As small and medium-sized businesses rely more and more on technology to do business, the expenses of maintaining IT systems have risen as well. As a result, it’s simple to see why small companies contemplate outsourcing their IT services or merely technical support outsourcing to save money and stay a competitive advantage.
Software support outsourcing
What is Technical Support Outsourcing?
Technical support outsourcing (also known as IT help desk outsourcing) is the practice of contracting an outside business to handle your technical support, such as answering customer queries and troubleshooting a product or service.
Organizations can contact technical support agents through onshoring, nearshoring, or offshoring, just like any other sort of outsourcing. However, most organizations look offshore for technical support services. Technical support is usually outsourced to offshore software companies in India, Vietnam, Malaysia, or the Philippines.
One of the primary reasons driving market expansion is the growing need for cost-effective solutions to increase efficiency. However, issues such as outsourcing might reduce the quality of technical assistance, stifling industry growth.
Advantages of Technical Support Outsourcing
Among many benefits of software support outsourcing, the most important are:
Collaborate with the Experts
One of the most significant outsourcing advantages of software support is that you will be able to hire highly qualified and experienced individuals to handle all of your company’s technical support needs. This might even be more beneficial for businesses with no technological background.
The specialists will understand your goal and provide you with full technical assistance for your clients without requiring you to enter the domain and squander your valuable time.
Better Technology
In reality, software support outsourcing firms have better and more modern technology and tools than organizations that do not provide technical assistance as their primary offering. As a result, by outsourcing your company software support projects, you may achieve rapid response rates, accurate approach implementation, quality issue resolution, delighted clients, and business development.
Save more cost
Hiring software support executives and creating a solid in-house help staff may need agent investment. Furthermore, training new staff and acquiring the tools to do their jobs might be costly.
On the other hand, outsourcing eliminates the need to set up equipment or extra space for your employees, cutting your overall company costs. In this case, you’d have to pay for a software support package that suits your company’s needs.
According to numerous studies and polls, when organizations outsource their software support initiatives, they save close to 80% of the total cost compared to hiring in-house technical support executives.
High-Quality Service
When you outsource your software support project to a reputable outsourcing firm, you may believe that the partner is competent enough to provide top-quality service that fulfills your expectations and solves your problem. An improvement in the quality of your delivery would, in turn, aid in improving client happiness, resulting in more income.
Scalability
Growth is a specific element in the company, requiring hiring more staff to accommodate the increasing call volumes, among other variables. Outsourcing companies are scalable, allowing for corporate expansion and growth.
Which of these is an advantage to outsourcing as a way to provide user support?
Disadvantages of Technical Support Outsourcing
While there are several advantages to establishing an offshore team, there are some disadvantages as well:
Making the Wrong Decision
There are a plethora of software support outsourcing firms on the market. As a result, there are several dangers associated with IT outsourcing; you may wind up selecting the incorrect outsourcing partner for your software support project.
If your support outsourcing partner fails to satisfy your company’s needs and expectations in a timely and effective manner, you may have quality concerns. Furthermore, if you wind up outsourcing your technical assistance project to an unskilled service provider, you may find yourself in an unpleasant scenario and wasting time and money.
So, to get the full benefits of outsourcing software support, you must select an honest and dependable outsourcing service.
Lack of Control
In reality, if you outsource your software support project to an outside team, you will be unable to supervise the work frequently. Furthermore, if your support outsourcing partner is located outside of the country, you may have time zone and language differences, which may cause a barrier in both sides’ communication.
Reduced Feedback
If your software contains a flaw, you can expect that your customers will discover it—and your help desk will be the first to know. If you have in-house tech support, they may quickly tell your development team to resolve the problem. However, if it is outsourced, it may take longer for them to be contacted and receive the information they require to investigate and resolve the matter.
Aside from bugs, many businesses rely on customer input to choose what to focus on next—for example, if many customers want assistance with the configuration of a specific product feature. If this characterizes your organization, you should consider long and hard whether outsourcing is the best option.
In-house vs Outsourcing Technical Support
The significant benefit of providing in-house technical help is that problems can be resolved promptly. Proactive support can also be quickly offered. Recruiting dedicated specialized technical support, on the other hand, may not be cost-effective for most small and medium-sized businesses.
Outsourcing technical help to a third party is frequently more cost-effective than in-house support. This efficiency is attributable to the technical support outsourcing provider’s economies of scale.
| In-House Technical Support | Technical Support Outsourcing | |
| Cost | Salaries, initial and ongoing training, maintenance, and monitoring equipment | Predictable low monthly fee |
| Time | Available when your staff is available | Up to 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year |
| Expertise | Depends on internal staff capabilities, knowledge, and experience | Access to a pool of trained, qualified and experienced resources across multiple technologies |
Things to consider before choosing Software Support Outsourcing
Software support outsourcing
Control and Governance in Operations
While some companies are happy to hand over management of non-core tasks such as software support to an outsourcing partner, others believe outsourcing leads to operational control loss.
Analyze the level of control you want over your software support projects and collaborate with your support outsourcing company to create a wireframe. This ensures that you and your outsourcing partner have a clear grasp of operational governance and control.
Communication and Collaboration
Collaboration and communication might become difficult when you outsource your software support project to a separate organization. If your outsourcing agency is based in another country, communication hurdles such as language, time, background, and culture may arise.
However, with a bit of work, these concerns may be solved. Most outsourcing firms train their executives in many languages to overcome communication issues. You can also write down all of the terms and conditions and contracts. Keeping minutes of meetings when they are held is also beneficial.
Confidentiality and security
When looking for a dependable software outsourcing team to manage your project, you must let your support outsourcing partner access your business data and information. Analyze how much and what kind of sensitive data you need to share with your support outsourcing partner.
In addition, inquire about the actions the outsourcing firm will take to ensure the security and confidentiality of your company’s client data, information, and systems.
Technical Support Outsourcing – Wrapping Up
Companies cannot be as productive and efficient as they like if they seek to perform everything in-house. Because of its benefits to organizations, the notion of outsourcing is gaining traction.
It is a well-known truth that technical support outsourcing may help you minimize total IT management, support, and monitoring expenses.
Aside from financial savings, outsourcing frees up your in-house IT employees. They may then be used to achieve key company objectives. Furthermore, technical support outsourcing allows you to access skilled services while incurring no fees for employment and resource management.
InApps – Trusted offshore development center
At InApps, we provide a well-trained staff of IT specialists that have all of the necessary skill-sets and knowledge to handle your IT services efficiently. Furthermore, we assist you in managing your IT technical assistance by offering a highly flexible outsourcing model to ensure the seamless operation of your organization.
Let’s create the next big thing together!
Coming together is a beginning. Keeping together is progress. Working together is success.
