IT Offshoring Case Study

“Our home team was getting beat up. The four hour difference doesn’t seem like much, but it can be really stressful for a local team that’s trying to support it.”

When StoredTech’s clients started to expand globally, they needed a way to scale their business – fast – while maintaining exceptional service in different time zones. 

VP Of Technology, Mark Shaw says, “as cliché as it may sound, we’re focused on delighting our customers.” He continues, “so when our best customer told us that they needed support for three organisations that they had acquired in Italy, Ireland and California, we were determined to find a way to make that happen.”

“Without Tech Elite, and the ability to rapidly spin up this capability, we would have missed this opportunity and potentially lost the client to an MSP with greater global capabilities.” 

Not Your Average MSP

StoredTech provides total IT support including networks, phone systems, access control, servers, and cloud-based solutions. Sometimes this involves supporting in-house teams by filling knowledge gaps. Other times, they are responsible for all their client’s tech. Or as Mark jokes, “the one throat to choke,” if something were to go wrong.

This was fine when StoredTech clients were all based around New York and Carolina. But when some of their clients grew internationally, scaling became a challenge – especially when they were dealing with different time zones. 

Today they service clients in Japan, Korea, Taiwan, China, Russia, England, Germany, Spain, Ireland, Italy, Canada and the United States.

Time Zone Terrors

“Dealing with one or two clients in different time zones is fine,” says Mark. “But when we started talking to dozens of clients with a global presence, it was too much. We needed to do something.”

“Our home team was getting beat up,” recalls Mark. “Even the four hour difference with California doesn’t seem like much, but it can be really stressful for the local team that’s trying to support it.”

When a client’s server goes down at the beginning of the day in Italy, they need it fixed straight away. That can be difficult when all your staff are asleep in the U.S.. As StoredTech grew, they needed a second team to take over when head office went home for the day. That’s when they started looking into offshoring.

Looking For Offshoring Answers 

“Our initial attempts at building an international team were gruelling,” remembered Mark. 

“We tried hiring ex-pats, but that didn’t work out. It just never really clicked. It didn’t feel quite right. We looked to hire freelancers, but without local support, the language and cultural barriers were impossible. And we interviewed a myriad of outsourcing companies but found they didn’t understand the special needs of a Managed Service Provider (and some seemed plain sketchy).”   

Your Offshoring Advocate 

“Like everyone in tech, we’re control freaks,” laughs Mark.

“Technology Elite took the time to understand our needs. With their guidance, we have grown a team of four specialists in the Philippines,” Mark recalls. “They’ve helped us with everything including recruiting, wages, benefits, healthcare, employee evaluations, and nurturing our team. They showed us how it all works and helped us implement everything. And they give us an ongoing contact on the ground so we can stay in tune with our team. That gives us a huge advantage.”

“We liked the model. It’s very co-managed, we’re very much in it together. Just as we seek to become a part of the fabric in our clients’ organisations, we wanted our Philippines team to become part of the fabric of our organisation. And they have.”

In many ways, StoredTech is a model of offshoring success. Although their Technology Elite team are located halfway around the world, they are valued as co-workers and friends. And through their contributions, StoredTech is able to lay the tracks in front of the train to ensure their service (and reputation) remains impeccable as their business grows.  

Pivoting For New Opportunities (and Profits)

Not only has StoredTech been able to maintain exceptional service to their growing list of global clients, but they have also slashed waiting times for some of their most popular services. Mark recalls, “Our waiting list to migrate clients to M365 used to be 90 days. Now it’s down to just 7 days. And we can easily complete 20 projects per month, which gives us a huge advantage in the market.” 

Like many MSPs, Mark used to struggle with regular maintenance tasks like updates on servers, bios firmware, hosts, and OS. Now they are routine. And with 24-hour capabilities, they can be scheduled so clients’ systems are not interrupted. While many companies have fallen victim to security breaches like Kaseya and SolarWinds, StoredTech clients have increased their protection, giving them a reputation for reliability.

Peer Praise

One client even confessed that he asked his buddy, another IT veteran, to poke around their company’s IT environment and see how he thought StoredTech were doing. Mark recounts, “the friend came back to the client and said that there was nothing more he could recommend – their bios, firmware and patches were all up to date.” The friend is said to have exclaimed, “these guys are better than me!”. 

Helping A Great MSP Become Even Better (and Bigger)

With Technology Elite’s help, StoredTech has been able to grow with their clients and maintain exceptional service standards while scaling their business to now serve clients across every continent (except Antarctica) with ample coverage across every time zone. And they have the processes and people to set and achieve exciting goals for the future.

“We’ve reduced the stress and headaches across our team. They’re not up all night working. They know they’re supported when they leave the office at the end of the day,” says Mark.

For more information on how Technology Elite can help you grow your team in the Philippines — so you can elevate your service, multiply your margins, and scale your business for around one third the labour cost — schedule your Free Offshoring Opportunity Assessment.

Summary Points

• StoredTech provides total IT support across every continent (except Antarctica).
• When some of their existing clients expanded globally, they needed a way to service their growing needs (in different time zones)
• They tried hiring ex-pats, freelancers, and numerous outsourcing companies unsuccessfully before finding Technology Elite
• Technology Elite helped with everything from recruiting, wages, benefits, healthcare, evaluations and nurturing their growing team of four IT specialists
• Without Technology Elite they admit they would not have been able to keep up with their clients’ international growth and lost their business  
• With Technology Elite, they have a reliable way to scale while maintaining the exceptional services that enabled them to reach this point of success