Smart individuals get themselves insured. Chances are, though, that most people will never use it.
But can you skip health or vehicle insurance if that’s the case? You know you can’t.
Why? While you may never use insurance, having one gives you a sense of security. It saves you from the hassle of paying a hefty cost during disasters. In short, going without it isn’t even an option.
For a global organization with 24/7 operations, having off-hours IT support is a must-have, like an insurance policy. Just as insurance provides a safety net against emergencies, off-hours IT support safeguards your business against costly IT disruptions, ensuring seamless operations.
Let’s examine why you need off-hours IT support, the two options available to achieve it, and how our DXNightWatch fits into this broader picture.
Why Off-Hours IT Support is a Must for Global Enterprises
When you’re a global organization, your IT landscape runs 24/7.
That means that when your daytime team heads back home and retires for the night, many critical system processes still take place, such as nightly backups, maintenance activities, or system upgrades. Having a team that can monitor these processes and intervene (whenever and wherever necessary) ensures that these jobs run without delay or disruption.
While that sounds great on the surface, it won’t carry much significance if it doesn’t translate into some tangible benefits. Gladly, it does.
Minimizes Downtime: IT outages can cost companies up to $1 million per hour. Many of these happen during off-hours. Support during this time is crucial to minimizing downtime and promptly addressing any emergencies.
Optimizes Internal IT Team: When off-hours monitoring and support are in place, IT issues are detected and resolved without being escalated to internal teams. That means your internal regular-shift team can focus on strategic daytime activities.
Enhances Customer Satisfaction: With overnight support ensuring business continuity, your customers worldwide can access services seamlessly, regardless of time zones. The result is improved customer trust and satisfaction.
The Two Approaches to Off-Hours IT Support: In-House vs Outsourcing
Your organization has two primary options for covering off-hours: hiring an in-house team or outsourcing support to a service provider partner. Each approach has its pros and cons.
In-house teams offer control and immediate response times, but they can be expensive and limited in expertise. Outsourcing, on the other hand, provides cost savings, access to specialized expertise, and flexibility.
Why In-House IT Staffing May Not Be the Right Choice
“The challenge with in-house overnight IT teams is balancing cost and capability. I’ve seen how maintaining a full in-house team for off-hours support can drain resources in most instances,” says Vijaya Narasimha Salivendala, Associate Director, Cloud Competency, Techwave.
Off-hours IT support is primarily a commodity-based function that relies on routine monitoring and predefined playbooks. Night shift engineers typically monitor systems, execute scripted actions, and escalate only exceptions. While this delivers consistent value, the value offered is not strategic — maintaining an in-house team just for this purpose is costly.
While having direct control over operations is appealing, the practical realities often make this approach less efficient and more expensive.
Higher Costs: Our experience with clients suggests that maintaining a small team of 3-5 engineers overnight can cost upwards of $500,000 annually (including salaries, benefits, and training expenses). For many businesses, this level of spending offers a limited return on value, especially when most tasks are low complexity.
Scheduling Difficulties: If you’re building a team of local engineers, managing night shifts could prove complex. The teams that work during odd hours report higher dissatisfaction and turnover rates.
Underutilization of Bandwidth: Much of the off-hour work involves routine monitoring, which does not fully leverage the team’s complete bandwidth (studies report bandwidth utilization ranging between 30% and 50%). That means you end up paying more for less.
Benefits of Choosing Outsourcing Services over In-House Team
Outsourcing off-hours support is not just about cutting costs—it’s about redirecting resources to higher-impact opportunities. By offloading commoditized tasks to a reliable external partner, organizations can maintain service levels while redirecting internal investments toward innovation and strategic projects.
Predictable Costs with Higher ROI: Outsourcing converts a high fixed cost into a manageable service fee. You pay for outcomes, not headcount, freeing budgets for business-forward projects.
Playbook Execution at Scale: Outsourced providers specialize in following operational runbooks with precision and discipline. They can equip their teams to handle routine monitoring and incident response precisely, as outlined, escalating only when necessary.
Global Talent, Local Focus: IT Vendors provide experienced engineers capable of handling complex tickets, ensuring 24/7 support without sacrificing quality or responsiveness.
Elasticity and Agility: Outsourced models flex with demand—no hiring delays or ramp-up lags, just the capacity you need when you need it.
24/7 Reliability: Their offshore and nearshore teams can work across time zones to provide uninterrupted support. Incidents don’t wait for business hours—nor should your response.
Vijaya Narasimha further adds to the topic, “IT Co-sourcing off-hours support enables organizations to shift from reactive problem-solving to proactive IT management, driving innovation and business growth.”
Techwave’s DXNightWatch: Cost-Efficient Third-Shift IT Support
DXNightWatch by Techwave offers a cost-effective alternative for off-hours IT support. Powered by a team of global IT engineers, it comes with tailored packages backed by high-quality support.
Some key features of DXNightWatch include:
- Flexible Pricing Models: Options include FTE-based, device-based, and ticket-based pricing to suit your needs.
- Global Talent: Powered by an expert team of engineers proficient at everything from monitoring to handling complex emergencies.
- Quick Transition: Switch to DXNightWatch in not months but a few weeks. The faster transition timeline accelerates your value realization.
- Customized Packages: Standard, enhanced, and premium packages are available to meet different business requirements.
Enabling a European Chemical Manufacturer to Build IT Infrastructure Operations
Let’s walk you through one of our real-world projects to illustrate how outsourcing off-hours IT support to an IT Service Provider (like us) can provide more value and a higher return on investment.
A global chemical manufacturer needed to establish IT capabilities from the ground up after its divestment from the parent company. To accomplish that, they could have either hired and built a team of IT engineers or opted for an IT co-sourcing option with DXNightWatch. The client saw the value proposition in the latter, and so our engagement took off.
Our offshore model, driven by global talent and ticket-based pricing, covered the client’s comprehensive IT needs, including:
- Infrastructure setup (hybrid network architecture development, server environments virtualization, and seamless data migration)
- IT Monitoring & Support (24/7 infrastructure monitoring with automated alerts and rapid incident response)
- Standardization of IT Service Management (ITIL-based service desk operations for incident, problem, and change management)
- Disaster Recovery with Azure (Azure as a backup solution to enhance disaster recovery preparedness)
- Scalable Cloud & Infrastructure Management (optimizedcloud workloads and hybrid network connectivity)
- Performance & Cost Optimization (continuous infrastructure assessment, backup management, and system upgrades)
Considering the volume of tickets, our DXNightWatch services are delivering a 60%+ reduction in annual costs for the client (compared to maintaining internal IT Operations for off-hours support).
That means the client can now maintain its SLAs and capabilities today at a fraction of the cost.
Wrapping Up
In the world of IT, off-hours support is not just a luxury; it’s a necessity. While hiring an in-house team might seem straightforward, it can be costly and inefficient. Managed Services, on the other hand, offer a flexible and cost-effective way to keep your business running smoothly around the clock. By choosing an exemplary outsourcing service (like DXNightWatch), you can save money while ensuring your IT operation stays on top of the game.