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IT Support & Maintenance Services
Buyer's Guide |
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7. Advantages and Disadvantages of Outsourcing IT Support and Maintenance
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| Outsourcing IT Support and Maintenance | |
| Advantages |
Disadvantages |
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Increase Profitability - If you counted the hours your staff spends solving IT issues, or unproductive hours due to downtime, and if you put those hours back into the activities that make up your core business, how much money would you save? How much more would you make? Outsourcing IT support and maintenance frees you and your staff to focus on your priorities. |
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Improve Security - In a secure, managed and stabilised environment, you can have the peace of mind of knowing that your network is protected, which means you no longer have to worry about your critical information being compromised or rendered inaccessible right when you need it most. |
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Control Costs Better ? With outsourcing your IT, you can keep your IT costs predictable on a monthly basis. Provider covers expences such as costs of downtime, training, and technology obsolescence |
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Reliability - Piece of mind that the system is in good hands |
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No large investments |
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Access to professional capabilities |
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Share the risk |
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Do not have to worry about continually introducing new technologies |
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Frees up human resources | |
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No direct control |
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The fear of the service provider ceasing to trade (bankruptcy, etc) |
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Creates potential redundancies |
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The loss of talent generated internally |
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Employees may react badly to outsourcing and consequently their quality of work may suffer | | |
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1. Introduction
2. What are IT Support Services?
3. Types of IT support
4. Types of IT Maintenance Support Solutions
5. Advantages and disadvantages of IT Support Types
6. Advantages and disadvantages of IT Maintenance Types
7. Advantages and Disadvantages of Outsourcing IT Support and Maintenance
8. When Should We Outsoure IT Support Services?
9. Selecting an IT Support Services Provider
10. Questions to put to potential IT Service Providers
11. IT Support Contracts
12. Pricing of IT Support Services
13. Case studies: IT Support and Maintenance
14. Frequently Asked Questions about IT Support Services and IT Support Contracts
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8. When Should We Outsoure IT Support Services?
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| There are 4 main scenarios when you should consider outsourcing your IT: |
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Costs are too high - If your annual IT expenditures are greater than your operating budget, you should consider outsourcing as a way to reduce your costs. |
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Shortage of qualified staff / staffare unstable - If your IT staff consistently has vacancies and high turnover, your IT department cannot provide the desired level of services. An outsourcer can resolve this problem by reassigning some of its IT staff. |
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Existing systems are not productively utilised - The hardware and software contained in an information systems represent some of the largest investments your company makes. If you are not using the full capabilities of the systems you have purchased, or if you are not getting high quality and timely outputs from these systems, an outsourcer can provide focused leadership to resolve these problems within a minimum timeframe and at low risk. |
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Inability to keep up with rapid technology and regulatory changes - IT staff often do not have the time or opportunity to keep up with the technology changes, vendor offerings, and complex regulatory developments. Quality outsourcing firms will have broad industry exposure, and serve numerous clients with different technology environments and challenges. As a result, the IT staff have continuous access to a community of technology experts that provides support, mentoring and information sharing. If your company?s business objectives require greater IT knowledge and new perspectives, a relationship with a strong IT outsourcing vendor will be a valuable strategic resource.
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Questions to ask yourself to help establish if your company should be outsourcing
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1. Are device or equipment problems impairing your business?
2. Are your engineers and/or technicians spending too much time fixing problems and not attending to business?
3. Are testing your latest software or hardware releases draining your resources?
4. Are you having a problem keeping up with or ahead of your competitors because your staff is busy resolving your internal issues?
5. Is budgeting your IT Department a big headache?
6. Do you need to lower your expenses/ to be ahead of your competitors in the current global market?
7. Do you feel like your users are unhappy with your current IT staff?
8. Your company is so rapidly growing that you can't manage to increase your IT staff at that speed?
9. You need to move your IT solutions to another software platform/OS and your internal IT staff learning curve is going to take unacceptable time?
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9. Selecting an IT Support Services Provider
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Many businesses choose an IT and Maintenance provider on instincts, without any systematic vendor selection process. Avoid this basic mistake and ensure you identify, evaluate and qualify all prospective vendors, initially matching your needs with providers? capabilities.
The two most important factors in a successful outsourcing relationship are trust and security - without these the relationship is destined for failure. It is therefore important that you take the time and effort required to find the right partner. |
| These are the steps we recommend you follow in selecting an IT support provider: |
1. Research a list of potential IT Support and Maintenance providers
2. Ask each prospective provider a series of questions to assess their offerings, experience and demonstrated capabilities.
3. Speak to an employee of the service provider, as their service may extend from what it initially suggests on their web site or information supplements - there could also be hidden terms and conditions that may affect your decision
4. Ensure that the service provider has long-term financial stability. Obtain a company report or bank reference to solidify your perception
5. Once you are happy with your choice of partner, review their contract to ensure that they are liable to live up to expectations (service quality). Find out the procedure for negotiating any issues and how much control you will have over the process - contracts are a grey area where businesses slip up when outsourcing
6. You should also clarify the costs - are there any hidden extras, bonuses or penalties? Do remember to build exit strategies into the contract highlighting on what grounds a party can terminate
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