Efficiency is always one of the main aims of any business. Virtual IT support provides companies with an opportunity to put their feet up and focus on other aspects of their business which isn’t, say, data management, firewalls or any other aspect of the IT infrastructure. Through virtual IT, you dramatically reduce your overhead costs whilst gaining ground on productivity.
Without much of an IT background, it might be difficult to figure out the factors you need to look at when hiring virtual IT. We’ll simultaneously look at the advantages to make sure that you get value out of this article. Whilst still on that thought, let’s get into the factors to put into consideration.
3 things to think about when virtual work is involved
A. Your business’ safety and information security
Bringing on a virtual team means that you’re adding a third party to your normal business operations. They will have contact with sensitive information and company data. Especially when IT services are concerned, they’ll request you to provide sensitive information. It then becomes critical before engaging a virtual company to being clear on how they will protect your information. This should be provided regularly in writing to keep the virtual company accountable.
B. Communication barriers
In most cases, the IT support company that you are going to view as a prospective is going to be located overseas. This means issues with language, time zones, and yes, cultures. To make things easier, you’ll need to get into this working relationship with an open mind that is willing to work through all these barriers. What you’re willing to work through can be established openly in the form of agreements and possible solutions that can combat issues before they come up.
C. Operational control
Depending on your agreed work structure, outsourced talent is trained to work perfectly well without much supervision. If you’re used to being hands-on on every detail of your business, you’ll feel like you’re losing grip on operations and how your new employees communicate with clients. This can be adjusted of course, if you’re clear from the beginning about how much power you’re willing to give up.
Advantages of virtual IT support
Making the huge (but important) decision to virtualize your IT support brings in benefits that you’ll comfortably get used to quickly. These benefits affect your overall operations but more so, how productive your business becomes.
IT Expertise
Professional skills are vital. A combination of professional skills plus experience is a MUST-HAVE. A virtual agency connects you to the best industry-specific talent available within a certain geographical location. It’s also fascinating that you’ll likely get talent that is also proficient in a couple of other fields that are related to IT. Yes, you’ll be gaining extra talent in one person. Usually, virtual companies will have top-of-the-range technology equipment and tools that ensure premium performance from the first day of work. This will mean work that is of higher quality and satisfactory customer care.
Lowered Costs
Probably the most common benefit, lower costs seal the deal for a lot of companies that consider virtual work. In most cases, the wage patterns between developed countries and developing ones (which is where most virtual work is hired from) are quite different. Work which is commonly highly priced in developed countries can easily be acquired at a lower cost. From 2004, this wage difference settled at 40% then rose to a hefty 60% difference in 2020 during the pandemic. It’ll also save you the hassle of upgrading equipment and providing benefits since the virtual company would’ve provided them.
Increased in-house performance
With little to no work to do as far as IT is concerned, your in-house team can focus on other high-priority tasks that push your business goals and routine functions. Without a doubt, this will increase overall employee productivity and eliminate the stress that comes with having to perform IT responsibilities.
And now to you…
With the world fast-changing, it has become crucial to chuck out the old ‘office’ employee type of mentality. Remote work is quickly covering the ground and it is responsible for keeping a lot of companies globally from falling into bankruptcy, or worse, shutting down during the pandemic.
BPOZimbabwe provides expert IT support that provides your customers with the best services and competitive advantage. Fears of confidentiality and data protection can be quitened when you realize that we’ve set up an unwavering information security system. This ranges from top notch secure premises, network and windows login (PC locking), secure remote access and secure email with digital signatures. All our employees sign confidentiality and Non- Disclosure Agreements at the time of employment. BPOZimbabwe also has wide security management with administrative auditing, reporting and monitoring facilities put in place secure data at every point. You also won’t have to worry about workstations latching on to any bugs because they are individually secured by Anti-Virus Protection.
English is the official language for Zimbabweans which ensures that communication will be smooth. We aim at building long-term trusting relationships with your business that enables you to decide how much control over your business you’ll give to us whilst you focus on other critical functions of your business.
Our talent is trained, has experience in various cultures, and has flexible work time zones. Contact us to get started.