What creatives get wrong about support – and what it costs them.
When you work in a studio, agency, or freelance setup, IT support isn’t just a background service. It’s the difference between having your projects flow smoothly or hit a wall because of “mystery tech issues” no one wants to own.
But outsourced IT still comes with baggage. I hear the same five misconceptions over and over again – often from teams who’ve either had a poor experience in the past or just never gave it a proper go.
Let’s break them down. Calmly. Clearly. With real-world consequences.
1. “Outsourced IT means slow, ticket-based support.”
This one’s a classic. Somewhere along the line, people started associating outsourced IT with outsourced everything – anonymous teams in another time zone, replying hours later with canned responses and templated advice.
In reality, the best outsourced IT partners don’t operate that way. You’re not filing tickets into a void. You’re building a relationship with a team that understands your business – sometimes better than your own staff do.
📉 The problem:
According to a 2023 report by HDI, 52% of organisations cited “response time” as the number one frustration with outsourced IT. But that stat includes the big-box providers – not boutique setups like ours that serve specific industries.
🎯 Real-world impact:
A creative agency I spoke with had a 3-day delay getting help for a corrupted project folder. The backup hadn’t been configured properly. They missed a client delivery date and nearly lost the account.
They weren’t lacking support. They were buried in a queue.
2. “They won’t understand our creative workflows.”
Many creatives worry that IT people won’t “get” the way they work. The tight deadlines, the huge files, the last-minute client changes, and the late-night editing sessions.
And sometimes they’re right – generic MSPs often optimise for office-based setups, not for the weird and wonderful world of creative production.
But that’s not all outsourced IT.
🛠 The truth:
Good IT partners adapt to your world, not the other way round. InfraZen was built to support creative workflows specifically. That means we understand your file types, your timelines, your pace.
In fact, this came up in our We Can magazine feature on IT risk management for creative agencies. One of their key recommendations was to “look for agencies with policies designed around collaboration and creative production.”
🎨 Real-world impact:
A design studio once installed an off-the-shelf cloud sync tool. Looked fine on paper. Until it corrupted live InDesign files halfway through a rebrand project.
No creative tools were consulted. Just a checkbox on a generic service.
3. “It’ll be too expensive.”
This one comes from freelancers and small studios more than bigger agencies. There’s an assumption that outsourcing equals premium costs.
But the opposite is often true.
💷 The facts:
According to CompTIA, companies that outsource IT save between 25% and 40% compared to building an in-house team. That’s before you factor in the cost of downtime, data loss, or lost client trust when something breaks.
It’s not about cost per hour. It’s about value for outcome.
🔍 Real-world impact:
A small video production team held off outsourcing their IT until one of their NAS drives failed. They lost 200GB of client footage. The data recovery cost them £3,000 and two weeks of reputation damage.
The monthly cost of proper IT support? Less than £300.
4. “Outsourced IT is only for big companies.”
This myth comes from the name itself. “Managed Service Provider” sounds corporate. Like something meant for banks or law firms.
But small, creative teams are often more at risk than enterprises. You’re fast-moving, you rely on trust, and you don’t always have the time to audit your own tech. That’s why the right IT partner becomes your invisible infrastructure.
🧠 The reality:
InfraZen works with studios as small as two people. Sometimes one. We’re here to quietly cover the gaps while you get on with the work.
This was echoed in Like Minds Magazine, where they wrote:
“Outsourcing works to help avoid costly tech hiccups while letting creatives stay focused on designing, writing, filming, or whatever they do best.”
Exactly.
🧩 Real-world impact:
An independent illustrator had a Dropbox breach. A client’s unreleased product artwork was leaked. There were no NDAs in place – just an informal working relationship. The damage was legal, financial, and emotional.
All preventable. But no IT safety net.
5. “We’ll lose control over our systems.”
This one’s more emotional than technical.
The fear is that if someone else manages your systems, you won’t understand how things work anymore. Or worse – you’ll be locked into a setup you didn’t choose.
That’s a fair concern. But it’s based on poor communication, not on the model itself.
🔐 The reality:
With a transparent partner, you stay in the loop. You get visibility into your systems without needing to manage them. You don’t lose control – you gain breathing room.
At InfraZen, we always document your setup and make sure nothing is locked behind jargon or proprietary platforms.
💡 Real-world impact:
A creative director once discovered that their previous MSP had full admin access – and no one in the studio knew the password. When they tried to switch providers, everything froze. It took a solicitor to untangle.
We believe IT support should feel like a partnership. Not a trap.
Final Thought
Outsourced IT has a bad name in some circles. Usually because someone got a templated service that wasn’t designed for them.
But when it’s done well – with care, context, and consistency – it becomes the backbone of a creative business.
If you’ve ever thought “we’ll sort the tech out later,” just know that small blind spots can cause big problems.
This checklist might help:
👉 Eight Invisible IT Risks for Creatives
Or if you’d rather talk through what’s happening under the surface, I’d be happy to chat.
💬 Let’s Talk
No pressure. No jargon. Just a calm, clear conversation about what’s going on in your studio – and what might be hiding under the hood.
