As a CFO, Tim Gaynor automatically assesses almost everything from a cost-benefit point of view. Here he looks at outsourced IT from that perspective. Where does it really add value?
“Most businesses have an eye on carefully managing headcount. Given the relentless charge of technology advancement and the equally rapid evolution of cyber risk, balancing internal IT headcount against benefit and risk is key.
Proactive outsourced IT can help you get this balance right, whilst improving business efficiency and making a serious long-term contribution to the bottom line. I think there are three key areas where CFOs and CIOs can get clear benefits that are hard to replicate in-house:
When your in-house IT team is continually responding to daily challenges, be that everyday technology updates, user issues, or countering evolving cyber threats, it can be hard for them to find the necessary bandwidth for what’s new.
An outsourced IT partner like Ideal (other brands are apparently available) enables you to tap into the latest technological possibilities as and when you need to, without carrying that overhead all year round.
Outsourced IT can deliver a number of advantages, including:
In addition, if you build a positive ongoing relationship with the right outsourced partner, they will be able to proactively suggest new strategies or help you adopt emerging technologies to meet your specific business goals.
Without an independent voice, you may be buying hardware direct from distributors based on their product offering, without a deeper examination of the challenges you are trying to meet.
A professional outsource provider who values a long-term relationship will support your IT and purchasing teams with hardware by:
Managing Enterprise Agreement (EA) licensing
EA licensing can be fiendishly complex and may split responsibilities between your IT team and your purchasing function.
At Ideal, we deal with EA licensing every day and we understand it forensically. We can right-size EA licensing for your precise application needs so that you are not paying more than you should.
For one client with a £100k annual EA licensing commitment, we recently took them across to an ‘A la carte’ approach, with one-off licensing spread over different periods, saving them around 10% a year.
A decent outsource IT provider should also be able to help you manage your ‘Trueing-up’ process. We often help clients to roll unused EA licensing costs across to the next billing year, once again accessing significant savings.
Managing maintenance on critical infrastructure
We all know that IT failures can damage operability, reputation and bottom line.
By understanding your IT real estate across multiple sites, any outsourced IT provider worth their salt will be able to track warranties, understand vulnerabilities and advise on scheduled maintenance. This can help you to avoid disastrous outages or failures, without costing a fortune.
The final area where outsourced IT can potentially save you costly IT issues (and also help you to sleep better at night) is Managed Services – particularly with respect to Cyber Security.
At Ideal, we provide proactive Managed Service to some very large clients with complex international and national operations, as well and some smaller local companies.
What our service ensures is:
We offer in-house, UK-based 24/7/365 proactive Managed Services with three levels of cover to suit your needs. We cover some of the largest office buildings in the UK, hospitals, arenas, venues, warehouse and distribution firms, international businesses and multi-site companies.
If you would like to assess the potential cost benefits of any of these core outsource IT approaches, CFO to CFO, please do get in touch. I would be very happy to run the numbers with you.“
Tim Gaynor is Chief Finance Officer at Ideal.
Tim has worked in Finance for 20 years, leading teams in early-stage and established businesses through the investment cycle, in sectors including investment banking, asset management, energy and technology.
Ideal is the UK’s #1 Converged Network System expert with vast experience across 40+ Smart Buildings (and counting).
Ideal has been awarded Cisco 360 Preferred Partner Status and is recognised as an expert in 3X Powered Services.
“Having 24/7/365 Managed Services based in our offices makes for a cohesive response when it matters most for the customer.”
