Four Critical Steps to Getting Your Feet Wet With IT
Outsourcing
By Wayne Kiphart
Handling all your IT functions in-house was
once thought of as a conservative, money-saving strategy. But
today, the effectiveness of managed service offerings is making it
clear that some things can be outsourced more cost effectively than
they can be done in-house.
Even armed with that knowledge, making the
transition from an all-internal IT team to outsourcing key
technology tasks to a managed services provider is often the
hardest step to take on the road to a more successful, better run,
and more cost-effective business model. To succeed, you have
to realize that no one is getting a huge IT budget increase these
days, so the only way to keep up with the changes in business today
is to rethink how you deliver IT to your company. When
organizations consider different ways to support their IT
environments and increase ROI, they must first determine how
outsourcing fits and what opportunities exist for outsourcing
selected IT tasks.
Really, it comes down to four
strategic steps. If you follow these steps,
you’ll be well on your way to a solid, cost-effective IT
outsourcing program that makes sense for your company and your
specific business model.
1. Start at the
Pain.
Define the specific IT tasks that are
candidates to be outsourced, choosing the technology areas within
your company that you already know could be working better.
Establishing a clear set of objectives at the outset, and a defined
resolution to the problems causing these “pain points,” is critical
to a successful outcome.
2. Calculate
Your Costs.
The goal of outsourcing, while multifaceted,
always includes a desire to reduce costs. This means
conducting an assessment of the real costs of the tasks
you are considering outsourcing, and determining how much time
personnel spend on these tasks. Then you can compare these costs to
your outsourcing partner’s service contract, determining what your
savings can be.
3. Figure Out
Who’s Who.
Create an action plan that you can use to
compare different providers’ offerings and service level
agreements. Be sure you compare apples to apples. Don’t
underestimate the value that services delivered on ITIL v3
standards will bring and how that affects your service levels. Also
take a close look at response times compared with resolution
times.
4. Get Your Feet
Wet.
Once you’ve assessed your pain, determined
your costs and developed a plan, it’s time to make your move. Don’t
take on too large a task for your first time out, but choose a task
that can be measured. Communication is important, so assign an
internal contact to work with the outsourcing provider. Make sure
to select someone who can explain the company’s core objectives at
the outset and update the service provider on a regular basis over
time, overseeing the service provider’s work as if the outsourcing
partner is an employee.
When managed correctly, outsourcing defined IT
functions to an IT provider can result in significant cost savings
of as much as two-thirds of the cost of doing everything in
house. But, to realize these savings, you have to perform the
up-front work of determining what to outsource, who will manage the
outsourcing partner, and how you will more strategically use your
internal IT staff going forward.
Wayne Kiphart is the vice president of
managed services for Logicalis (www.us.logicalis.com),
an international provider of integrated information and
communications technology (ICT) solutionsheadquartered in
Farmington Hills, Mich.