By Kailash Attal, Chief Quality Officer, Global Head – Services and Solutions
The importance of knowledge acquisition and management, as well as the standardization of processes and measurement of results, cannot be underestimated. Meeting these critical success factors sets the stage for one of the most important goals of outsourcing Managed Services: freeing in-house IT subject matter experts from their traditional corporate functions so they can pursue strategic business roles in the New Normal of today’s economic landscape.
I wrote about this paradigm shift in the role of IT in my first article for the Managed Services: The New Normal series. IT must slash operational costs while simultaneously finding a way to play a significant role in business initiatives. This new role comes in many forms, such as driving new technology models like the Cloud, creating new revenue streams, or broadening customer relationships through social media and mobile device apps.
To make the big leap from cost center to innovation center, we start once again with simple steps and careful planning by the Service Provider. At this stage, we also see elements of Organizational Change Management come into play, to accommodate IT’s changing role in the organization.
Here are some of the steps that are covered in this phase of the transition to Managed Services:
Define the Retained Organization -
some in-house IT staff members will be needed to stay on in their traditional maintenance and support roles as others move on.
Establish Roles and Responsibilities -
clearly defining which services will be outsourced and which will remain in-house will smooth the process and prevent confusion about who does what.
Roll-Out and Training -
provides the retained organization with new knowledge and education in updated support processes and responsibilities.
End User Training -
prepares other users throughout the company to avail themselves of the organization’s newly-structured IT services.
From this point forward in the Transition phase, IT subject matter experts who are not a part of the retained organization are freed from their traditional roles and can focus on more strategic and sustainable business growth initiatives. Along with Knowledge Acquisition, this is another key area where clients see real progress on their journey to Outcome-based Managed Services.
