Economics of IT for small businesses: an outsourcer or a staff member?
The article is written for small business companies from 20 to 100 people. Important! For medium and large companies, there is a different alignment.
Content:
Your business has been operating for several years. Easy to tell what you do. There are two main activities: either you produce something, or you redistribute what is produced by others. For example, you produce and sell slippers (news, websites or seo) - then your business belongs to the consumer sector. By the way, services are also a consumer sector. But, if you buy slippers (news, websites or seo) for the purpose of resale, then your business belongs to the financial sector.
')
Strictly speaking, the financial sector as an independent one, stood out from the consumer sector, as its component, but now it is not important, but in general it is a question for the theory of neoconomy, who needs it - it will search and find. And I'm talking about IT.
Quite a story. Some have somehow forgotten that before the advent of the computer, everything in the world somehow worked and the ships plowed the expanses of theendless space of the vast oceans, together with the buildings of the unprecedented pyramid skyscrapers . That is, life was, but there was no computer in it. And not to say that someone was very worried about this.
The main thing that gave the world IT is the accounting of information + a convenient search for information. Actually, behind this small one lies the answer to the implied question, how did we live “before” ..?
In terms of business types, the use of IT is very justified. The truth is to understand that the penetration of computers among people must be high enough to recoup the problems with IT in general, in other words, people should get their hands on and start using computers. So.
Soil preparation is the introduction of a computer + network in the enterprise. This is pionerium - system administrators. Without them, nothing can work, it is trite.
Place IT in the consumer sector can be reduced to one keyword - accounting . That is, we provide accounting. In other words, we can take into account our processes in production and form a raw material nomenclature base - this is one time, and the base of finished products is two. There is still a salary and staff and materiel, but this is a bonus. The main thing is products.
In the process of accounting for production processes, we can identify:
The main idea is that if there are a lot of routine operations of the same type, then it makes sense to introduce IT accounting. Otherwise, you can do without. Nothing bad will happen. Quite the contrary. Perhaps the lack of IT will help make the business profitable, or at least its separate segment.
At the exit from the consumer sector there will be a recorded list of the manufactured item (products or services). This list is received at the entrance to sales people, that is, to the financial sector.
Place IT in the financial sector to strive for another keyword - search . In this case, the account does not go anywhere. But search is the main function in capitalism. The model of financial business is a bright formula.
That is, to sell something unnecessary, you must first buy something unnecessary (c)
Actually, before the appearance of search tools, both in the range of goods (hi ghoul) and in consumers (hi pamphlet), IT for the financial business had little importance. The basis is the communicability of sellers in different formats of personal meetings.
At the same time, the financial sector inherited IT accounting from the consumer sector: salary, warehouse.
The main function of the financial sector is the search and connection of goods with the consumer. As well as the search for favorable prices, supply and demand. And both a direct search for people for goods, and a reverse search when products (through marketers) are looking for their people.
What does the financial sector add to IT accounting? The answer is complex: its spontaneity, situational.
As sales go from person to person, proven sales practices are used. In short, the method of "talking teeth" and promise, the most effective - it has always been. Charisma and manipulation, there is charisma and manipulation. Therefore, IT specialists, learned on strict system accounting, so often snatch "creative" tasks like "to remake everything", or why we have so few orders.
This is not salesmen (lyrics) are so bad, this is a feature they have. That is, the aura and charisma of a particular seller need to be exposed in the form of the site. But that's not all. Since a good seller knows how to adapt on the fly to the client in person, he involuntarily implies that his site should do the same. Or vice versa, let the site be at least some, but when the client calls him, he will promote it.
The consumer sector, took its paper reporting logs and turned them into electronic form, having a significant economy in scale. Implemented a system of accounting and search for the range of goods and services.
The financial sector is trying to use the established accounting and search infrastructure, but it is not yet able to copy the situativity of a computer person, let alone a website. At the same time, it was possible to increase the number of primary information points about goods + deliberate adjustment to a human search. Spam is a simple logical and understandable promotion tool.
As with any complex tool, IT is associated with expertise that you cannot pass on quickly. This is the main problem for everyone. From a business point of view, this is a burden, like accounting. Only worse, because IT is allowed not to use, that is, you have to voluntarily climb into this "swamp", and even manage it somehow.
He got all the experience and achievements of the consumer sector. Actually, the problems are also diligently inherited. In addition to the accounting system, we added: a) a lot of network points of sale (read websites), and b) a bunch of non-automated seo work (read spam). There are attempts to automate seo, but since the very nature of sales is purely situational and charismatic, the results cannot be objectively put on stream, each time everything is somewhat different.
In addition, salespeople know how you do not jump out of his pants, and the one who has the best price, he sells.
From the point of view of a classical IT specialist, the situation of constant stress from inconsistency and unpredictable results. A high degree of turnover is normal here.
There are rare exceptions when IT specialists are predisposed to sales, but for you it will mean only one thing - you are guaranteed to get a direct competitor in your field, which will very soon push you out of the market. Live with wolves, as they say, nothing personal is just business.
The answer is simple: definitely a staff member.
There is. But they will not suit you.
The fact is that only one category of people can take people who are initially remote (outsourcing) - those who are themselves in the subject. That is, the problem with IT knowledge is not worth it and you yourself can do absolutely everything. Then you just need working hands that you can use in place of yours.
However, as soon as a little away from routine tasks, swings and misunderstandings arise immediately. The situation instantly turns into a bad one and you have to move on to emergency testing.
IT is a field of expertise. If you can organize a systematic approach to IT, and set system tasks, then if you have people at your fingertips, everything will turn out and the development of your accounting will take its course. Situation need to be taken for granted and rely solely on luck.
With a systematic approach, people tend to linger on one workplace longer: 2-4 years or more, it can be predicted that you will have a person. If you come to a natural outsourcing on the fourth option, then consider that this section is closed in general, the person will remain in the team and will become part of your business.
With a situational approach, people stay half a year - a year - two at most. The main reason is the fundamental nature of people in IT. Do not look for reasons in yourself, just immediately lay down on the planned rotation of IT specialists. This approach is quite normal. In addition, if you are lucky, it is more likely that a person will fall, of a situational nature. Then you will go up the hill. True, if he turns out to be too good, then things will go uphill for him. In any case, the planned rotation can not be avoided.
Content:
- Business: consumer or financial
- IT: maintenance (accounting) or attraction (search)
- Knowledge: systematic or situational
- Person: an outsourcer or a staff member?
Business: consumer or financial
Your business has been operating for several years. Easy to tell what you do. There are two main activities: either you produce something, or you redistribute what is produced by others. For example, you produce and sell slippers (news, websites or seo) - then your business belongs to the consumer sector. By the way, services are also a consumer sector. But, if you buy slippers (news, websites or seo) for the purpose of resale, then your business belongs to the financial sector.
')
Strictly speaking, the financial sector as an independent one, stood out from the consumer sector, as its component, but now it is not important, but in general it is a question for the theory of neoconomy, who needs it - it will search and find. And I'm talking about IT.
IT: maintenance (accounting) or promotion (search)
Quite a story. Some have somehow forgotten that before the advent of the computer, everything in the world somehow worked and the ships plowed the expanses of the
The main thing that gave the world IT is the accounting of information + a convenient search for information. Actually, behind this small one lies the answer to the implied question, how did we live “before” ..?
In terms of business types, the use of IT is very justified. The truth is to understand that the penetration of computers among people must be high enough to recoup the problems with IT in general, in other words, people should get their hands on and start using computers. So.
Consumer sector
Soil preparation is the introduction of a computer + network in the enterprise. This is pionerium - system administrators. Without them, nothing can work, it is trite.
Place IT in the consumer sector can be reduced to one keyword - accounting . That is, we provide accounting. In other words, we can take into account our processes in production and form a raw material nomenclature base - this is one time, and the base of finished products is two. There is still a salary and staff and materiel, but this is a bonus. The main thing is products.
In the process of accounting for production processes, we can identify:
- Saving on volumes.
- Savings on communication between people.
- Savings on sophisticated quality control.
The main idea is that if there are a lot of routine operations of the same type, then it makes sense to introduce IT accounting. Otherwise, you can do without. Nothing bad will happen. Quite the contrary. Perhaps the lack of IT will help make the business profitable, or at least its separate segment.
At the exit from the consumer sector there will be a recorded list of the manufactured item (products or services). This list is received at the entrance to sales people, that is, to the financial sector.
Financial sector
Place IT in the financial sector to strive for another keyword - search . In this case, the account does not go anywhere. But search is the main function in capitalism. The model of financial business is a bright formula.
-> -> ' That is, to sell something unnecessary, you must first buy something unnecessary (c)
Actually, before the appearance of search tools, both in the range of goods (hi ghoul) and in consumers (hi pamphlet), IT for the financial business had little importance. The basis is the communicability of sellers in different formats of personal meetings.
At the same time, the financial sector inherited IT accounting from the consumer sector: salary, warehouse.
The main function of the financial sector is the search and connection of goods with the consumer. As well as the search for favorable prices, supply and demand. And both a direct search for people for goods, and a reverse search when products (through marketers) are looking for their people.
What does the financial sector add to IT accounting? The answer is complex: its spontaneity, situational.
As sales go from person to person, proven sales practices are used. In short, the method of "talking teeth" and promise, the most effective - it has always been. Charisma and manipulation, there is charisma and manipulation. Therefore, IT specialists, learned on strict system accounting, so often snatch "creative" tasks like "to remake everything", or why we have so few orders.
This is not salesmen (lyrics) are so bad, this is a feature they have. That is, the aura and charisma of a particular seller need to be exposed in the form of the site. But that's not all. Since a good seller knows how to adapt on the fly to the client in person, he involuntarily implies that his site should do the same. Or vice versa, let the site be at least some, but when the client calls him, he will promote it.
Total
The consumer sector, took its paper reporting logs and turned them into electronic form, having a significant economy in scale. Implemented a system of accounting and search for the range of goods and services.
The financial sector is trying to use the established accounting and search infrastructure, but it is not yet able to copy the situativity of a computer person, let alone a website. At the same time, it was possible to increase the number of primary information points about goods + deliberate adjustment to a human search. Spam is a simple logical and understandable promotion tool.
Knowledge: systematic or situational
As with any complex tool, IT is associated with expertise that you cannot pass on quickly. This is the main problem for everyone. From a business point of view, this is a burden, like accounting. Only worse, because IT is allowed not to use, that is, you have to voluntarily climb into this "swamp", and even manage it somehow.
For the consumer sector, more or less everything is clear. The options here are
- Make yourself an accounting system and everything. Nothing more needs to be done, sis. admin handle if the computer freezes. And you can generally without admin. The option is good, but terrible in terms of downtime risks.
- Therefore, option two is more common. Make a accounting system and leave the person to support. The problems here are. The level of the system corresponds to the level of the person who made it. As a rule, this is a novice specialist, so the convenience of the system is often lame. In addition, the person starts to get bored and wants to move on, but there are no objective tasks for growth within the company. Therefore, there is a routine. Actually the option turns into the most terrible option number one.
- Option three. Build a system-accounting on the promoted technology (hi Bitrix) with the involvement of contractors. Actually, this is the “easy” second option with an attempt to neutralize the risks from staff turnover. The calculation is simple, there are many specialists on the market who own this technology, so we can quickly find a replacement. This option is logically good, but almost exactly the same as compared to the second option. Since, the selected technology, immediately binds to itself the entire accounting system - this time, and automatically lowers the requirements for the level of a person - this is two.
A separate minus here is that, in fact, the turnover in this case only increases, since the person receives a clear prospect of growth, but only within the framework of a different company. Moreover, the reasoning is just as transparent and logical, I will learn now, and I will go to where they pay higher, which is convenient - after all, there is the same technology (yes, I know the bitrix). That is, we are free to grow specialists for others, is it not insulting? - Option four. Give the entire IT system to an outsourcing. That is, to increase the degree of division of labor. Actually, just like, at one time, the financial sector stood out from the consumer sector, as we have already seen that the nature of the financial sector strongly depends on the salesman's skill. In the case of IT, we are even more dependent on special skills.
In this case, the entire turnover and motivation of IT staff falls on the contractor, who is simply obliged to conduct several projects for different customers to be sufficiently experienced. The important point here is that the outsource provider must write code for you. You bind him to yourself, and he binds to you. Since an individual development outsourcer cannot sell to anyone but you, nobody needs it. Mutual tie to each other.
The risks of idleness in this case tend to zero, and the contractor himself begins to strive to develop and propose improvements in connection with the specialization in your business and constant development of skills. Therefore, this option really solves the problem of IT accounting. What to hide, I myself work as such a contractor.
Now look at the financial sector.
He got all the experience and achievements of the consumer sector. Actually, the problems are also diligently inherited. In addition to the accounting system, we added: a) a lot of network points of sale (read websites), and b) a bunch of non-automated seo work (read spam). There are attempts to automate seo, but since the very nature of sales is purely situational and charismatic, the results cannot be objectively put on stream, each time everything is somewhat different.
In addition, salespeople know how you do not jump out of his pants, and the one who has the best price, he sells.
From the point of view of a classical IT specialist, the situation of constant stress from inconsistency and unpredictable results. A high degree of turnover is normal here.
There are rare exceptions when IT specialists are predisposed to sales, but for you it will mean only one thing - you are guaranteed to get a direct competitor in your field, which will very soon push you out of the market. Live with wolves, as they say, nothing personal is just business.
Person: an outsourcer or a staff member?
The answer is simple: definitely a staff member.
- First of all, it’s psychologically easier. Let him not cope, let him laugh at him, but psychologically it is still easier. Especially for the financial sector, where the psychological mood is in the first place.
- Secondly, so clearer. Not everything can be discussed by mail or Skype. It is much easier to discuss ideas. Even experienced guys admit that without personal discussion it is practically impossible to implement a confused idea. Often it just happens that you need to speak or close an area of no understanding.
- Thirdly, it is possible to understand with whom you work. Personal character, motivation, ambition. All this is related to work, because IT is people involved. Some successful managers feel their employees so much that they may not really get into IT at all. But then they have everything under control and goes according to plan. True, these are found only in the consumer sector, where the basis is systemic, and not situational, like salespeople.
- Fourthly, it is always possible to agree with a person. Nothing prevents to agree on a free schedule or parallel projects. If the work is done responsibly and the person fits you in spirit, then sooner or later you will come to the conclusion that IT is organized according to the fourth option. That is, it is an outsourcing, with a proven person who specializes specifically in your business and is always ready to be in the office personally.
Are there any options for full outsourcing?
There is. But they will not suit you.
The fact is that only one category of people can take people who are initially remote (outsourcing) - those who are themselves in the subject. That is, the problem with IT knowledge is not worth it and you yourself can do absolutely everything. Then you just need working hands that you can use in place of yours.
However, as soon as a little away from routine tasks, swings and misunderstandings arise immediately. The situation instantly turns into a bad one and you have to move on to emergency testing.
Eventually
IT is a field of expertise. If you can organize a systematic approach to IT, and set system tasks, then if you have people at your fingertips, everything will turn out and the development of your accounting will take its course. Situation need to be taken for granted and rely solely on luck.
With a systematic approach, people tend to linger on one workplace longer: 2-4 years or more, it can be predicted that you will have a person. If you come to a natural outsourcing on the fourth option, then consider that this section is closed in general, the person will remain in the team and will become part of your business.
With a situational approach, people stay half a year - a year - two at most. The main reason is the fundamental nature of people in IT. Do not look for reasons in yourself, just immediately lay down on the planned rotation of IT specialists. This approach is quite normal. In addition, if you are lucky, it is more likely that a person will fall, of a situational nature. Then you will go up the hill. True, if he turns out to be too good, then things will go uphill for him. In any case, the planned rotation can not be avoided.
Final explanations and links
- The purpose of the article is to present the theoretical state of IT in the organization of the IT department and the search for employees for it, with the ability to refer to this material as an explanation.
- The article uses an economic view on business based on the theory of neoconomy.
- The situation in the industry and IT organization approaches, the author of the article has taken from personal experience based on work in IT since 2001.
- The organization and psychological aspects are based on the works of Schedrovitsky PG, as well as confirmed by the rich personal experience of the author of the article.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/231061/
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