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Outsourcing your IT Infrastructure

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PCQ Bureau
New Update

"Please don't consider a technology solution if you can't show me the ROI!"

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"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".

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"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.

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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.

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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.

Next:

Business

Benefits and Challenges

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