"Please don't consider a technology solution if you can't show me the ROI!"
"What's the burning need to purchase this new product now?"
"How will this IT solution help our business?"
"I think we need more productivity from our IT team, else some
rationalization might be required".
"Please find a solution that can help our business, but the budget is
limited."
These are all often heard statements from the management whenever the CIO
goes with an IT purchase requisition. And post the economic slowdown last year,
these statements became even more routine. We saw many paradigm shifts in IT
spending patterns, and the order of the day was to spend on technologies that
would help save costs, improve efficiency, and improve customer service.
Nearly a year has passed since the economic slowdown started. Though we're
seeing early signs of recovery now, it has already brought many significant
changes to the market and how IT operates. OpEx has gained preference over CapEx,
digital communication has become more preferred over actual traveling, and
servicing existing customers is more important than developing
new ones.
New technologies and trends have emerged to cater to these changing
requirements, and one of them is managed IT services-the process of outsourcing
the management of certain parts of your IT infrastructure to third parties. The
term itself doesn't need any introduction as organizations have been outsourcing
their systems and network management to third parties for years now. But what's
important is that now you can outsource much more than the basic elements of
your IT infrastructure. Moreover, while cost saving is definitely considered as
the benefit of outsourcing, there are many others that one needs to be aware of.
Our story this time explores this growing market of managed IT services and
tries to address most of the concerns surrounding its usage, not only in the
CIO's mind, but also in his entire IT team's minds. Which parts of the IT
infrastructure to outsource, and to whom? What are the benefits to be gained
besides cost savings? What are others adopting? Would it de-motivate the team?
Would the IT team's strength be reduced, or can new growth opportunities be
created for them?
In the pages to follow, we've tried to answer most of these concerns. We've
surveyed CIOs from across the country to understand what they're doing, what
have they been outsourcing, the challenges faced in the process, and the
mistakes to avoid.
We've gone deep into the technicalities of different managed IT services to
see what all can be outsourced, right from storage, security, data centers,
application performance, to even unified communication. Let's take a look.