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IT outsourcing: what is it and what does it eat?

FYI: The post is designed for managers involved in IT and IT outsourcing.

Outsourcing is needed to :
  1. release personnel (in our case, IT staff) from routine and non-core tasks;
  2. concentrate the strength of employees on the main functions for the business;
  3. reduce the financial burden on the company.
To achieve all of the above is quite realistic - if you approach the outsourcing correctly. This post is about :

1. Preparing for IT outsourcing
Rate the readiness of your company for IT outsourcing:
This analysis will help in the future to avoid difficulties and make the work of the contractor as productive as possible.
Then calculate the cost-effectiveness. Experience shows: in theory, customers know that IT outsourcing saves money, but in practice, not everyone can correctly calculate the cost of owning their own IT service.
The cost of maintaining the IT infrastructure is divided into three main groups :
  1. direct payroll costs of IT professionals;
  2. direct and indirect costs of organizing the workflow (cost of jobs, including space, costs for training and development of personnel ...);
  3. other costs (risk management, organization, communications, infrastructure ...).

But the savings are savings, and the main resource of each company is its employees. At the moment when the decision on IT outsourcing is made, the work of the information technology department is changing dramatically. The company's IT specialists are retrained as managers, whose main task is to manage the service provider.
Transformation into a manager is not suitable for every technical specialist. In order not to lose valuable personnel, the customer can transfer its employees to an outsourcing company. This will reduce the “personnel risks”, since the experienced employees of the company, while improving their qualifications, will continue to be involved in the provision of services.

2. Select an outsourcer
The entire business depends on the IT infrastructure. Of course, you need to take the choice of supplier and outsource IT to take seriously.
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Select several service providers and contact their customers: are they satisfied with the work done? The IT outsourcing company must have at least 3 satisfied customers who confirm that it can be dealt with.

Decided on a partner? Now we need a clear and understandable contract. The key indicator for making a contract is the Service Level Agreement (service level agreement). The diagram indicates what is included.

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3. What is possible and what cannot be given to IT outsourcing?
It is impossible to outsource the entire IT system. Let's find out what to give and what must be left inside the company.

To begin with, we will define an extra load, which we can get rid of:

Service Desktop. This is the standard and most popular service for customers. In case of failures, the Service Desk allows you to quickly receive and route calls, promptly fix technical problems, and restore the lost rate of work. Satisfied users, the lack of technical problems and reduction in the cost of servicing end-user requests by 2 times - this is what the company will get if they give Service-Desk to outsourcing. In our case, customers are provided with responsive Service Desk , based on a truly human attitude.
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IT infrastructure management. Labor productivity depends on the success of the IT infrastructure. Its transfer to outsourcing will increase the performance indicators, make the costs more transparent, and will also save on indirect costs - the purchase of licenses, maintenance, rental of premises and utility bills.
Application management and support jobs. A good outsourcer will reduce the cost of owning a business application and increase workplace efficiency. Moreover, by transferring application deployment automation to the contractor, you will reduce the cost of expensive specialized software.

However, under the scrutiny of the internal IT service should remain all the most difficult and important:

Design and development of architecture. The entire life cycle of the company, its past and future plans are known only to those who work directly in it. In addition, the company itself reacts faster and more effectively to changes in its business environment. Therefore, the design and development of architecture should be “inside”. An IT outsourcer can help with this, but not own the process.

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Critical services. This is the part of the IT system that is responsible for the company's key business processes. Opportunities to quickly change the service in accordance with the market situation, as well as the development trends and the specifics of the business are better visible from the inside. If the internal IT service is involved in critical services, the company receives a more structured service and can manage it effectively.

4. And one more thing.
Properly constructed IT outsourcing provides the client with not only partial risk insurance against IT infrastructure failures, but also a manageable level of service. These are the advantages of outsourcing that will allow any company to constantly be on top.

Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/250453/


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