Your IT has become more than your in-house IT team can handle and you are looking to see whether outsourcing is a viable option. What do you need to know?
Why Outsource your IT?
Companies have been outsourcing their IT for many years and most find it beneficial from both a financial and productive viewpoint. An outsourcing IT company has a larger range of IT skills available to them. Also, due to monthly agreements, you know exactly what it is going to cost to hire them and in most cases, it is far below what hiring a similar staff would cost. Added to this you don’t have staff out sick or away on holiday. It is up to the IT company you have hired to ensure that there is adequate staff to perform the agreed-upon roles.
Things to Consider When Hiring an IT Outsourcing company.
You should understand that when hiring such a company you are going to have a lot of interaction between your staff and theirs. You should be able to know whether they will be able to work together in something approaching harmony. A good way to start is to agree on what responsibilities each company is responsible for. Both companies should be given clear definitive goals and all team members should be aware of hat they are.
Once the above is a given,what you need to consider are the below points.
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Expense
Money is nearly always going to be a major factor when choosing an IT company to outsource to. Very understandable as generally, these contracts are major investments for the company. The company needs to know that it is receiving multiple benefits from its contract.
These benefits include improved competitiveness, efficiency, productivity, and innovation. There is also the added benefit of a vastly more experienced IT team to have on call.
In most cases, your IT outsourcing will save your company money while delivering a higher quality of service. It is important to check on the quality of previous projects.
2. Review the Company
The first thing to do when making up a list of companies to approach for a quote is to review them online. There is little point in wasting your time approaching a company with a reputation for leaving a project half done or being very difficult to work with. Read what others have had to say about them.
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Are They Experienced?
This is in many ways a continuation of the above point. Read about their success stories. Most companies have a portfolio with these on their website. Take a few minutes to go through them. See what industries they have experience with and are they a good match for yours? See what range of technologies the company works with or has experience of. Especially see what solutions they have offered in the past.
While claiming to have a wide range of skills some companies only seem to offer the one skillset. Don’t be afraid to ring the CIO of any of the companies they have testimonials for.
If you are going to be working with new technology what experience do they have in a similar situation?
And finally, find out what capacity they have. Some companies are excellent with small to medium projects but simply haven’t got the manpower for really large ones.
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Quality of Work
This is actually the most important factor when outsourcing your IT projects. If an IT company has not got the quality you require JUST WALK AWAY! No matter how attractive their packages or quotes!
When checking the quality of the company you need to keep in mind:
- What is the quality of its completed projects?
- The expertise of its staff?
- Are their Methodologies and technologies up to date?
- Are they skilled in fluid communication?
- Do they promote training and courses in-house?
A good IT partner will offer you a consulting service to match your requirements, budget, and needs. By analysing these aspects you can save time and money.
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Compatibility
Depending on the level of your outsourcing this may or may not be a problem. Sometimes when staff from 2 different cultures work together there can be misunderstandings or an inability to communicate. You need to know that your staff and the IT company’s staff can communicate and work together without conflict. It should be noted that sometimes these differences in culture can show how to make improvements to your own company efficiency.
In Conclusion
These are the key points to keep in mind when outsourcing. For projects such as app development or software development, some of these points are not overly relevant. When outsourcing your main company IT consider them all before choosing a partner.
Greenfinch Technology is definitely such a company with a wide range of experienced multicultural staff. We have a wide range of expertise, from moving companies to the Cloud to developing software solutions for multinational companies.
Why not contact us for a no-obligation consultation at 353 (0)1 818 2949 or email us at info@greenfinch.ie
Greenfinch Technology
