Small business CFOs wear many hats, including chief information officer (CIO). You most likely rely heavily on the IT team, whether due to time constraints (strategic planning, financial reporting, business partnership, and other hats all take time) or competency (not every CFO is a technology wizard). And you’re probably awake at night because of a cyberattack, a system outage, or other issues.
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Consider starting with a small IT team, perhaps two or three people. When COVID-19 arrives, the option of remote work becomes a reality, and each member of the IT team announces that they have accepted new roles allowing them to work permanently from home for out-of-state companies at significantly higher pay.
What do you do? Perhaps your first thought is to hire a new team, but you quickly realize that finding all the necessary skills will be nearly impossible, assuming you are lucky enough to find anyone at all. And what will you do in the meantime if the systems fail and you literally have no one left? Could outsourcing the IT help desk and related activities be the solution?
Advantages of IT Outsourcing
Partnering with a managed service provider (MSP) to provide an IT help desk and related support can certainly reduce the risk of unexpectedly losing an internal team. More importantly, such a collaboration can provide access to a diverse group of IT professionals with varying areas of expertise and skill sets.
As a result, your new team will most likely provide a deeper and broader level of IT support than the typical internal IT department, and possibly at a lower cost. Your MSP partner can even provide CIO-level support, allowing you to focus on long-term IT planning and strategy development. In short, outsourcing IT can help you sleep better.
Here are nine keys to successful IT outsourcing.
- Select the Appropriate Partner
A MSP relationship is similar to a marriage in that it requires chemistry, trust, vulnerability, and hard work. Check for alignment with your company’s culture and values, solicit feedback from your network, conduct background checks, and meet with all key members of the MSP’s team. Inquire about areas of expertise and review resumes. And, if necessary, put their technical skills and leadership ability to the test. By carefully choosing your MSP partner, you increase the likelihood that the relationship will last.
- Reach a fair agreement
One advantage of an MSP relationship is the potential cost savings. However, cost is only one factor to consider. In addition, specify whether the activities to be outsourced are limited or comprehensive IT support. Determine who is responsible for which risks and ensure that your partner maintains adequate liability insurance coverage. Maintain balance in the various contract terms. In short, reach a fair, win-win agreement.
- Establish Expectations
Setting expectations begins with the contract’s scope of responsibility and service response times. The agreement should specify whether they are only responsible for help desk support, break/fix needs, or identifying and correcting root causes. However, fully clarifying expectations, such as when help desk tickets should be closed, what should be communicated to who and when, which procedures should be documented, and who plays what role in vendor management, will be a continuous process.
- Document Desktop Procedures Formally
When you have a well-established internal team, everyone understands their roles and what steps to take in any given situation (e.g., in onboarding a new employee). When you hire a new MSP partner, they may need to customize existing procedures or develop new ones to meet your needs. Formalizing appropriate desktop procedure documents allows you to confirm the MSP’s understanding of your expectations and promotes future consistency.
- Managing Change
Change can be difficult, especially if internal customers are accustomed to receiving immediate, hands-on assistance whenever they require it. Explain why you are outsourcing the IT help desk and related activities. Introduce the MSP team, preferably in person. Clarify and reinforce how employees should create help desk tickets. Ensure that the internal team has realistic expectations for support and turnaround time. A successful transition will require effective change management.
- Establish Accountability
It is critical to hold an MSP partner accountable as you transition to them. Holding weekly meetings to review help desk ticket resolution, discuss new issues, prioritize next steps, and obtain commitments on due dates is an excellent way to ensure alignment. These sessions are also a great way to identify if your partner is failing to meet their commitments and needs to change course. Accountability is mutual. As CIO, you are ultimately responsible for the MSP relationship’s success. It’s all yours!
- Gather Feedback
Working with an MSP partner will be difficult at times, as with any relationship. Consider conducting a survey six months into the transition to solicit employee feedback on what’s working and what isn’t, and then coordinating with your partner to make necessary changes. For example, we were advised to collect feedback after each help desk ticket was closed. Our partner has now implemented a short survey after closing tickets (for all of their clients), and we are reviewing a monthly summary of this feedback to identify trends and opportunities.
- Put Best Practices into Action
Your MSP partner should raise your awareness of technological trends and put best practices into action on your behalf. Are you having trouble sleeping because of the threat of cyberattacks? Knowing that your partner is monitoring for risky user sign-ins 24 hours a day, scanning all URL links and attachments before they are opened, performing penetration testing, and conducting employee phishing simulations, including follow-up training as needed, should reduce your anxiety.
- Maintain a Mindset of Continuous Improvement
There are always opportunities to do what you do better, whether it’s providing help desk support, monitoring system health, onboarding new employees, mitigating cyber risk, or improving the MSP partnership itself. As a result, strive to instill a mindset of continuous improvement in your entire team.
Call to Action
As CFOs continue to deal with shifting responsibilities and priorities, including the need for many to secure IT infrastructure and introduce new technologies, it’s critical to have vendors you can rely on to keep the company and its employees safe and productive. If you’ve decided to outsource IT, follow the steps outlined above to ensure you’re putting everyone — including yourself — on the right track.
Source : cfo.com
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About Skyhigh.Vip
Skyhigh.Vip is a global institutional investor with a vast interest in Arts / Construction / Education / Business Services / E-Sports and various other growth industries.
Several of its popular portfolios include GO Chambers which is the world’s largest business chamber listing provider with over 30,000 active chambers as its members.
Outsource Guru is the global choice for Business Process Outsourcing that offers a full stack of services for all aspects of business process flow and together with Flexgigzz.com as a platform for freelancers aims to provide best services for many businesses.
For growth industries there is Point of Authority for a professional E-sport team and gaming hardware superstore, and there is AtelierAuction which is an investable art auctioneer and being in the art scene for decades.
