Somewhere between 15 and 50 employees, IT stops being something the office manager can handle on the side. The usual next step is to post a job ad for an "IT generalist." Sometimes that is exactly right. Often, a mix of outside support and a clear owner inside the company works better and costs less.
What an in-house hire really costs
Salary is only the start. Add payroll taxes and benefits, tools and training, and the time it takes to recruit and onboard. Then consider coverage: one person means no help during vacations or sick days, and nobody to check their work on security-critical settings.
What outside support really costs
With prepaid support blocks or a managed plan, you pay for the hours you use, get a team with varied experience, and keep continuity when one person is unavailable. The trade-off: an outside partner is not in the office to plug in a monitor, and needs good documentation to be efficient.
A simple way to decide
- Mostly on-site, hands-on work (equipment, AV, desk moves)? An in-house hire makes sense.
- Mostly accounts, cloud apps, security settings and occasional projects? Remote support covers it well.
- Strategic decisions and budgeting? Neither a junior hire nor a help desk will do this well — that is what a fractional CTO or vCIO is for.
The hybrid most teams overlook
Name one internal "IT owner" — often an operations manager — who handles the small daily things and is the single point of contact. Back them with a prepaid block of remote support for anything technical, and a few hours of senior advice each quarter for planning. You get coverage, expertise and a budget that scales with real need.
Hire for the work you can see every day. Buy expertise for the work you only need occasionally.
If you want to try outside support without a contract, a Remote Support Block is a low-risk way to start: prepaid hours, no subscription, and unused hours are refundable within the validity period.
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