3 things you need to consider before outsourcing your IT support
Of all non-core business functions, IT is the most commonly outsourced. Almost three-quarters of businesses say they outsource to save money, but we think there are more factors to consider when choosing who to work with on your IT network and services.
Read on for the three main things we think you should consider – and don’t be afraid to quiz your prospective suppliers. Hopefully, this is the start of a long-term working partnership so they should want to make sure it’s right from the outset too.
- Lower cost is obviously a great reason to outsource but what about value for money too? When you’re considering outsourcing, be sure to find out what experience your potential partners have in businesses similar to yours. They need to understand what solution is best for you and should make every effort to implement it with the minimum of disruption to what’s already in place. In other words, you should get maximum value for money for minimal pain.
- Make sure the solution you are offered allows for the future. Your business is going to grow and your systems and solutions need to be able to cope with that. You IT provider should be mindful of this when they design your solution and build in flexible capacity and a variable cost structure so you don’t end up committed to the wrong solution. Talking of flexibility, does the partner you are considering outsourcing too have good opportunities to scale? Do they have a large enough team to be able to ramp up on manpower should you need it? Are they continually investing in up to date applications and solutions? You’re outsourcing to experts for good reason – they need to be maintaining their expertise.
- Protect both parties with a service level agreement (SLA) which guarantees the quality of service you can expect – especially with regard to system uptime and application delivery. It’s critical for your business that you have a reliable network and so it should be uppermost in the minds of your IT partner too. Trust is a huge part of entering into this sort of working relationship and you need to start as you mean to go on. This shouldn’t be a problem, by the way, any reputable IT outsourcing business should be happy to agree the scope and standards of delivery as it protects them too.
At Advoco Solutions, we’ve got over a decade of experience in partnering with businesses to provide their IT. We think the benefits of working with us in this way are:
- Time savings for your in-house team
- Access to the best technical staff (our people are experienced and always up to date with their knowledge)
- Access to our rich and varied experience (that decade has been packed with customers from all walks of business)
- The ability to look away and focus on your core business activity, with peace of mind
- Excellent support – the reason you’ve decided to work with experts
- Cost savings (absolutely key but also don’t forget that VALUE!)
