Carpe Diem - before it's too late
The commercial success stories of the next two years will be written by companies and enterprises that are agile and can move quickly to ensure that they maximise their profits and market share. Make no mistake, there will be as many winners as losers amongst all sectors and size of businesses during the next economic cycle.
Technology will remain as a key focus area for all businesses, and successful business will deliver on the promise of technology, not be mired in day-to-day issues. Their infrastructure will be resilient and well documented, with routine tasks handled by a co-sourcing partner habitually.
This frees the internal technology team up to focus on researching, planning and implementing. Solutions and projects can then be tailored specifically to the industry sector of an organisation, adding real measurable benefits.
So what are five key characteristics of the agile business when it comes to their technology investment and infrastructure?
1. Engagement with a trusted technology service partner for the long term
The days of playing every technology supplier off against each other are over. The rewards of a percentage point or two knocked off a headline price are far outweighed by the value added through a dedicated and knowledgeable team of people, who have worked with your business over a number of years.
The trust that has been built up between professional teams over time is now the norm within the co-sourcing model, the most effective support model for today.
2. New isn’t always better and old isn’t always good enough
Service points have a focus on just that, service. Therefore, the provisioning of new solutions isn’t the highest agenda item unless it adds real business benefit.
In contrast, the measurement of performance through accurate SLAs and service reviews ensures that if older technology is starting to under-perform, there is empirical data to support a change strategy.
3. Routine is just that
The agile business ensures that all routine processes from Service Desk to regular move and change activity is handled by a co-sourced partner. This ensures that internal teams can focus on unique and challenging projects that have high impact, while your partner exploits their expertise in that area.
4. Utilise and trust remote tools
The technology support industry has led the way with remote support tools and 24 x7 monitoring for a number of years. Not only are these tools efficient, but in many cases they are planet and cost effective. Gone are the days of fleets of engineers in cars who used fuel, time and money every time they moved.
5. Minimise headcount through co-sourcing
Someone once asked how a managed services provider such as Twin Systems plc could effectively support the amount of clients we do with our given headcount.
The answer was something like this: “We employ 5 people to do 10 jobs and pay them like 8!”
We actively recruit and train our own analysts, who we consider to be amongst the best there is. Our teams work on thousands of issues within a month and we can spot trends across whole areas and technology. We have the experience, professionalism and knowledge gained from our longevity in the marketplace, we wouldn’t still be around otherwise!
With rare exceptions our teams work at a higher tempo than internal service teams. This results in service that is competitive on price but also delivers real user satisfaction and efficiency.
So, I guess the only question is “are you going to seize the day and use today's environment as an opportunity to choose agility and success?”