IT Outsourcing

Many large corporations are outsourcing their IT departments to gain a significant commercial advantage; but what about smaller companies........how can small to medium businesses (SMB's) achieve the same result?

There are many reasons for IT outsourcing although generally it comes down to cost, consistency and control. Large corporations have successfully pursued partial and full IT outsourcing and in many cases this has led to significant cost savings and operational efficiency which have validated the outsourcing decisions made.

Smaller organisations can have trouble utilising the same approach as size can be seen as a barrier when it comes to IT outsourcing. It is perceived that only larger organisations can benefit from the flexible options available, OCS Computer Services are challenging this idea.

OCS provides IT services in a variety of diverse markets and this gives OCS an insight into how to apply the benefits of corporate outsourcing on a smaller SMB scale. OCS has assessed the IT delivery functions and responsibilities between these different organisation types. From this assessment we have been able to identify the key aspects of an IT outsource that should be applied to the smaller organisation and go on to establish a model which can be delivered to SMB's offering the same benefits, level of flexibility and scalability.

• Collaborative - IT plans and implementation is aligned to the business plans and needs
• Consistency - service delivery levels (stated, measurable and monitored) for the users and the business
• Completeness - range of skills and experiences available from a pool of technical resources
• Correctness - IT solutions offered are best practice based on budget, timescales and resources particularly skills, culture and capacity within clients user base
• Control - budgets (capacity and financial are set and used to measure and guide performance)