Written by Rakesh Kumar Jain, Vice President, Infrastructure Management Services, YASH Technologies
Whether you call it Service Management OR Operations Infrastructure support, without strong IT service support capability, an enterprise is nothing more than mix of activities. SMBs (Small & Medium Businesses), especially, need standardized processes, solutions, tools, reporting & governance that brings value to their IT operations and their business partners. Being able to apply the standards (i.e., processes, governance, reporting, metrics, etc) within the organization creates actual value through economies of scale, consistency, transparency, information and leads to professionalising the service delivery.
Additionally, due to rapid globalization and digitalization, internal IT teams fall short on skills and agility to be aligned to changing business needs.
It furthermore becomes challenging for SMBs, as on one hand they need to focus on Business priorities whereas on the other they need to manage IT staffing requirements, absenteeism, IT skill gaps due to changes in IT landscape.
IT Outsourcing Dilemmas for SMBs – While SMBs want to focus on their business growth, they struggle in finding a right outsourcing partner due to following reasons:
- Due to small / medium sized IT landscape, IT incidents are quite irregular. Not many IT outsourcing service providers are eager to pick up such support contracts, because to provide required coverage, it will be pricey for SMBs.
- Despite pricey contracts with outsourcing service providers, SMBs struggle to get enough attention to their IT Needs compared to large enterprises, affecting their growth.
What SMBs look for in an outsourcing partner?
- An outsourcing partner, who can provide timely support and comes with standard processes, tools & technology solutions for day-to-day support to avoid Capex investments in such tools / platforms.
- Availability of flex team as and when needed to support irregular ticket patterns across IT landscape.
- Flexible support coverage & pricing constructs.
- Different pricing models for Production & non-production environments.
- Ability to tap on Technology Centers of Excellence for consulting, architectural, designing and implementation needs as and when needed.
How can SMBs meet their IT Support requirements?
We all have heard and utilized Shared services across different functions viz., Business Process Outsourcing, Finance & Accounting, HR shared services etc.
It’s now time to embrace Shared IT Support Services (SISS) which comes with Operational Service Excellence, Optimal Resource Management, Quality Driven Services through Continuous Delivery.
Armed with in-depth technical knowledge, the Shared IT team can manage, troubleshoot, and support all Infrastructure technologies across industries providing support to multiple customers. If an SMB chooses to leverage SISS, it brings in cost savings along with additional advantages. These include – improved quality and reliability, standardized processes through industry-leading automation platform, and a flexible service delivery model. SISS does not require any significant upfront investments as it comes with its tools and accelerators, using which SMBs can start reaping benefits right away. Simply put, they are a readily available flex team.
SISS provides such enterprises access to cutting-edge technology without having to shoulder the entire financial load of acquiring them. Some of the other benefits of shared services are as follows:
- Effective and efficient coverage for all technology towers available across various shifts.
- Pay-As-You-Go OR UNIT Cost model i.e., whatever shift coverage you choose, you pay for the no of units in your environment.
For ex: If you have 50 Servers, you pay per server price for support of 50 servers; similarly, if you have 200 tickets on the service desk, you pay per ticket price for 200 tickets. Similarly, Different pricing for Production & Non-Production environments.
- Standard SoW, Standard Processes, Standard SLAs.
- On-demand availability of Technology CoEs for consulting, architectural, designing, and implementation needs as and when needed at a pre-defined and agreed rate card.
Foresight-driven strategies and opportunities
Can sharing of resources become part of today’s new business environment? Yes, if the potential opportunities look like these:
Synergy
The global pandemic has brought to light that everything and everyone is intertwined. SMBs must look beyond the traditional approach to a better technology ecosystem for improving IT support.
Agility
SISS is about collaboration and innovation, compelling businesses to rethink how they can share resources without competing.
Cost-effectiveness
It goes without saying that by sharing resources, SMBs share the costs, implying direct cost reduction.
In summary, SISS can offer improved efficiencies, lower costs, and result in greater overall effectiveness. Having a process – and the right partners – in place will be instrumental toward maximizing such benefits and, ultimately, achieving your business goals and objectives
SISS make businesses adaptive to diverse opportunities – an excellent way to stay one step ahead of the competition!
