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So what does IT outsourcing entail? It depends—whatever your need, there’s probably a tech vendor out there to fill it. Categories that see the most outsourcing are those that are too complex for small companies—such as server maintenance and Web site development—or not worth taking up a large company’s resources, such as design work and database chores.

“A small business has IT needs that run the gamut from complex server work down to desktop and printer issues,” says Joe Mooney, CEO of St. Louis Park–based Techies Outsourced IT, a computer and network management company. “To deal with all of these issues, you need to hire to the most complex systems you run.”

Unfortunately, says Mooney, “this means that you end up with a highly skilled IT person that spends most of his time solving the simplest problems, or you end up with a lower-skill person who can’t deal with complex issues. You end up either getting a bored, overqualified tech or a stressed-out underqualified tech.”

Most businesses don’t go so far as sacking their entire IT staffs. But some find it worthwhile to retain outside vendors to augment in-house expertise—“multisourcing” talent to tailor their IT schemes for maximum efficiency.

The Right Fit

“Some customers look at outsourcing as an opportunity to reduce cost,” says Philip LaForge, vice president of data centers for Berbee Information Networks, an IT consultancy based in Wisconsin, with a data center in Brooklyn Park. “We work with them to calculate the potential [return on investment] of outsourcing versus insourcing. Most typically, they want access to additional IT skills so they can free their internal resources.”

And some companies use outsourcing to weed out internal resources they might not need, according to Mooney. “Internal IT staff sometimes deploy unneeded technology in order to justify their existence,” he says. “We’ve seen technology deployments that don’t make much business sense, but sure looked like they were important. With outsourcing, every project has to be justified.”

In addition to lower costs, potential benefits of outsourcing include 24/7 access to dedicated IT resources that your company could never maintain on its own, and the ability to have the technology your business needs to expand. That last factor can be especially important for a small but growing company.