At Kanatech Systems, we’ve worked with a wide range of clients in Westlands—from law firms along Woodvale Grove to restaurants in The Oval, and clinics near Parklands Road. One recurring conversation we have is whether businesses should hire an in-house IT team or outsource their technology needs to a Managed Services Provider (MSP).
As we enter a more tech-reliant business era in 2025, let’s break down the differences, benefits, and risks of both approaches—and help you decide what’s right for your business in Westlands.
1. Cost Efficiency
In-House IT:
Hiring full-time IT staff comes with a significant cost. Between salaries, statutory benefits, training, and equipment, the total monthly expense for even one IT professional in Nairobi can be between KES 150,000–250,000. If you’re based in spaces like Le’Mac Towers or 9 West, your operational costs are already high—adding permanent IT overhead may strain your budget.
Managed Services:
With managed services, you pay a predictable monthly fee—often significantly lower than hiring even one full-time IT staff member. At Kanatech Systems, we offer flexible packages tailored to SME budgets. One of our clients near Sarit Centre cut their IT costs by 40% after switching to our service plan.
Winner for Cost Efficiency: Managed Services
2. Expertise and Skill Set
In-House IT:
While in-house staff may be familiar with your systems, they often have limited exposure to the wide range of technologies and threats in today’s digital world. Many Westlands businesses we meet have only one IT technician, and that person ends up stretched thin—managing everything from server issues to cybersecurity threats.
Managed Services:
We bring a team of diverse specialists—from network engineers to cybersecurity experts and cloud consultants. We’ve helped a marketing firm on Rhapta Road migrate to Microsoft 365 and secure their cloud infrastructure within days—something an in-house generalist would take weeks to figure out.
Winner for Expertise: Managed Services
3. Availability and Response Time
In-House IT:
Having someone on-site is useful for immediate fixes. However, most in-house teams work standard hours—and if your systems go down at 10 PM on a Saturday (as one retailer near Westgate Mall experienced), your in-house technician might be unreachable.
Managed Services:
We offer 24/7 monitoring, remote support, and emergency response for critical issues. We recently supported a clinic near Chiromo Lane during a ransomware attempt—within minutes of receiving alerts from our monitoring tool, we isolated the threat remotely and restored their backups.
Winner for Coverage and Response: Managed Services
4. Scalability and Flexibility
In-House IT:
Scaling your IT support often means hiring more people, which takes time and money. For a business expanding from one office to multiple branches—like one of our clients now moving from Westlands to Kilimani—this can become a logistical nightmare.
Managed Services:
Scaling with an MSP is seamless. Need more devices supported? Moving offices? Launching a remote team? We scale with you—no new hires, no HR processes, no learning curve.
Winner for Scalability: Managed Services
5. Strategic IT Planning
In-House IT:
Most small teams focus on daily operations. Long-term planning like cloud adoption, IT compliance, or AI integration usually takes a back seat. This limits business growth and can expose your company to future risks.
Managed Services:
At Kanatech, we help clients develop strategic technology roadmaps. We assess, advise, and implement solutions that align with your business goals. For a law firm based at One Africa Place, we created a 2-year IT strategy that includes cloud migration, cyber risk audits, and future expansion planning.
Winner for Strategy: Managed Services
So, What’s Right for Your Business?
If you’re a large organization with the budget and need for on-site IT control—say, a corporate HQ near Waiyaki Way—then in-house IT might work for you.
But for SMEs in Westlands who need efficiency, affordability, expertise, and round-the-clock support, managed services provide the best value.
Our Final Word as Kanatech Systems
We’ve supported dozens of Westlands businesses who made the switch from in-house to managed IT—and they’ve never looked back. From reduced costs to better security and smoother operations, the benefits are real.
If your business is based in or around Westlands—whether you’re in retail, healthcare, law, or hospitality—we’re ready to help you make the switch.
Let’s talk strategy over coffee—at your office or ours.
Visit www.kanatechsys.co.ke or give us a call to book a free consultation.
