ITO (IT Outsourcing) has many possibilities for organizations and understanding it’s full scope of work and potential for success is important. Many organizations consider outsourcing for their custom developed applications. However, often the right resources aren’t devoted to the application portfolio.
The five basic questions your team should answer before deciding to outsource:
- Is it appropriate for our organization?
- Is it feasible – can we support?
- What is the scope of work and ongoing service we will need?
- Who should we work with and why?
- Determine how well application portfolio is operating and if it can/should be optimized
Outsourcing can empower your organization to help mitigate the ups and downs. But what should be your main motivations behind wanting to outsource? Consider these:
- Overall costs of time and resources
- Give your tech-savvy employees room to create rather than put out fires
- Share the risk burden and gain more expertise on your project
When outsourcing makes sense for your organization, preparing for the knowledge transfer phase is vital. How well this plays out depends on the preparation and availability of teams. The shadow then flip-shadow approach and waterfall approach to transition are familiar but don’t account for how new skills are actually learned and retained. The best approach is to focus on developing responsive, iterative, and incremental improvements.
Due diligence on the front end of a project can save your organization from IT failures down the road. Some “gone wrong” moments for the biggest names in the industry can be traced back to missing key critical steps in the process. Therefore, finding the company with the right resources, knowledge, and expertise to meet your needs in IT outsourcing is vital to a projects overall success.
