When you are first setting up a Managed Service Provider (MSP) business in Australia, you would be forgiven for thinking that you should source all your staff locally. However, as your business grows, workloads increase and competitive threats creep in, you realise how important it is to be competitive, responsive, and able to attract, motivate, and retain good staff. While many MSPs hesitate when considering offshore resources there are compelling reasons for doing so. Indeed, in the global economy, we live in today if you are not leveraging offshore resources you may well be doing your company, your local team, and your clients a disservice. Here are four reasons why you should consider supplementing your team with offshore resources:

1. Lower Costs
   By leveraging offshore resources to facilitate Tier-1, Tier-2, and perhaps even Tier-3 support for your clients, you can re-purpose existing local staff that really know your clients and utilise them where they can add the most value. That might be acting as a higher-tier escalation point, doing onsite work, and/or doing project work where required. As many as 90% of ICT issues can be solved remotely, so it makes sense to build out a team of capable yet cost-effective offshore resources that can assist with remote monitoring and management, troubleshooting or fault isolation and resolution efforts, only escalating to your local team as required.
2. Rapid Responses & 24×7 Support
   Complementing your local team with experienced yet cost-effective offshore support resources will enable a rapid response, and fast isolation and resolution of issues utilising a combination of email, chat sessions, voice or video calls, and remote monitoring and management tools. The majority of issues will be resolved remotely without the need for a site visit, and for those that really do require one, you will be better resourced to get someone to site quickly, armed with all the details they need. And it is easier and far more cost-effective to enable 24×7 support for clients that demand it with offshore resources than trying to do this locally in Australia.
3. Increase in Employee Productivity
   It can be challenging to keep local resources motivated when they are being overwhelmed with a high volume of alerts and support requests. By leveraging offshore resources to complement your local team, you can provide them with an opportunity for advancement. They might act as a higher-tier escalation point, do onsite work, and/or do project work. Regardless of their exact duties, they will be far more motivated to engage and assist as required than they were before adding offshore resources to complement your local team. And as offshore support resources are more cost-effective and there is a bigger talent pool to tap into, you will be able to keep pace with demand and avoid resource constraints that lead to low morale, productivity slumps, and ultimately a drop-in service levels.
   
4. Wider Access to IT Professionals
   It can be extremely challenging and expensive to hire the talent you need in Australia these days. There are not enough young people going into ICT, and there is a lot of competition for those that do. Meanwhile, there is a huge pool of offshore ICT professionals that have the training, skills and experience that is required. And when your business is growing rapidly, and you need to add resources quickly, perhaps even bulk hires, it makes a big difference if you can place people in 2 to 4 weeks as opposed to 2 to 4 months.

The ICT market in Australia is going through a period of rapid change at present. New technologies and trends such as SD-WAN, VoIP, video conferencing, and cloud (SaaS, PaaS, and IaaS) have been driving this. COVID-19 has accelerated these changes as businesses scramble to ensure that their staff can be effective while working remotely. For MSPs, now more than ever, it is important to ensure that your business is efficient, service levels are high, staff are happy and motivated, and that you can attract and retain good talent as required. Leveraging offshore resources to complement your local team is a critical component in achieving this outcome.

Cloud Plus offers tailored staffing services via our spacious, modern offices in Manila. Staff have access to a well-appointed gym, several conference rooms, sleeping quarters for those working late or starting early, vending machines, a fully equipped kitchen and breakout areas. If you would like to explore how Cloud Plus can assist with offshore resources, please don’t hesitate to reach out via info@cloudplus.com. You can also get more info about our staffing solutions via our website.