Behind Every IT Outsourcing Projects

http://www.blog.qarea.com/2012/03/

Often times, companies are faced with challenges that may seem difficult to hurdle on the surface. One such challenge is braving up the economic crisis with much resilience to bounce off against the adversity. In many ways, companies shift to survival mode, implementing cost-cutting measures all over the place in order to keep the company from hitting the ground. Chucking out some under-utilized departments is one of the many measures they have put in place. And in most cases, the IT department suffers the brunt.

IT outsourcing companies sprout everywhere, giving a financially distressed company a viable option to reduce the overhead costs as the outsourcing company will render IT-related services whenever there is a need. This means a lot of savings on employee wages and benefits. However, despite its attractive impressions, studies and surveys have shown that some IT outsourcing companies may not be what they claim they are in terms of their ability to handle and manage the work effectively.

Sure, one would do all the background check and all, to make sure that the outsourcing company will genuinely help your business. But there are outsourcing companies which play up their track records or claim projects accountable to them, in exchange for higher or inflated service contracts or fees. If you are not careful, you might end up signing a deal with an outsourcer that is only good in paper.

Additionally, some IT outsourcing companies present other serious issues like:

• The quality of work is below acceptable standards. It may happen that an IT technician will be despatched by the outsourcer to address the problem which in fact is not clear to the technician and you will be charged for that. The lack of expertise on the problem has caused your business unnecessary expense on the recommended action which did not solve the problem.
• Response time. This is one disadvantage of outsourcing IT. The turnaround time is slow. In a critical emergency, you will be losing tons of money because of this inefficiency.
• Risk of data loss or damage. This is a critical issue. Without a trusted in-house IT specialist who can guarantee the protection of the valuable business database, it is difficult to point liability and accountability. Many IT outsourcing companies are utilized by some unscrupulous business opportunists.
• Priority. What reason could you have for you to be on the top priority list of your IT provider? There are others, like you who wonder the same thing when it comes to who gets prioritized during an emergency situation.
• Continuity. Because the IT department is outsourced, no single person has the history of the reported problem. A lot of time resources will be wasted by just redirecting engineers. No single solution will ever crop our from different engineers because each of them will have a different approach at solving the problem. Or so you hope.

Ultimately, when you do decide to outsource your IT department, in order to concentrate on another business potential, make sure you have not overlooked some of the very important and critical issues against what could be saved from the project in terms of quality, reliable and trustworthy work.