3 Forgotten Questions When Outsourcing IT

  

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Over the course of the past few months, we’ve reviewed how business owners can successfully engage in an IT outsourcing strategy, including:

• IT Outsourcing: 5 Questions to Ask Before Getting Started
• 7 Questions to Ask When Looking for An Outside IT Vendor
• Advantages of IT Outsourcing
• SMBs Need Strategy, Too: 3 Tips To Building Your IT Roadmap

Transferring responsibility for your company’s IT infrastructure to an outsourced IT provider can sometimes be a tricky and consuming task. With the amount of information that is shared, oftentimes, businesses find that they’ve neglected to ask a few key questions of themselves and their staff before handing over the keys to their new outsourced IT provider, including:

1. Is There Buy-In On The Strategy? The key line to determine the success of your IT outsourcing relationship will be through documented milestones. These could be anything from productivity improvements, to IT asset utilization rates, lowered IT costs, etc. However, before signing on the dotted line, take care to confirm with each key stakeholder that the growth strategy and milestones mapped in your IT outsourcing agreement are in line with your business strategy.
   
   Additionally, make sure that your IT outsourcing strategy allows room for flexibility in growth – sudden spurts of growth or depreciations in value can strongly affect how you interact with your IT outsourcing provider.
    
2. Have You Clearly Communicated Which IT Functions Stay In-House? Communication is KEY to a well-working relationship in business. Make sure you map a plan with your IT outsourcing provider on how those functions that remain in-house will co-exist and operate with those managed under the services contract. 
    
3. Is the Relationship A Good Culture Fit? While an intangible asset, the key to any successful relationship is ensuring that there is a clear synergy in culture and attitude. After all, if your IT outsourced provider is going to be onsite for large amounts of time, they should clearly understand your corporate rules and attitudes toward inter-office relations. If their ideologies don't align with yours, you will not be able to work together in a way that is efficient and geared towards most easily achieving your business goals.

Clear communication, a sound, agreed-upon strategy and a good, solid culture fit will spell success for your IT outsourcing engagement. This is a relationship that, if working well, will help ensure the future success of your business by helping you achieve your goals. 

Need more resources on strategic outsourcing of your IT infrastructure?

Check out our latest IT Toolkit on Strategic Outsourcing for the Enterprise, featuring resources on questions to ask your potential outsourced IT partner, items to evaluate before turning over the keys, and more.