Access to Expertise
Many small businesses try to handle day-to-day operations with internal IT staff, reserving outsourcing for services that require special expertise. However, the demand for conventional services can reach peaks beyond the capacity of in-house personnel. "Sometimes requests for adding or moving workstations can pile up, or the help desk can get backlogged," said Noe. "With Kent this is no problem. We just bring Kent's people in for short term work to help us get back on track."

Companies often outsource high-value services that in-house staff isn’t prepared to provide. Noe explained, "We consider Kent the top source for Microsoft BackOffice know-how. They were a tremendous help in planning and rolling out our SQL server... They also know their stuff when it comes to putting all the pieces together — the servers, hubs, switches and routers — for our wide area networking and for setting up our telecommuters."

A great asset made available through outsourcing is depth. Davis remarked, "Even if the consultant you're dealing with at the moment can't answer your question, someone at Kent always seems to come up with an answer. In fact, when we were installing our digital PBX, Kent put us in touch with another client who had just gone through a similar installation. That turned out to be a huge help."

Outsourcing gives small businesses the leverage to accomplish a lot with a little. RINA's Sebastian commented, "Kent's people have been able to come up with solutions for whatever we've needed. They set up our wide area network and our Internet connectivity and they've helped us incorporate Windows seamlessly. We think of them as an extension of our own staff, and it really gives us the sense of having a world class IT organization even though we're a small company."

Knowledge Transfer
Knowledge transfer from consultant to client is an important part of Progent’s outsourcing model. Progent's success depends in large part on the ability of its clients to absorb the new paradigms for information technology so that the information systems that are the focus of all this effort can move ahead and stay competitive. Quester's Davis commented "Kent set up a groupware application for our Help Desk and then turned over its maintenance to us. That got us going quickly but also allowed our IT staff to stay in control of what we consider a core service for our customers. Kent also set up our first ISDN lines for telecommuting and walked us through the procedure. We now handle all new setups. The same thing happened with our Internet connections. Kent got things started and then trained our staff on router configuration. We've been able to take it from there."

Small companies rarely have time to climb the learning curve of wide area networking technology by themselves, but with a little help they can quickly become remarkably self-sufficient. "After Kent set up the T-1 links for our WAN," recalled RINA's Sebastian, "they managed the whole system for a while and then got us involved. Now we take care of our own job tickets with the carriers. "

Knowledge Transfer
Outsourcing makes sense for everybody, but small companies need an outsourcing model that is flexible, affordable, and aligned with their business goals. Progent’s consultants are world-class experts at providing IT services to small businesses and can offer outsourcing solutions that address the special needs of your organization.

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If you are interested in using Progent's outsourcing, consulting or support services, call 800-993-9400 or send email to information@progent.com

To download a PDF file of the complete IT Outsourcing White Paper, click:
Small Business IT Outsourcing White Paper: Outsourcing Advantages (140 Kb PDF file).