Outsourcing a part or complete IT department can make financial and business sense to companies of all sizes. In many organisations, users demand the highest level of service - both from a technical and a customer care perspective. This can be challenging for smaller in-house teams to achieve as they are often so busy tackling the day-to-day issues, making it difficult to implement any IT improvements.
Outsourcing IT department – What are the drivers?
Growing pains: - Is your company growing so rapidly or making acquisitions? What impact is this growth on your IT staff and resources? Outsourcing either a part or the whole of your IT department is now an accepted mainstream solution.
Downsizing: Is your organisation downsizing? What are the impacts of this on your IT service delivery? IT department outsourcing is an option worth evaluating to save costs and improve efficiencies
Infrastructure refresh: Are you coming to the end of your IT systems lifecycle? (Servers, laptops, PCs). This is usually a 3 year cycle. This event is the right time to consider the options of IT department outsourcing
Upgrading to Vista: - Is your organisation considering a company wide upgrade to Vista? What impact would this have on your current IT staff and resources?. This upgrade ‘event’ is the time to consider the pros and cons of outsourced IT departments.
Business Start up: Is your company in start up mode? Getting IT right is important but probably not your core business objective. Consider outsourcing IT to experts who’ll support your venture from an IT department perspective whilst you and your team get on with making your business work.
Outsourcing a part or complete IT department may provide the following benefits:
Quick deployment
Flexibility in the choice of technology and modules
Improvement of cash flow management
Reduce the burden on internal IT staff
Efficient use of internal resources
Strong skills sets at lower costs - access to a mix of technicians with unique skills
Better risk management, especially those risks associated with unscheduled downtime due to major disruptions.
Avoids expensive recruitment
Cost savings - eliminates the financial strains that necessarily go hand-in-hand with the running of an internal IT department
Time savings - companies are concentrating in their own core business resulting in higher productivity
Risks & Costs of IT Department Outsourcing
IT department outsourcing can expose the company with associated risks that potentially have a higher costs than benefits for the company. Some of those associated risks could be:
Loss of control over service quality
Possibility of service disruption due to instability of vendors
Increased complexity of managing and monitoring the outsourcing contract
Poor communication between the business and the third party
Outsourcing IT services to a third party potentially puts a company’s reputation at risk - if suppliers or partners let it down. Organisations in both public and private sectors need a process of regular assurance from their external partners.
With a rigorous system in place, businesses can manage their external relationships and reputation more effectively, while allowing legal and working arrangements to be adjusted as the partnership evolves.
At the outset risks can be minimised by ensuring that due diligence is undertaken on prospective service providers.
What is OneStopClick?
OneStopClick is a free-to-use technology intermediary, helping SME’s and corporate companies source the right technology and vendors for their business.
Why use us?
We’ll save you time identifying and evaluating qualified technology vendors and service providers.
What do I do next?
Complete our enquiry form, or call one of our Solution Advisers on 0870 382 5008. Within 4 business hours of your enquiry, we will introduce you to a short-list of vendors who meet your exact needs. For each vendor you will receive a Fact Sheet, sharing with you our valuable market intelligence.
What does our service cost?
Our service is free for business users. The only thing we will ask you to do in exchange is to give us feedback on the providers we introduce and the service you receive from us.
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