All of these types of firms have an important role to play in the IT ecosystem. Rarely can an internal IT department have all of the skills necessary to handle every situation on their own, it requires the careful selection and management of outside firms to help to round out the needs of a business to cover what is needed in the best ways possible. At a minimum, internal IT must work with vendors and resellers to acquire the gear that they need for IT to exist. Rarely does it stop there. Whether an IT department needs advice on a project, extra hands when things get busy, oversight on something that has not been done before, support during holidays or off hours or just peers off of whom ideas can be bounced, IT departments of all sizes and types turn to IT Service Providers to fill in gaps both big and small.