What is IT outsourcing and what does it do?

ICL Services company is a pioneer of professional IT outsourcing in Russia. And now we’ll tell you what is IT outsourcing, how to choose a reliable service provider, as well as what should and what not should be given to IT outsourcing.

Outsourcing is necessary to:

1. release staff (in our case — IT staff) from routine and non-core tasks;
2. concentrate personnel activity on the main business functions;
3. reduce the financial burden on the company.

1. Preparation for IT outsourcing
Assess if your company is ready for IT outsourcing:
• understand the main IT service management processes;
• specify particular and achievable goals of reforming;
• ask yourself a question: «Am I satisfied with the management of IT needs in my company?».

This analysis will help you avoid further difficulties and make the contractor’s activity most productive.

After it calculate the cost-effectiveness. Experience shows: in theory, customers know that IT outsourcing allows saving money, but in practice not everyone can correctly calculate the cost of having their own IT department.

2. Choosing an outsourcer

The whole business depends on IT infrastructure. Of course, you must give careful consideration to the choice of a supplier and introduction of IT outsourcing.

Choose several service providers and contact their customers: are they satisfied with the work done? In IT outsourcing company must have at least three satisfied customers that confirm its competence.

3. What should and what should not be given to IT outsourcing?

Do not outsource the entire IT system. Let’s find out what can be outsourced and what must remain inside the company.

Define any extra load from which you can get rid of:

• Service desk
• Management of IT infrastructure
• Application management and workplace support

However, the focus of an in-house IT department should remain on the most difficult and important issues:

• Design and development of architecture
• Critical services.
4. And something else

Properly constructed IT outsourcing provides the customer not only with partial risk insurance in case of IT infrastructure failures, but also with a controllable level of service. These are the advantages of outsourcing that allow any company to be always on top.

Read more about IT outsourcing in our blog on Habrahabr.