IT outsourcing has become today’s gold rush. Many companies are opting to outsource most of their IT services rather than having an in-house IT team. However, some companies are having challenges in IT outsourcing processes, and are at times making mistakes which are costing them a lot.
IT outsourcing is aimed at reducing the operational costs as well as improving efficiency and companies are having a hard time in achieving this. The challenges in IT outsourcing are attributed to a number of factors. This article will highlight some of the challenges companies face as they outsource IT.
Real cost
Outsourcing IT has a number of costs which are not considered by many people. Most of these expenses which are very significant are incurred before the outsourcing process is even completed. For example, costs of paying lawyers to review the contracts and other travel costs incurred during the frequent visits to the outsourcing company.
Or, what if the outsourced staff couldn’t perform the expected task and they had to be trained on the job. These are some of the real costs which are incurred during IT outsourcing, and they pose a big challenge to companies.
Time factor
Sometimes you are forced to wait for someone from the outsourced IT department in case of an emergency. This at time consumes a lot of time. Also, outsourced companies have their calendars, and this means that if they are occupied, you will have to wait for longer.
This situation puts you at the mercy of the outsourced IT department. This means that your situation would have been handled very quickly had your IT team been in-house.
Familiarity with network and systems
Your in-house IT staff is likely to be more familiar with your systems and network very well. At times, the in-house IT team is responsible for building the systems. This means that they can manage the systems, keep them running smoothly and be able to handle emergencies.
Outsourced IT department can also learn your systems and networks. But this can take a considerable amount of time. But, serious issues can arise if your company lacks proper documentation. These challenges can, in turn, cost the company a large sum of money.
Employee relationships
This is one of the greatest challenges even though it is not seen as an issue by many managers. In-house employees know each other well and how to handle each other too. When you outsource IT services, you might not be getting the same person every time. This means that your staff must get used to different engineers and how they work too.
In-house IT staff form friendships very quickly but this doesn’t say that relationships with outsourced IT cannot be built. However, bringing in outsourced IT staff causes instability amongst the employees. This may not be a challenge, but it can cause issues to the point that an employee is banned from being deployed to a certain client.
Liability
When a third party is brought in, they can bring liability in some situation or critical information. This means that companies have to employ some security measures to safeguard the employees, company data, and systems, thus making everything liability.
In this situation, it becomes hard to predict when data can be stolen, accidentally leave an external hard drive or be accessed by unauthorized parties. You add extra security measures, and everything goes wrong. Also, you should understand that outsourced IT staff may not handle your data with the seriousness in-house IT team staff would.
Priority
This is far-reaching. Your organization can be in the list of the many companies the outsourced IT Company manages. This leads to the following question, which company gets priority? Typically, the company which requires more services is bound to get more priority.
This means that if you are not that company, services will be kept pending whenever the prioritized company needs services from the outsourced company. This gives you two options, either keep your IT in-house or spend more cash.
