By PC Madness ·
The short answer
Once a business has more than a handful of staff, someone has to own IT. The choice is between hiring that person, paying a provider to do it, or a mix of the two. For most Perth businesses with 5 to 50 people, a single in-house hire can't cover everything modern IT and security demand, and building an internal team is out of reach for most. But there are businesses where an in-house person is the right call, and many where the best answer is both.
This article compares the three options honestly: what each one gets you, where each one falls short, and how to work out which fits your business.
What in-house IT looks like in a small business
In a business this size, "in-house IT" rarely means a department. It usually means one of two things: a dedicated IT person or IT manager, or a staff member with another job who has become the go-to person for computers because they're good with them.
The strengths are real. An in-house person is on site, knows your people and your quirks, and can walk over to a desk the moment something goes wrong. They understand how your business actually works, which matters when you're choosing software or planning a move.
The limits are just as real. One person can only be in one place, takes leave, gets sick and eventually moves on, often taking everything they know about your setup with them. They're also expected to be an expert in support, networking, Microsoft 365, backups, purchasing and cyber security all at once. Security is usually the part that waits, because it's the part nobody notices until something goes wrong.
What outsourced managed IT looks like
With managed IT, a provider takes ongoing responsibility for an agreed scope: your devices, accounts, backups, security tools and support for your staff, for a flat monthly fee. Instead of one person, you get a team with a spread of skills, monitoring that runs around the clock, and processes that don't depend on any one person being available.
Most of the work happens remotely. Monitoring software on each device flags problems such as failed updates, full drives or disabled security tools, and the team fixes them, often before anyone in the office notices. Staff get help through remote IT support, with on-site visits when hardware needs hands on it.
The trade-off is that the provider isn't sitting in your office. They won't overhear that the printer has been playing up, and they need to be told about new starters, office moves and new software. A good provider makes that easy, but it's still a different relationship from having someone down the corridor.
In-house vs managed IT, side by side
| Dimension | In-house IT | Managed IT |
|---|---|---|
| Coverage | Works their hours and takes leave. | Covers support hours and monitors systems around the clock. |
| Skills | One person brings one person's experience. | A provider brings a team with a wider spread of skills across support, networks and security. |
| Cost | A salary plus super, leave, training and tools. | A flat monthly fee for an agreed scope. |
| Knowledge of your business | Hard to beat. | A provider builds it through documentation and an audit at the start. |
| Continuity | Can walk out the door. | A provider keeps it documented and shared across the team. |
| Security | Depends on one person's time and training. | Includes patching, endpoint protection and backup checks within its scope. |
When in-house IT is the better fit
A managed provider isn't always the answer. Keeping IT in-house can make more sense when:
- Your business runs specialised equipment or software that needs someone on site every day, such as production, lab or point-of-sale systems.
- IT is closely tied to how you deliver your service, and decisions need someone who sits in every planning meeting.
- You have enough day-to-day IT work to keep a skilled person busy, and the budget to keep their skills and tools current.
- You already have a capable IT person who is happy in the role. Replacing them with a provider for the sake of it rarely pays off.
Even then, an in-house person benefits from backup. Ask what happens when they are on leave, and who checks their security work.
When outsourcing makes more sense
Managed IT tends to be the better fit when:
- IT has fallen to someone whose real job is something else, and it's eating into that job.
- There isn't enough IT work for a full-time hire, but too much to ignore.
- Nobody is clearly responsible for security, updates or checking that backups actually work.
- You'd struggle to keep running if your one IT person left tomorrow.
- You need after-hours monitoring, or cover across more than one site.
For a business at this stage, managed IT services give you a team rather than a single person, and the knowledge stays with the business rather than with one person.
The middle ground: co-managed IT
For many businesses the best answer isn't either-or. Co-managed IT means an outside provider works alongside your in-house person and shares the workload. A common split is for the internal person to keep looking after staff, purchasing and the business-specific systems they know best, while the provider takes on monitoring, patching, backups and security tools such as EDR and MDR.
That gives your IT person a team to lean on, someone to cover their leave, and a second set of eyes on security, without replacing them. It's also an easy way to try a provider before deciding whether to hand over more.
Questions to ask before you decide
- Who is responsible for IT security today, and how many hours a week do they actually spend on it?
- What happens if our IT person is away for two weeks, or leaves?
- Is our setup written down anywhere someone else could follow?
- When did someone last check that a backup could actually be restored?
- Are we paying a skilled person to do routine work a provider could automate?
If those questions are hard to answer, that is usually the sign that IT needs more support than it has today, whichever model you choose.
How PC Madness can help
We look after Perth businesses from our Midland HQ and offer both co-managed and fully managed IT, with cybersecurity included in every plan as standard. If you already have someone in-house, we'll work with them rather than around them. We don't publish a one-size price list; our managed IT pricing page explains what shapes a quote.
Not sure which model suits you? Send us a message to book a free, obligation-free IT security audit. We'll look at your current setup and tell you honestly whether your business needs a provider, more support for your in-house person, or neither.
