that required more calls for support which was a challenge time wise.  This also happened with smaller customers but it was much more apparent in my larger customers.

The other reason why a SP might not be a good choice (and this weighs a little more heavily on true Sole Proprietors than a single tech with support staff) is that there is a higher than average chance that your tech may just disappear.  I landed many new customers who found me when their previous technician either disappeared or went back to a full-time job and didn’t have time to help them any longer.  As it turns out I disappeared as well, though I did find another company and introduced them to as many of my customers as I could before I left.  Most of my customers were very appreciative.

My recommendation:

I think hiring a SP is a great way to get quality support for your organization as clearly I helped support my family for a few years as one.  I think you need to make sure you know your SP a bit before giving them full reign over your network.  How many customers they have, how big their average customer is, what their general availability is, if they’re planning on being around for awhile (not looking for a job), and do they have any backup in case of emergency would be good points to address with them.  It’s also a good idea to make sure that the key points of your IT infrastructure are addressed as early as possible to build a good foundation for their role in your organization.  You can read my key points in my previous post here.

Lastly, it’s a good sign if your SP has a contract for you to sign.  As I grew my business I made my customers sign an agreement that essentially laid out several things such as rates, terms on payment, my availability, and a few other points.  It wasn’t an exclusivity type of contract, but it laid out what our relationship would be.  I found that to be especially helpful as if I was competing against another company just having this made me look a little more organized than some of my competition.