There’s a middle ground between hiring a full in-house IT team and going completely with an outsourced IT department that almost nobody talks about. Not because it doesn’t work—it actually works extremely well for a specific type of business—but because it’s terrible for the people selling you IT services.
Consultants and managed service providers make more money when you go all-in with them. In-house recruiters and HR software vendors profit when you build everything internally. The hybrid approach? It doesn’t generate nearly as much revenue for anyone, which is probably why you haven’t heard much about it.
What the Hybrid Model Actually Looks Like
The typical hybrid setup keeps one person in-house—usually someone with a title like IT Manager or Systems Administrator—and pairs them with an outsourced IT department that handles everything else.
Sounds simple enough, but the specifics matter a lot. This isn’t just “hire someone and also have a vendor.” It’s about strategically dividing responsibilities in a way that plays to the strengths of both approaches.
The In-House Person’s Role
Your internal IT person isn’t there to fix every printer jam or reset every password. They’re the bridge between your business and the external team. They understand your operations, your industry quirks, and your company culture in ways an outsourced IT department never fully will.
They handle:
- Immediate triage and first-response for issues
- User training and day-to-day support questions
- Project management when you’re implementing new systems
- Translation between “what the business needs” and “what the IT people are saying”
- Being physically present when that matters (and sometimes it really does)
What the Outsourced IT Department Covers
Everything else. Seriously—infrastructure management, security monitoring, after-hours emergencies, specialized expertise for specific platforms, strategic planning, vendor management for your tech stack.
The external team brings depth that you could never afford to maintain in-house. Need someone who really understands Azure environments? They’ve got that. Dealing with a weird networking issue at 11 PM on a Saturday? They’re staffed for it.
Why Consultants Hate Recommending This
Let’s be direct about the economics here. When an MSP tells you to go with a fully outsourced IT department, they’re getting your entire IT budget. When an HR consultant tells you to hire a full internal team, they’re potentially earning recruiting fees and ongoing placement relationships.
The hybrid model splits that revenue. Your outsourced IT department gets less money than they would in a full engagement, and they have to coordinate with your internal person, which takes more work.
The Coordination “Problem”
Providers will tell you that having someone in-house creates coordination challenges, unclear responsibilities, and potential finger-pointing when things go wrong. And look, they’re not entirely wrong—but these problems only show up when you structure the relationship poorly.
What they won’t tell you is that these coordination challenges also force better documentation, clearer communication, and more defined processes. When everything’s handled by one provider, they can get sloppy because there’s nobody to call them on it.
When This Model Actually Makes Sense
Not every business should use this approach. If you’ve got fewer than 20 employees, you probably can’t justify the in-house person. If you’re over 100 employees, you likely need a bigger internal team anyway.
But for that sweet spot—roughly 20 to 75 employees—the hybrid model often delivers the best value.
The Signals You’re a Good Fit
You’ll know this model suits your business if:
- You need someone onsite regularly – Industries like manufacturing, healthcare, or anywhere with specialized equipment benefit from having someone who can physically be there
- Your business has unique workflows – If your operations are heavily customized or you work in a niche industry, that in-house person becomes invaluable for bridging the knowledge gap
- You’re tired of explaining your business to new techs – Every time an outsourced IT department assigns a different tech to your account, you lose continuity. The hybrid model solves this
- You want to build some internal IT knowledge – Relying entirely on external providers means you’re vulnerable if they drop the ball or you need to switch vendors
The Skills Your In-House Person Actually Needs
This is where businesses often mess up. They hire someone with deep technical expertise when what they really need is someone who’s good with people and project management.
Your in-house IT person doesn’t need to be the most technical person in the room—that’s what you’re paying the outsourced IT department for. They need to be someone who can communicate well, understand business priorities, and manage relationships.
The Danger of Hiring Too Technical
If you hire someone whose main skill is solving complex technical problems, they’re going to get frustrated when the outsourced IT department handles all the interesting challenges and they’re stuck with basic user support.
They’ll also be more likely to clash with the external team because they’ll want to prove they could handle things themselves if you’d just let them. That’s not the dynamic you want.
How to Structure the Relationship
The biggest mistake businesses make with this model is not clearly defining who’s responsible for what. Your in-house person and your outsourced IT department need explicit boundaries, or you’ll end up with either gaps where nobody handles something, or overlap where both sides think the other is taking care of it.
Decision Rights Matter More Than Task Lists
Rather than creating detailed lists of every possible task and who handles it, define decision-making authority:
- In-house person decides: User access requests, training priorities, which issues need immediate attention vs. can wait, whether to push back on employee requests that don’t align with IT policies
- Outsourced IT department decides: Technology platform choices, security implementations, infrastructure architecture, vendor selections for IT tools
- Both decide together: New system implementations, major changes to existing setups, IT budget allocation, disaster recovery planning
The Cost Reality Nobody Mentions
Here’s what consultants definitely won’t tell you: the hybrid model often costs about the same as going fully with an outsourced IT department, at least on paper.
You’re paying a salary plus benefits for your internal person—let’s say $60K to $80K annually for most markets. Your contract with the external provider might drop from $8K monthly for full coverage to $4K or $5K monthly for the hybrid arrangement.
Do the math and you’re spending roughly the same total amount.
But You’re Getting Different Value
What changes isn’t the total cost—it’s what you get for that money. Instead of being just another client to an outsourced IT department, you’ve got someone who wakes up every day thinking about your specific business and its IT needs.
You get faster response to immediate issues because someone’s right there. You get better context when problems arise because your internal person knows what’s been happening. You get an advocate who’s on your side when dealing with the external provider.
When It Stops Working
The hybrid model breaks down in predictable ways, and you should watch for these warning signs:
Your in-house person becomes a bottleneck because they’re trying to handle too much themselves instead of leaning on the outsourced IT department. Or the opposite—they disengage and become just a middleman who forwards tickets without adding any value.
The external provider treats your account as low-priority because you’re not a full-contract client, and your internal person doesn’t have enough authority or expertise to push back effectively.
The Fix Is Usually About Authority
Most hybrid failures come down to unclear authority. Your in-house person needs to have real decision-making power and a direct relationship with someone senior at the outsourced IT department—not just whoever’s answering the support line that day.
If you set this up right, with clear roles and genuine partnership between internal and external resources, the hybrid model delivers better results than going all-in either direction. It’s just harder to sell, which is why you won’t hear providers recommending it unless you specifically ask.
