outsourcing your network - lock, stock, and barrel or bite-sized chunks latest thining

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.


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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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outsourcing your network - lock, stock, and barrel or bite-sized chunks latest thining

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