Outsourcing is all about value, not costs

Organisations that outsource their IT landscape for the first time regularly have wrong expectations. They primarily focus on the costs. That is somewhat understandable: for most organisations, IT is a debit entry to support their primary work. Sometimes they even see it as a necessary evil. They then issue an RFI, RFP or tender with the expectation that the costs for IT will be deducted. As a result, they all too often choose their partner based on the price quoted – and not based on their expectations of the work that needs to be done in the end.

“Cleaning is required. When IT is in-house, your employees have to spend time on this process.”

The wrong assessment

Essentially outsourcing is not about saving costs. It’s all about adding value. Here’s an example. You have a busy job that pays well at 100 euros per hour. But you work from home and while working on the job there’s also cleaning and other domestic tasks that need to be done, taking up 8 hours a week.

If you decide to hire someone to do the domestic tasks in half a day for 20 euros per hour, outsourcing these tasks will initially cost you 80 euros per week. However, if you look at the added value of your decision, you will see the following: because an experienced cleaner relieves you from the domestic tasks, you can now spend 8 extra hours on the job. That way you will earn 720 euros. And worth mentioning: because of his experience it’s done in half the time you would have spent on it and your house is cleaner than ever before. This because the cleaner not only works more efficiently, but also works more effectively and with that also takes care of details that you previously overlooked.

Of course you could have chosen a cheaper cleaning service. But that one will probably just do a quick wipe and sweep of the house and you still have to do the details like dusting the skirting boards. And you may have to take in account that every now and then a glass will be shattered. Even then it still saves you time and even more money, but in the end doesn’t make you happy.

↓ Scroll down for the rest of this blog

Sign up for the Solvinity Newsletter

Receive the latest news, blogs, articles and events.
Subscribe to our newsletter.

Cleaning in IT

You can make the same consideration for your IT management. Suppose you need an update of software on your system. In other words, cleaning is required. When IT is in-house, your employees have to spend time on this process. They have to contact software vendors, monitor if the update process is successful and guarantee that the entire environment keeps running safely during the update process.

Of course there will be an additional cost item if an organisation outsources this ‘cleaning’ to a good specialist. But this gives your employees the opportunity to focus on long-term strategies, organisation-specific projects, or optimising current business processes. In addition, you have the certainty that your IT components are more stable and secure afterwards. This because the IT manager has the specialised knowledge to pay attention to the details that your own employees, who after all have a lot more to do, could easily overlook.

That is, if you decided to outsource it to a qualified, efficient and effective company. Not to the cheap “sweep and wipe” company solely based on the low price they offered….

Invest, do not cut back

Outsourcing IT management to a solid and experienced partner will foster long term benefits and this will result in a higher level of quality. Not only because of improved manageability and availability, but also because of improved responsiveness in the event of incidents, and the guarantees (and corresponding insight) that your IT landscape meets the latest legal and security requirements.

The message is simple: see outsourcing as a way to relieve your own organisation by investing in specialised knowledge and experience. If you aim for a higher level, you also know that the cheapest solution may not be the best. Outsourcing must be the next step for the organisation. Therefore, ensure that during the outsourcing process you select the partner that can offer you the most added value in the long term, and not to fall for some other company that promises to do the job for a pittance. Investing in quality is the best way to ultimately get the most out of it.