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Outsourcing - The Bigger Picture...
UK plc has not done much to create a
good impression when it comes to
outsourcing. However they spin it in
their press releases, you can easily
read between the lines the blue chips’
overarching rationale – this will save
us money. There’s rarely any discussion
of the other benefits it might bring or
the reasons why it was a sound business
decision for anyone other than those prefixed with
a pound sign.
It’s this biased press that has probably
done more than anything else to colour
the average SME’s views of IT
outsourcing or managed service
provision. In fact, whisper it because
it’s a bit of a dirty word. Cutting
headcount doesn’t always sit easily with
them and as for cost-savings, well,
that’s fine but they are more attuned to
the idea of value. Money on its own is
not sufficiently persuasive. The problem
with this skewed perception though is
that it too often closes off people’s
minds to the other substantive
advantages of partnering with an
outsourcing or managed service provider.
In our experience, there are four key
issues that companies factor into their
decision to outsource; in most
instances, they place all four ahead of,
or on a par with cost-savings.
The first is the issue of core
competencies. So many firms with
aggressive ambitions and a clear growth
strategy want to focus on what they do
best. They also know that no business
can thrive today without being able to
run and leverage a reasonable IT system.
But IT is not what they do best and the
prospect of investing in an in-house
solution, having to manage that solution
and having to keep pace with IT
developments, is not an attractive one.
It’s distracting, it’s difficult and
it’s also very risky if you don’t get
the right team or the right technologies
together.
The latter concern points up the second
issue – getting the right know-how and
know-why in place. The average IT
network demands a fair range of hands-on
skills and expertise; for those looking
to compete and innovate through IT,
there’s also a requirement for strategic
thinking and more specialist knowledge;
and then there’s the battle to keep
talent and to keep it motivated. These
are familiar challenges in a tricky IT
labour market, challenges that mid-size
firms will recognise as ones they can’t
always meet, despite their best efforts.
The third issue revolves around
supporting the operation in respect of
capability and flexibility. Most
businesses are alert to the importance
of providing new and different
functionality, such as the need to
support remote or mobile working, while
also keeping one eye on data integrity
and system protection. That can add
extra layers to the infrastructure and
call on extra resources; it can also
take time to achieve, depending on the
skills and budgets available. The same
goes for any major initiative that a
firm wants to roll with – the desire may
be there but is the experience,
expertise and manpower? And yet agility
and responsiveness are everything in a
market where predictions abound that the
quick will devour the slow.
The fourth issue concerns security and
business continuity. Downtime and/or
data loss can severely damage
operations, finances and reputations -
outsourcing enables firms to adopt the
latest technologies in data security
whilst also working within an
environment that can provide a full
disaster recovery solution.
Given those issues, it is perhaps easier
to see why some progressive law firms
have made the leap into an outsourced or
managed service future. Cost-savings
aside, they enjoy industry-class, 24/7
support of their applications with an
expert team of product specialists on
tap; they can bring on stream new
software and new functionality very
quickly; they can focus exclusively on
running their own business without the
concerns of IT or IT people management;
they can easily evaluate external
performance through KPIs and SLAs; they
can take advantage of trusted IT
strategists to help drive IT and
business planning; and business
continuity comes as a welcome by-product
of partnering with organisations that
are founded on the basic premise of
resilience.
If you would like any further
information on any of the issues
discussed or would like to know how
e-know.net can help your Firm,
please call us on 01952 236236
or email
michael.pickford@e-know.net.
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