Outsource and prosper
FEATURES
Can SME firms reap the benefits of outsourcing? Patrick Wingrove speaks to legal management leaders to find out how firms can make a success of the as-a-service way
Nick Hayne, business development manager at Pulsant, on how outsourced IT helps firms attain competitive advantage and makes security easier
James Gilding, managing director at Mitie Connect, analyses the challenges of document processing – and how outsourcing document management could give SME firms a competitive edge
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SME firms can make enormous gains by outsourcing operations – but there are businesses that have had bad experiences of as-a-service. So, why does it go right for some businesses and wrong for others? We wanted to find out how firms can make a success of outsourcing, and reap the full benefits of handing over functions to businesses that have the resources to do a better job of it than them.
To outsource successfully firms need to know what they’re getting into. A good manager wouldn’t dream of hiring someone who didn’t know what they were doing or didn’t fit into the business, and would expect to work closely with that employee. The attitude to a third-party provider should be no different – and if firms get to grips with that, providers can become an integral part of the business and help deliver competitive advantage.
SUCCESS AS-A-SERVICE
Outsourcing is popular with UK businesses – according to a report from technology research firm ISG, EMEA combined sourcing and as-a-service market insights, the value of UK outsourcing contracts in 2017’s first quarter was a record £1.1bn. This figure is perhaps unsurprising since as-a-service can be enormously beneficial to businesses – particularly SME firms that couldn’t otherwise afford high-quality products or services. But outsourcing doesn’t always work out – City firm Bevan Brittan ended its six-year outsourcing agreement in May 2017 because it wanted to manage the quality of services in-house. So, how do SME firms ensure an outsourcing adventure is successful?
BRIGHTER FUTURES
It wasn’t too long ago that IT outsourcing was viewed with a heavy dose of scepticism – and perhaps rightly so. But after spending years perfecting its offering and overcoming some pretty bad press, it has proved to be a valuable service – bringing numerous benefits to SME businesses, such as greater flexibility, access to new technologies and improving productivity.
IN GOOD HANDS
Managing physical documents, keeping track of that one version of the truth and getting hold of data when it’s needed can be an enormous challenge for any business. In a world where there are more ways of capturing data than ever before, organisations are seemingly drowning in information – and on those occasions businesses come up for air, it can be hard to see the direction in which to swim.
