Outsourcing
- "Is running an IT department our core
business ?"
- "Are we getting value for money?"
- "Can we trust anyone else to manage our IT ?"
Today almost
every company runs its own IT department because information technology
is becoming increasingly pervasive. The growing importance of IT and
the dependance of the business on its IT infrastructure have caused
many executives to ask these questions.
One of the primary reasons to consider outsourcing
is when it is outside your company's core competence. Investing
man-hours and budget in unfamiliar tools and technologies reduces your
team's effectiveness. Turning to an outside provider with expertise in
a different OS, a complex SDK, or a new communication protocol is
smart.
Also software development for different
requirements requires specialized knowledge. The right talent and
expertise can make the difference between success and failure; but
finding, hiring, and integrating new staff is difficult and expensive.
A quicker solution is to hire an outsource firm that has already
recruited talented engineers and designers with the expertise you
require.
Focus your talent on your business.
We focus ours on your IT Infrastructure.
Outsourcing
allows customers to realign resources so they can focus on their core
competencies. Customers don't need to worry about day-to-day technology
operations support.
It
is difficult to quarrel with cost savings, and the companies that
approach outsourcing with careful planning save money.
In a usual scenario a client company can save up to 50% of its IT costs
comparatively to an in-house, on-site, traditional software development
process.
Traditionally,
companies have outsourced for tactical reasons - reduce costs, free up
cash, obtain resources not available internally, and improve their
performance. Outsourcing some functions can shift costs from fixed to
variable, thus enhancing a company's ability to manage costs more
effectively. If a company is moving into a new arena, outsourcing
enables it to add new functions with minimal impact on internal
resources.
Organizations today also approach outsourcing as a business strategy.
Nowhere is this more evident than in high-tech companies, such as Sun
and Microsoft. Drtina (1994) described these firms as "intellectual
holding companies" because they focus so strongly on their core
technologies while they purchase other services from companies that
excel at delivering them. Thus, their entire operations function at a
high level, yet they do not have to maintain everything. They get
world-class capabilities without the risks involved in developing all
of them.
Outsourcing
is synonymous with flexibility.
Advantages
of Outsourcing:
Cost
effectiveness
The
savings your company can achieve can go up until 50% from your actual
software development budget. In the mean time the quality and the
schedule remains the same if not better.
Specific
skills
You are
able to use specific skills (for particular technologies) for a certain
period without having to hire them or train them. Also if you think
that you could retrain the team you already have you should take into
account that you could have a better one working on your project in a
much smaller time frame.
Ramp-up
time
The time
to setup a new project is reduced drastically compared to the time a
project meets all the conditions to start in a traditional
organization.
Flexibility
Your are
able to use the IT resource for as long as you need and then stop the
collaboration without having the problems you would have if you would
hire a team. This means you can always switch the technology and choose
a team suited for that technology.
Talent
pool
It is
very complicated to find and to train a talent in a certain field,
therefore instead of retraining your old staff to fit a new technology
you should change the working methodology and outsource your software
development offshore.
Off-load
of non-challenging work
You can
outsource the routine work, the work that keeps you from focusing on
the core business and creation of new features or new products.
More
Information? Questions? Comments? Contact us.
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