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8/10/2019 Outsourcing Your Network - Lock, Stock, And Barrel or Bite-sized Chunks Latest Thining
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latest thinkinglatest thinking
The days of massive outsourcing
deals, in which large multinational
organisations handed over their
entire ICT function to a single
services partner, are over. All toooften, these arrangements led to
failure in the past. On the journey
towards infrastructure-as-a-service,
businesses are now going about this
more strategically, outsourcing parts
of their environment in manageable
portions, or preferring specific,
individual managed services. So says
Dave DAprano, Group Executive IT
Outsourcing at Dimension Data.
Outsourcing Your Network Lock, Stock, and Barrel or Bite-sized Chunks?
Todays trends indicate ajourney towardsa multi-sourcing or selective sourcing
model, and for good reason. If yououtsource your ICT infrastructureandrelated services in bite-sized chunks, youreable to leverage specialist providers todrive innovationand retain more controlover your strategy. Plus, you can evolveyour environmentto suit your business
better, and at your own pace.
8/10/2019 Outsourcing Your Network - Lock, Stock, And Barrel or Bite-sized Chunks Latest Thining
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8/10/2019 Outsourcing Your Network - Lock, Stock, And Barrel or Bite-sized Chunks Latest Thining
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latest thinking |Outsourcing Your Network Lock, Stock, and Barrel or Bite-sized Chunks?
Understanding costs
Before you can find and adopt a new IT
consumption model,
says DAprano,
you need to understand the cost that
youre already incurring to run and
support your network. Do you really
know where youre spending your
money, and are you getting maximum
value for that money? What are the
risks involved? Does your support
infrastructure underpin your strategy?
A good example is one of our well-
known manufacturing clients. A
serious concern for the business was
risk: if something went wrong with
the network, its production would go
offline. Upon examination, we found
that the underlying architectural design
and service levels offered on equipment
maintenance werent built to ensure the
highly available network thats required
for a manufacturing business. Not only
did the network have a number of single
points of failure, but it also didnt have
SLAs to ensure that the service provider
restored the technology to working
order when these critical points failed.The business was therefore bearing
all of that risk. Strategically, it would
never risk operating without restore
SLAs on, for example, a piece of plant
equipment which is obviously critical.
But without realising it, the business had
done exactly that by not regarding the
network and the plant equipment as a
single ecosystem and therefore equally
critical. The organisation needed to start
aligning its architecture; operational
and support models; maintenanceagreements; and costs. It also needed
to align its operational, support, and
maintenance strategy with its overall
business strategy.
Adding the most value
It boils down to understanding where
your internal IT division adds the most
value. More often than not, your ownpeoples greatest worth lies in their in-
depth understanding of your business, as
well as their ability to develop new and
innovative ways to deliver IT solutions
to the business that would improve
processes, drive efficiencies, boost
productivity, and serve customers better.
Theres not much worth in IT spending
most of its time doing mundane
operational, support, and maintenance
tasks simply to keep systems up and
running. Which of those day-to-day
activities do you really need to continue
doing internally because they help you
drive competitive advantage, versus
outsourcing them to an external provider
who in many cases can drive greater
efficiencies due to scale?
Says DAprano:
Whether those functions are then
consumed in the form of a managed
service, or as a full outsource, depends
on the level of control you want. Do
you simply want someone to deliveran outcome for you, or do you believe
that you need to control some part of
that process for strategic reasons? The
answer to these questions will differ
from business to business and from
industry to industry, and will change
over time.
Gaining greater flexibility
DAprano believes the biggest requirement
from organisations today is flexibility.
They want their partners to deliveroutcomes, but they also want
contractual manoeuvring room in
order to adjust the nature of the
relationship when required. Many tend
to move between models ranging
from simple break-fix support to full
outsourcing depending on the cycles
of their business and what they deem
to be important as the next step in
their journey. So its important to
partner with an organisation that can
offer you that flexibility, and thatsinterested in working at the right pace
of transformation for your business,
however many steps it may take to
get there.
Be careful that your sourcing model
doesnt lock you out of business
opportunities,
advises DAprano.
Dont sign a contract with a partner
that binds you to doing something in
a specific way. This makes it hard to
introduce innovation into the business in
the form of new functions and processes,
when you need them. Outsourcing in
bite-sized chunks allows you to build
a far more agile business, because you
can tailor the services you buy more
specifically to your business objectives.
CS / DDMS-1458 / 02/14 Copyright Dimension Data 2014
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