Updated August 2026

Key takeaways_

• Deciding the right size for your IT team depends on goals, system complexity and the pace of digital transformation.
• Under-resourcing leads to slow response times, security gaps and stalled innovation, while over-resourcing increases costs without clear ROI.
• Overcome these challenges by assessing workloads, leveraging managed services and adopting automation to scale efficiently.

When it’s appreciated enough or not, IT is the lifeblood of any organisation. Without it, staff can’t do their job, customers can’t be served and everything gets a lot more painful.

Yet, few organisations have enough resource when it comes to IT. Tight budgets, recruitment challenges and ever-evolving technology often mean there just aren’t enough people, leaving critical operational gaps and extra pressure on existing staff.

Recent research we conducted found that 72% of businesses feel they do not have enough IT resource. And this causes significant issues, including reactive processes, operational gaps and stretched personnel.

But despite recognising the frustrations, many businesses resign themselves to the status quo, relying on the same small teams they’ve always had. This reluctance to expand, even as modern demands outpace what a small team can realistically deliver, is exacerbated by industry wide skills shortages and rising.

In this era, outsourcing is key. We explore what you realistically need for a fully functional IT team and how managed services can help you readdress the balance, without significant investment.

Traditional IT staffing benchmarks_

Having enough staff to cover every facet of IT is vital. With proper resource, you can resolve issues faster and reduce risk.

When considering how many people you need to support your business, industry-standard benchmarks offer a useful starting point. While every organisation’s needs are unique, these ratios provide a general framework for resourcing decisions:

• Small businesses: Typically, the benchmark is 1 IT staff member for every 40 users. Smaller organisations often require more hands-on support per user, as their technology environments may be less automated and more diverse.
• Mid-sized businesses: The average ratio is 1 IT staff member per 55 users. As businesses grow, they begin to implement more standardised systems and processes, allowing their IT teams to scale more efficiently.
• Large businesses: For large enterprises, the ratio stretches to about 1 IT staff member for every 75 users. Bigger organisations tend to invest in centralised management tools, automation and more robust processes. This reduces the volume of manual intervention required for day-to-day support.

More than a numbers’ game_

It’s easy to focus on headcount. But more IT staff doesn’t automatically mean better support. What’s often more important is whether your team has the right mix of skills, experience and capacity to tackle the challenges your organisation faces.

The hidden costs of growing an internal IT team_

The answer to the challenge seems simple: just hire more IT staff. But, as most leaders will know, it’s never that simple. There are good reasons why IT teams are often on the small side, even when demand is greater:

• Recruitment and retention challenges: The competition for talented IT professionals is fierce, especially amongst an ongoing global skills shortage. Attracting top candidates requires not only attractive compensation packages, but also a compelling workplace culture and opportunities for advancement. Once hired, retaining skilled staff is an ongoing challenge, as turnover can incur further recruitment expenses and disrupt continuity.
• Training and upskilling: Technology evolves rapidly, and your team must keep pace. Investing in ongoing training, certifications and upskilling is crucial. These costs, often underestimated, are necessary to prevent skill gaps and maintain operational resilience.
• Salary and benefits: The true cost of an IT employee extends beyond base salary. Comprehensive benefits, pension contributions, bonuses and statutory obligations add significantly to total compensation. As your team grows, these cumulative costs can have a substantial impact on your budget.
• Burnout and turnover: IT teams are often stressed, particularly when resources are stretched thin. Persistent pressure can lead to burnout, resulting in decreased productivity, increased absenteeism and higher turnover rates. Each departure not only means additional recruitment costs but can also erode institutional knowledge and team morale.
• Infrastructure and tool costs: Expanding your IT team often necessitates investment in additional infrastructure, laptops, software licences, secure remote access and collaboration tools. As the team grows, so too do the costs associated with equipping and maintaining their work environment, especially when aiming to keep pace with technological best practices.

Readdressing the balance with external support_

Organisations need sufficient IT resources to perform, but this comes with significant cost and effort. But what if you could get extra resource, without having extra heads on your payroll?

Managed services offer a modern solution for organisations seeking to enhance their IT capabilities without the complexity and expense of building large internal teams. In essence, managed services are third-party offerings that take over some or all elements of your IT operations. This ranges from day-to-day system monitoring and support to cyber security, cloud management and strategic technology planning.

Rather than shouldering the full burden of recruitment, retention and ongoing training, businesses can either supplement their internal team with managed service providers (MSPs) or, in some cases, replace significant portions of their IT functions entirely.

This readdresses resourcing ratios, putting less onus on organisations to recruit large teams while ensuring they have the capacity and skill required.

The cost implication_

Cost is a significant barrier to IT resourcing. In the current climate, business budgets tend to be tight, with leaders having to prioritise spending. So, how can managed service help ease the expense associated with IT operations?

For an average IT team, you can expect to pay the following, based on industry data and average salaries:

• Salary and benefits: £25,000–£85,000 base salary, based on expertise. With benefits, total cost rises to £32,500–£110,500 per year.
• Training and certifications: £3,000–£5,000 annually per employee.

On top of this, you may need to pay additional costs for software licenses, equipment and other overheads.

Let’s take the example of a 50-person company with one IT manager and one support manager. They could spend around £111,500 a year on their IT team, covering salary, benefits and training alone.

With managed IT services, you can expect to pay a flat monthly fee around £100–£125 per user per month, depending on the scope of the contract. This should cover 24/7 support, cyber security, monitoring and strategic consulting.

On top of this, you’ll access other costs benefits, like reduced recruitment and equipment costs.

Other benefits of managed services_

By partnering with a managed service provider, businesses gain predictable costs and a suite of capabilities that elevate performance, security and innovation.

• Proactive support: Managed service providers implement continuous monitoring tools that observe systems around the clock. By preventing downtime and swiftly addressing potential problems, organisations can maintain uninterrupted operations and avoid costly interruptions.
• Access to latest technology: MSPs make significant investments in keeping their platforms, tools and knowledge up to date. Clients automatically benefit from the latest security enhancements, software updates and industry innovations without needing to research, purchase, or implement these technologies themselves.
• Flexibility and scalability: Managed services are adaptable. You can scale resources and services in response to changing business needs. This means organisations only pay for what they need, when they need it, eliminating the risk and capital commitment of overprovisioning for future growth.
• Enhanced security and compliance: Security threats are ever-evolving, and regulations are increasingly complex. MSPs employ dedicated security specialists who ensure all systems are regularly updated with patches and adhere to industry best practices.
• Internal focus shift: By outsourcing routine IT tasks and troubleshooting to an MSP, internal staff are liberated from the distractions of day-to-day maintenance. Instead, they can concentrate on high-value projects, strategic initiatives and innovation that directly contribute to business growth.

In summary, here’s how managed services and internal teams stack up:

Do you still need internal IT?

While outsourcing IT support delivers speed and scalability, the presence of an internal IT team continues to be invaluable in numerous areas.

Internal IT personnel play a crucial role in strategic planning, aligning technology initiatives closely with long-term business objectives and adapting them as organisational needs evolve. They oversee vendor management, ensuring that external solutions and services are selected, integrated and maintained in a way that best fits the unique landscape of the business.

Furthermore, they have deep expertise with business-specific systems, from bespoke applications to nuanced workflows that external providers may not fully understand.

The extent to which you choose to internalise your IT operations will depend on your operational needs and preferences. However, in any scenario, internal staff serve as a crucial bridge between the business and managed service providers. In return, your managed service contract can augment the capabilities of these internal members, ensuring they can do their jobs effectively without feeling overwhelmed.

What could your IT team achieve if they weren’t constantly fighting fires?

Strategic projects take a back seat when IT is consumed by support tickets, patching issues and managing technology sprawl. Yet those same projects are often the ones that improve security, drive efficiency and prepare the business for AI.

This practical webinar explores the warning signs of reactive IT, the risks of weak technology foundations, and the steps organisations can take to create a more secure, scalable and AI-ready environment

In our webinar, our experts explore this very concept, looking into how you can make the shift from reactive to proactive and optimise your IT strategy: