Making a decision to outsource your IT isn't one to be taken lightly.
It's usually advisable to think carefully about things and to seek the assistance of a qualified IT Business Consultant.
However, you may be experiencing certain business symptoms which indicate that it might be sensible to conduct this investigation sooner rather than later: 1.
You are struggling to attract, train and then retain suitable IT personnel for your own in-house IT shop.
Such individuals are always in high demand and typically command premium salaries.
2.
You are finding yourself more and more in the position of needing to defer business development plans because your own IT establishment cannot keep pace with the demand.
3.
There are increasing numbers of occasions when your own in-house IT services organisation is struggling to remedy problems quickly and efficiently when they arise.
This might be reflected in things such as increased downtime statistics and so on.
4.
Are you finding that your customers and even competitors appear to have more sophisticated IT solutions than you do? Don't assume that this is simply a question of available budget because it might be due to the fact that your own IT establishment needs a "breath of fresh air" in terms of the way it sees the world.
5.
Is your cost of ownership (COO) escalating? The COO of technology usually represents the costs of maintaining it after it has been put live and includes things such as an apportionment of the salaries of your IT services personnel, associated overheads and a 3-5 year depreciation of the original development costs.
If your COO is consistently increasing but the functionality delivered is stable, then you potentially have a problem on the horizon.
6.
Do you struggle to cope when holidays and sickness mean key technical personnel are absent? If so, you may be walking a tightrope in terms of being able to keep yourself up-and-running in a situation where one or more of them happen to be away at the same time.
7.
Are you worried about your return on investment in IT? Your ROI needs to be measured and monitored because some organisations find themselves in the position of investing more and more in their IT infrastructure and associated IT support services, whilst struggling to identify an increase in visible business benefits accruing from that.
Trying to improve and control ROI is one of the primary reasons for outsourcing IT.
8.
Do you have concerns, however private, that your own IT personnel perhaps lack the skill sets required for the challenges they are facing? Sometimes that can be addressed with training and development but at other times you may simply need to inject new IT services expertise into your operation in order to achieve your objectives.
9.
Is your IT department largely reactive rather than operating as a proactive business partner generating ideas to drive your enterprise forward? This can be a major cultural problem that can sometimes be more easily resolved by external organisations.
10.
Are there times when you struggle to keep your IT personnel fully occupied? That might be more commonplace than some businesses would imagine and having under-utilised IT technical support specialists sitting around can prove to be an expensive luxury.
If any of the above things can be said to be true of your organisation then it might be time to find out more about IT outsourcing.