What Is An Internal IT Department?
The Downsides Of An Internal IT Department
Finding suitable IT professionals can be time consuming, expensive and occasionally unfulfilling. That is, an SMB may spend a lot of resources on the hiring and recruitment process alone, and eventually end up finding a professional they feel is suitable at a certain point in time. Nevertheless, considering many’s lack of experience and/or IT knowledge, they may not always be capable of seeing beyond present needs. Often times, they’ll hire a professional who’s well qualified during the time of hire, but moving forward, as the business’s needs and requirements change, the employee’s skills may not be enough to keep up with external competition, potentially leading to a stunt in business growth.
While a business could theoretically manage the newly established knowledge gap simply providing proper training, this approach would require the owner to be fully aware of the business’s IT requirements. Since most SMB owners don’t specialize in IT themselves, this is not always feasible.
Without a proper understanding of your business’s IT requirements, it is near impossible to offer employees the right training, without any form of setback. This in turn becomes an increasingly time consuming task, which not only distracts the owner from the core components of their business, but also, may very well burn a deep hole in the SMB’s pocket.
 So what does an internal IT department cost?
According to Payscale.com, the average salary of an Information Technology (IT) Manager in Canada is $85,837 per year, not including benefits, hiring costs and training. In addition, if an SMB were to bring on a whole team of system administrators, each member of said team would cost an average of $60,477 per year (4), once again not including the ladder components. These numbers can be quite hefty for an SMB, and in many cases, an unnecessary expense.
Some business owners prefer to keep their IT department in-house, meaning, they hire Information Technology professionals directly. Provided that the business has managed to hire experienced, well-rounded and qualified professionals, the business could benefit from having a dedicated team (or individual) devoted solely to the business and its goals (this is true for both routine and emergency situations). Additionally, an internal IT department typically provides the business with full control over its technological set up/systems, thereby minimizing security risks.
Nonetheless, while this initially appears to be the safest, most ideal choice, many SMB owners tend to overlook the downsides of opting for an internal IT department, particularly when it comes to the high costs involved and the underestimated employee knowledge gap internal IT Departments tend to possess.