For many companies, outsourcing is a necessity. Keeping an in-house team to handle every issue that comes up, particularly in specialized fields like IT, can be impractical; and you might not have the experience, scale, or interest within your company to train an employee to deal with every issue that might appear. Finding the right outsourcing firm, however, can feel like looking for a needle in a haystack! To make the process a little bit easier, consider the following:
Make a list of the components your outsourcing firm must provide. You don’t want to enter into a partnership with a company only to discover that they don’t offer all of the components that you need, so determine up front exactly what you need your outsourcing firm to offer and build from there. Having a clear, concise list will make it possible for you to easily determine whether or not the consulting firm you’re looking at will offer the support you need.
Ask them how they would handle specific situations and scenarios. Think of incidents you’ve experienced as an IT organization and pose those scenarios to your prospective provider. Knowing how they will handle those situations will tell you a great deal about the firm. For example, how do they research solutions to issues that they have not seen before? How flexible with their service be during critical business periods? Know how your outsourcing company will react to any situation.
Look at the size of the company and the size of their clients. Consider the size of your own business. If you’re a mid-market company, you don’t want to choose a big outsourcing firm that has a number of clients far larger than your business. In that instance, your business wouldn’t get the attention it deserves. Instead, choose a firm that has experience serving organizations similar in size to your business to ensure that you’re getting the best possible support.
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