As the CIO for large and small organizations, the most expensive, time consuming and often problematic areas in my organization were those hardcore IT operations, desk top deployment, telephony, and database administration.
With the directive to reduce overall spending in Technology while deploying more business impacting applications in a shorter amount of time, I made the choice to outsource the IT operation functions to Managed Service Providers (MSP).
I sought input from my peers as I made the decision what roles should remain in-house. I chose to keep those roles that were closest to the business units and possessed the institutional memory that would be most impactful as we moved forward. They included business analysts, a few development resources to continue support and maintenance of the current applications inventory, and a few experienced project managers.
Like all business initiatives, it was necessary to sell the concept to the CEO and my peers. In doing so, the following key points to sell the value of an MSP included:
Do What We Do Best
As an organization we did some things very well and had identified the core competencies that team members should have. Managing servers and configuring firewalls was not part of the core competency for our manufacturing company. Managed services helped relieve the stress by allowing us to focus on our core business strategies. It provided peace of mind knowing the infrastructure issues were monitored and addressed by experts.
Ready Infrastructure
Configuring a Cloud infrastructure and managing the current technical environment is a time consuming and expensive exercise. In-house operations staff would take months to configure or upgrade the environments. With a few weeks of study, the MSP was able to assume responsibility for the entire technical infrastructure.
Access to the Experts
It is critical to have the capability to quickly reach and engage experts in a wide range of technologies and functions.
Proactive Support and Quick Response Time
My MSPs were specialized and dedicated to the management of our systems. The Help Desk professionals assigned to us provided quick, professional, and personable service to our users. They monitored all systems and offered timely support when a performance drop or system failure was indicated.
Cost Saving and Easier Budgeting
It is expensive to employ competent IT personnel to run the IT operations (hardware needs, security requirements, database management, web infrastructure, etc.) Outsourcing those services reduced overall costs and provided a predictable monthly cost for the entire service.
Outsourcing IT operations to Managed Service Providers was one of the best decisions I have made as a CIO. The process to choose an MSP was long and detailed, but worth the effort every time. It allowed me to focus on my core business and freed up valuable resources that I could then redeploy to more strategic initiatives. I highly recommend this approach for any CIO looking to reduce spending while deploying more applications in a shorter amount of time.
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