Is Outsourcing Right For You?

In today's world of complex IT solutions, intense competition, and global expansion, many organizations have come to realize that they can't do everything. The need to focus limited capital, resources and management attention on core areas of expertise has accelerated the outsourcing of non-core, non-strategic activities to business partners that have expertise in a specific service or function. A simple matrix as shown below can be a good tool for helping a company determine the activities it should and should not outsource.

In a number of cases, the delivery of IT services internally results in a non-strategic area of competency for a lot of companies, and outsourcing appears to be a good business decision. Outsourcing makes sense in a wide variety of situations.

If your company relies on computing technology and values the data that it has collected but does not have an extensive IT department to ensure that all systems are tuned, secured, and kept up to date, then outsourcing is likely the best solution for you.

Outsourcing your IT Department

Once you make the decision to outsource, how do you decide what to look for? In the IT services world, a number of criteria should serve as the main qualifiers in selecting an outsourcer:

· Broad technical coverage
· Acceptable service metrics
· Appropriate hours and days of coverage
· Appropriate geographic coverage
· Lower service costs

Once you have made decisions regarding the above items, the next step is to select the service provider that will best meet the criteria for you. A number of IT services lend themselves to outsourcing, such as help desk services, asset management, hardware and software support services, desktop support, network and information security, etc.

The decision to outsource is a serious business decision, and in order to make it, you must decide what you do and do not want to include as your company's core competencies. If the management and delivery of IT services is not something that you want to invest your resources, time and money in, then look to a service provider to alleviate the headaches of performing these functions internally. It could be one of the best decisions you make, resulting in improved company focus on your primary business, reduced operating costs, and access to world-class service delivery.