Outsource or Not to Outsource

The strategic decision to, Outsource or Not-to-Outsource

Modern CIOs have recognised breaking down the ‘Ivory Towers’ of IT will open up the Digital Agendas of the CMO

One of the many decisions CIOs now need to make in the digital 2020’s, is how much of their old school Ivory Towers do they “let-go” and what they keep focus on internally. This quite frankly does depend on the type of business that you are providing IT services for, and depends on whether core internal development is part of the value that your business provides.

However in the modern world and growing demand for fast paced Digital and Social Media it should be quite easy to decide what IT services you provide your internal users and what you should be considering managed for you through third parties.

The questions a CIO should be asking are:-

1. Do the services fall into standard ‘utilities’ like desktop support, software application provisioning or general user IT support
2. Are the IT services provided non-revenue generating
3. Are the services non-core HR or Administrative services
4. Are you providing inbound customer support services

If it’s yes to any of the four areas listed above then it’s a high probability to be on the CIO list for potential outsource provision. There are many more too however. These types of service do not always need to be managed internally and can often be delivered with higher SLA contractual commitments and possibly lower cost to the business when outsourced to the right players.

If you have made the decision to outsource the next headache is finding the right third party partner as well as the languages that you might need covered. The delicate decisions to be considered are onshore or offshore, if it’s offshore then near-shore or emerging markets / low cost geography.

There are many additional factors such as data confidentiality protection, customer service or collections or technology support. If you are delivering commercial transactions then there is the need to consider customer payment protection and something all Board level executives are concerned about and that is the ability to protect client personal identifiable data and credit card details – this is all bundled into what’s known as PCI-Compliance.

“Having worked with some of the largest outsourcing and BPO firms in the world it is easier to see, what’s good and what’s not, for different businesses”, says Craig Ashmole, Founding Partner of London based CCServe Consulting. “Getting the correct performance factors for your type of business and knowing the right geo-market to provide the Outsource service from are key decisions that I help many CIOs with.”

None of these issues listed should be a deterrent to consider the BPO or Outsourcing market but getting it ‘right’ is equally something that one might be concerned about. All that said the BPO [Business Process Outsourcing] market is on the upswing and in 2014 and early 2015 there have been a number of reports written stating that it’s
‘Cool again to outsource’.

“To the untrained eye the outsource market can be cumbersome to manipulate ones way round while trying to get through all the marketing hype that so many vendor suppliers throw at you. Recognising that this can become a challenging and daunting experience”, Craig goes on to say. “So part of the consulting work we focus on is, providing short term consultative engagement to gather requirements, understand the business commercial objectives including ‘pain points’ and then advise or broker relationships with the BPO Outsource community.”

CCServe Consulting provides a fast track approach with access to a global network of contacts and best-of-breed companies that cannot be bought over the counter or learned in a training class. We provide this value in a consultative approach for a CIO to take advantage of, in order to continue to provide ‘utility’ services to their business, but enabling them to focus their time and valuable in-house resources at addressing the marketing CMO’s needs for fast paced digital agendas.

No matter what geography your business is based in, or if you are interested in someone to support transitioning parts of your business, and of course if it’s just guiding you round the hype of BPO, Outsourcing or Shared Services then reach out to us at CCServe Limited.