The first wave of cost-cutting outsourcing has come to an end. Gone are the days when tasks could be shipped to another location to be done at a much lower cost. To reap the benefits of IT outsourcing, organizations need to learn the most effective ways to outsource their projects.

Outsourcing remains best-suited to tasks that are not directly customer-facing and can be performed without customers realizing they’re being done elsewhere. This helps minimize interface problems between the business and its customers and keeps the customer talking directly to the business.

Don’t Outsource Core Competencies

As Bain Capital notes, it is unwise to outsource processes that define your company’s identity or provide your key competitive advantages. Because this is what your business uses to differentiate itself, outsourcing may cause confusion about exactly what your company has to offer.

Outsourcing can empower businesses to free up resources. However, it can also put a company at risk if they choose an unreliable or poor-performing partner to handle the outsourcing project.

Choose Your Partner Carefully

To determine your outsourcing partner, it’s important to evaluate more than just the raw costs of the project. You must also examine their track record and the specialized advantages they bring to the table.

Leveraging the strengths of a strategic partner can be a great advantage. For example, an experienced managed service provider can help you maintain your hybrid cloud environment more efficiently and effectively than an in-house team alone. It’s important to measure these kinds of competencies when choosing what to outsource and what vendor to outsource to.

It’s also crucial to determine how far your outsourcing partner can go to meet your IT needs. A smaller operation may only be able to provide a limited amount of tasks, thus limiting their overall flexibility in the future. Investing in a partner that can perform many different kinds of projects equally as well as the ones you’re currently performing will greatly benefit you down the line.

Outsourcing IT functions can be a great way to achieve your organization’s goals and get the most out of your tech team’s time and budget, as long as you’re outsourcing the right processes and partnering with a provider that can set you up for success.

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