Outsourcing your IT needs is a great option for many companies. I created and operated a company that was “outsourced IT” for many organizations for more than ten years. The key is to beware of the company you're working with. Check them out and make sure it's a company you feel confident being supported by.

So first the cons.

When it comes to cons, I always remember the company in Florida that I helped, where the CEO actually spent about half an hour telling me how I wasn't going to find anything there during the security review, but he just wanted to be extra sure. After I finished meeting with him, I went out into his office and looked at his network. I like to do a head to toe examination, which I learned earlier in my life as a paramedic. So I started the Internet working, and then I checked the router. Everything looked updated.

Then I looked at the back of the firewall appliance and I saw that there was only one cord plugged in. Guess which cord? If you guessed the power cord, you're right. I traced the Ethernet cable and found that their router went straight into their corporate switch, meaning they had the tools to protect themselves, but the tools weren't hooked up and his company was vulnerable.

Now this is a company that makes a product that is not only patented, but it's also the only one of its kind on the market. The CEO told me stories about people standing in the parking lot with cameras taking pictures of everybody going in and out of his office, hoping that they can find somebody with an open blueprint or some other information that would reveal how their product is made. So this is a company that needs to be secure.

When I showed the CEO what I found, he turned beet-red. I then asked the CFO, who is the go-to person in the office for IT matters, “Did you know about this?” She replied, “Oh, yeah. Whenever that thing's hooked up, we can't send or receive e-mail, so our outsource people said we should just unhook it, and we did.”

I explained that their outsource IT professionals did not give them good advice. All they needed to do was open up the ports so e-mail could come through. I then said, “Well, were they going to come back and help you fix this?” She said they were. So I continued, “Well, tell me this was yesterday when they unhooked it, and that they'll be back later today to hook it back up.”

“Oh, no,” she said, “It's been about six months.”

Yikes! But this is the kind of atrocities I see. At that same company I found out that their domain administrator password was the one-word name of their company. So in other words, if the company was named Tekco, their password to get into their domain as the administrator who has access to everything was also Tekco. Once anyone logs in as a domain administrator, they have total access to all data and configuration in your entire domain. Talk about a hacker attack just waiting to happen.

As it turns out, this particular outsource company uses that password system for all their clients. That way, if they hire a new employee, they can tell the employee, “Here's a list of 50 companies that need to have their networks taken care of. Go ahead and run out there and take care of them. By the way, the domain administrator password is the first word of their company name.”

I later asked the CEO, “How did you know that was a good outsource company to use?” He proceeded to pull out the phone book and opened to the IT section. “See,” he said, pointing to their listing. “They have a half-page ad.”

Fortunately, he doesn't use them anymore, and he doesn't judge IT companies by the size of their phone book ad anymore either.

Realize, too, that not all outsource providers are like the company in this example. I'm simply showing you the kinds of things you need to be aware of.

Okay, so now let's look at the pros.

The biggest pro of using an outsource IT provider is the level of expertise you can get. For example, how would you feel if you walked into the hospital and the receptionist said to you, “Good morning. We'd like to introduce you to Dr. Smith. He's our resident cardiologist. He's also our resident brain surgeon, our resident neurologist, our resident OB/GYN doctor, our resident…” If you were to hear that, would you think this doctor is really qualified in anything? No way!

Yet, in IT, it used to be that one person could be an expert in everything IT related. But because IT has expanded so much over the years, that's not so anymore. Even so, many IT professionals still think it's their responsibility to do everything in the IT department. Often, this can cause problems. That's when you need to bring in outside help. Bring in someone who is an expert in what you need done.

Additionally, outsourced IT professionals see many different businesses and often recognize problems early on, before they have a chance to damage your organization. Also consider that when you outsource your IT needs, you don't have to send people to expensive schools and long training programs so they can learn how to configure some device that will only need to be configured once. Even better, some IT outsource firms have alliances with vendors that can get you special pricing on hardware and software. Finally, should your own IT professionals move on or become ill, it would be nice to have a solid outsourced IT firm to fall back on during emergencies.

Therefore, be sure you support your IT professional, especially if he or she says to you, “We're getting ready to install the latest version of Exchange. It'd be really nice to have someone else come in and set up Exchange.” So make it okay for your IT professionals to bring someone else in if they want to. That's when you're using IT outsource providers in the most effective way. You're relying on the specific expertise of someone to help your company get over a hump or take care of a challenge.

Action Item: Even if you have an IT staff, investigate some IT outsourced firms for specific areas of expertise where your IT professionals would enjoy assistance. Call them and meet with them to discover how they can assist you with your IT needs.