The single most important reason for outsourcing is to reduce and control operating costs. The business side of the industry rules what's happening in the end. Not the gadgets and technological gimmicks. Is your price not right you will not get a second chance. And there is no business 2.0, btw.
Today the CFO and the controller is the one who decides and purchases IT services. And this person is not the one who understands the languange of an IT professional. So you have to talk his languange. Don't waste his time and yours by arguing about technical features, experiences and quality.
It's like buying a budget airplane ticket – you assume the plane will take off in time and carry you to the desired destination. Basta. You complain only if this "service level agreement" is not fulfilled by the carrier. As a contractor in the IT outsourcing business you are the carrier … and your customer is the passenger.
3 responses so far ↓
Torsten Otto // 13. May 2006 at 8:45 |
I am wandering about your statement “Don’t waste his (the controllers) time and yours by arguing about technical features, experiences and quality.” and especially the part on quality. ISO certifications and ITIL projects are more and more in the spotlight of the controller and their interest. They are asking IT about the potential benefits – where IT is certainly brought under pressure to translate “soft targets” like improved customer satisfaction or higher quality into “hard savings”.
I think it is important to focus on the quality aspect especially in an outsourcing context as e.g. ITIL allows a common language and better, commonly defined connections between customer and service provider.
Perhaps this aspect of convincing the management with outstanding translations from “soft targets” into “hard savings” could become one of your blog’s topics.
Cem Basman // 13. May 2006 at 9:32 |
Don’t get me wrong, Torsten. Quality is of course important. The contractor has to show up adequate certifications and profiles for his company and his employees/specialists. But the finance guy will not go into detail. He will ask rather his own IT department about your reputation … but as a major enterprise he will decide alone without the IT people. So it comes to to the price and political constellation again. And “yes”, your size matters.
BTW, ITIL is a good orientation in designing operational services. But you have to catch the “spirit” of ITIL. This means ITIL is not a blueprint but an inspiration and a very good guide.
I see, I have to make some new postings of my answer ;) … conversations make the world richer ;)
Basman | Explore: IT Outsourcing » Blog Archive » Kundenerwartungen beim IT Outsourcing: Günstig und Pünktlich // 28. May 2006 at 19:37 |
[...] "Spezielles Knowhow" kommt erstaunlicherweise knapp geschlagen erst an dritter Stelle. Das zeigt, dass IT Outsourcing zunächst vorrangig ein kommerzielles Thema ist – weniger ein fachliches. Das Knowhow ist in den Augen der Unternehmensführung und IT Leitung etwas, dass man "beliebig am Markt einkaufen kann" geworden. Es ist zu einer Commodity geworden. Zum Gebrauchsgut, zum Bedarfsartikel, zur Ware, zur Massenware. Zumindestens gilt das offensichtlich für Knowhow im Bereich Mainstream wie beispielsweise Microsoft Server Technologien. Posted by Cem Basman Filed in Trends, IT Outsourcing [...]
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