In today’s business world outsourcing have become a popular concept that enhances the performance of organizations by unburdening their resourses, reducing costs and at the same time achieving better results faster. Outsourcing has impacted all industries and organizations, small or large. IT industry is one of the industries benefiting from outsourcing due to the nature of IT jobs. Outsourcing IT services have gained a lot of attention of organizations, and for a good reason; however, unless the process of outsourcing is approached in the right way, undesirable outcomes will result. Outsourcing is only effective when the right path is taken, from selecting a firm to offer services (this is the cornerstone of outsourcing) to the execution of tasks, which highly depends on the company that has been chosen to provide services. This article looks at the key aspects of IT outsourcing and the effort it takes to get the desired results.
Defining your scope and schedule of the project
This is the first and most crucial step, laying out the objectives, schedule, and expectations. This is a guide to the entire outsourcing process; it gives direction to the outsourcing process. The very first thing to do in this step is clearly to define the objectives, highlighting what outcome is targeted; this could include increasing the security of a given system, building a new software or installing a better network system. The objectives should be detailed and not vaguely defined. The complete and accurate information should be generated as a part from the organization needing it for planning purposes. It will be required by the service provider for their planning, cost evaluation and effective tasks execution.
Evaluating the Options
There is a great number of options when it comes to outsourcing IT services; this is because the flexibility of IT services makes it possible for some services to be outsourced from any part of the world with ease and high level of efficiency. When evaluating the best alternative available, it is imperative that price is not used as the primary determinant of the most suitable candidate. The following factors should be taken into account in evaluating the best service provider.
- IT Specific Category. IT is a broad field that entails many different categorizations ranging from networking, software development, graphic design, databases and data science, and many more. This calls for an organization to narrow down to the specific service providers that offer the required services. A firm that offers all the services may not be as effective as the firms that specialize in providing specific services, as they are more specialized in that area. Hence, where the project is sensitive, it is ideal to choose a firm that specializes in the specific area.
- Experience and Competence. Experienced service provider is the best bet to getting excellent results. Check the service provider’s experience to find out if they are capable of providing the requested services and delivering the expected service quality.
- Reputation. The firm or company image is one of the key aspects of IT outsourcing; it helps in evaluating the options to identify the right service provider. A services provider with a good reputation and good customer feedback is an ideal option.
- Communication and Working Convenience. Communication is one of the major success ingredients in any task; it is ideal to choose a service provider who is accessible and easy to work with.
Getting into contract
The above factors should be considered during evaluation of the service providers, and when a suitable candidate is identified, it is crucial to check if the service provider is licensed and is compliant with the state laws. After identifying the right service provider, it is essential to draw a written contract for legal compliance and also to help solve discrepancies, if the things go wrong during the project.
