Back to Basics in IT Services
Most businesses have realized the need to invest in digital applications and IT systems to rapidly grow. However, is it easy to develop these capabilities internally, without any technical partnerships? What are IT consultants’, managed services, and staffing service providers’ role in a business’s growth?
Investing in digital systems has become a need for businesses to survive, especially given these uncertainties. Being always available to the customers and using data to drive decision-making are leading companies to invest in technology and build in-house technology teams. But, not every business has the expertise and financial resources to maintain dedicated IT teams.
Enter IT as a Service (ITaaS) providers: IT experts who can identify, build, support, and update the tools/applications required for the business to thrive. Whether it is outsourcing the software development part to another organization, or using the internal IT department but getting external help. A few ITaaS models are explained to help you make informed decisions on which model would suit your business needs.
IT Consulting services:
IT consultants use their expertise and deep technical background to understand your business needs and processes, identify what solutions could be developed or implemented to meet the business goals, and would strategically guide on how to build/improve the company’s IT technology. These consultants have a good understanding of the technology landscape, the benefits of technology implementation for businesses, etc.
IT consulting services could include IT strategy and roadmap development for a business, helping architect systems, training teams on improving their technical knowledge, etc. Companies generally opt for these services when they need a helping hand in scaling their applications or improving application performance or developing a new application using newer technology. A key benefit of hiring consultants to improve your IT processes is that they bring diverse and deep experience in solving complex problems and bring an outside-in perspective to help you grow.
IT implementation/managed services:
Traditionally called the IT services providers/companies, and now popularly known as IT managed services providers, these companies have skilled technical talent to help you develop, maintain, and enhance your IT systems. They’re basically a one-stop solution for all your development needs. As the technology landscape changes rapidly, adopting these trends becomes challenging, if you’re focused on building, scaling, and supporting your customer needs.
Going for IT services is generally more cost-efficient than developing the required infrastructure and applications in-house. These services could range from website development and software development to complex infrastructure management, and any services related to the IT field. There are numerous benefits of hiring a service provider for help with IT development. Firstly, not every business has the technical expertise to hire and maintain an in-house function. Even if they retain an in-house team, managing both the business and technology teams could be challenging. As mentioned earlier, technology evolves rapidly. Keeping pace with the latest developments, training employees on the latest technology is another factor that needs to be thought of while going for in-house development. On the other hand, services companies keep hiring and upskilling talent to deliver better products to their customers.
However, a key concern that most businesses express with such a service model is that they think they do not have enough control over the systems and that outsourcing delays the development time.
IT Staff augmentation service:
IT staff augmentation service provides skilled technical talent to companies with in-house development teams to improve and ramp up their hiring process through external help by providing companies with appropriate technical resources required for their IT needs. This is similar to staffing services, but specific to IT needs. The benefits of outsourcing IT hiring are that a business can focus on its core competencies and develop its IT systems while leaving the hiring part to experts.
Staffing outsourcing also reduces hiring time to the companies and therefore costs in the long-run. To hire an excellent technical resource, generally, a few interview rounds are conducted, which could eat away some interviewers’ bandwidth. This could potentially result in delayed application development timelines. Outsourcing also provides companies with the flexibility in managing these resources, which could be a cost benefit as these resource’s contracts would expire after a particular time, and the company can choose whether or not to continue. Also, staff outsourcing is better than entire IT outsourcing as the control of the IT systems development is still within the control of the business.
Bottom-line:
According to a report on the IT outsourcing trends, it is said that at least 37% of startups outsource one of their IT tasks and that this strategy has helped improve their efficiency and also gain global expertise. As more and more businesses are transitioning to digital business models, IT outsourcing will undoubtedly be a value-add to them. What do you think of outsourcing? Does your company outsource any tasks/processes? Let us know by writing to us at social@91social.com
