Outsourcing Your It Support Vs. Keeping An On-Site It Guy

In hospitality, IT downtime isn’t an inconvenience, it’s a crisis. A Wi-Fi outage during check-in, a PMS glitch at dinner service, or a cybersecurity alert overnight can destroy guest satisfaction and revenue. The debate every GM and operations manager faces is this: “Do we stick with the traditional on-site IT specialist, or outsource to a specialised team?”

The on-site model once made sense. It was someone familiar, on-property, ready to fix a printer or reboot a server. But today’s hospitality tech stack is vastly more complex: cloud PMS, integrated revenue tools, guest-facing apps, PCI-compliant networks, and constant cyber threats. One person simply cannot expertly cover it all, especially in remote game lodges where talent is more difficult to attract and even more difficult to retain.

When answering the question of “Do we stick with the traditional on-site IT specialist, or outsource to a specialised team?”, it is vital to do an honest reality check on costs and limitations:

• Expense: A skilled on-site IT professional costs are enourmous -  annual salary, benefits, training, and tools - often more in remote areas.

• Coverage gaps: An on-site IT professional is limited to business hours unless you pay premium overtime. They also often have no depth for specialised issues like ransomware response or cloud migrations.

• Scalability issues: It is difficult to expand expertise as your portfolio grows or tech evolves.

However, outsourcing to a hospitality-focused provider has the ability to change the game in your favour. You get an entire team of experts. A helpdesk, cybersecurity specialists, network engineers and these experts can be available 24/7/365 for a predictable OPEX fee, that is typically lower than one full-time hire.

BENEFITS OF OUTSOURCING TO GLOBAL TOUCH IT:

Outsourcing to experts like Global Touch IT provides your business with immediate benefits and expertise in your sector. These include 99.9%+ uptime, faster resolutions (often remote in minutes), proactive monitoring that prevents issues, and strategic guidance for digital transformation. Chains and independent lodges adopting outsourced models report higher staff productivity, fewer disruptions, and better security posture.

Of course, hybrids exist—on-site for hands-on tasks, outsourced for expertise, but full outsourcing increasingly wins for cost, coverage, and performance.

QUESTIONS TO HELP GUIDE YOUR DECISION:

1. What’s our true annual IT support cost today vs. the outsourced quote?

2. How many critical incidents occur outside normal hours, and how long do they take to resolve?

3. Does our current resource hold certifications in key hospitality systems (PMS, POS, guest Wi-Fi)?

4. What revenue do we lose per hour of major downtime?

5. Is the recruitment and retention of IT talent challenging (especially if you are remote)?

6. Do we have proactive monitoring, or mostly firefighting?

7. How confident are we in our cybersecurity with limited internal expertise?

8. What resolution time and uptime SLAs could an outsourced partner guarantee?

9. Would staff benefit from instant expert support over waiting for one person?

If outsourcing outperforms on most, it’s time to evolve.

Upgrade Your IT, Elevate Your Operation

Forward-thinking hospitality leaders treat IT as a strategic asset, not a cost centre. Outsourcing delivers that without the overhead. The team from Global Touch IT provides outsourced IT support tailored for hotels and lodges, reducing costs, boosting reliability, and letting you focus on hospitality. Properties across the region trust us for seamless, always-on service.