Top tips: On developing IT infrastructure

Patrick Kershaw. Photo / Supplied

IT specialist Patrick Kershaw compares outsourcing your technology needs with bringing a technician into the staff team.

What is the most cost-effective approach for developing our IT infrastructure?

Firstly, don't go DIY. Many small business operators prefer to build their own infrastructure with help from "a friend who knows a bit about computers" and it usually leads to critical technology failures Outsource specialist IT skills to ensure you can put in place reasonable stages for your business development and support.

When is a business big enough to employ an in-house technology team and what's the best solution?

Usually by the time a business has reached a medium-sized enterprise, most technology growing pains have been ironed out and outsourcing has been leaned on heavily. It seems sensible to hire a skilled technician to run a hassle-free IT infrastructure. But only an enterprise with multi-office requirements, complicated servers, challenging core programme issues and a high user count will keep a good in-house technician happy.

General day-to-day identification and logging of issues, running of backup systems, all first-level Microsoft/Desktop issues, basic application updates and troubleshooting should be done in-house. However, an outsourced IT specialist should be used for strategic technology planning, server operating system migrations, exchange upgrades, conversions and migrations, internet security and access, staff training, remote access solutions, backup to internal IT staff, service pack upgrades, wide-area networking, spam and email control, backup system architecture and policies and disaster prevention and recovery.

What do I look for in an outsourced IT supplier?

Work with a supplier who will propose various options and solutions. Never let a technician be your point of contact to your outsource supplier. Patrick Kershaw is a partner with Horizon Pacific, a nationwide technology support provider specialising in assisting SMEs with technology requirements.