Dear {!firstname},

In this issue, you'll find information on 5 Ways to Get the Most Out of Your Outsourcer. We explore some simple ways to keep your business competitive in an outsourced environment.

Are you aware of the new IFRS (International Financial Reporting Standards) regulations? IASA has recently announced IFRS for SMEs - the small and mid-sized privately held business version. Their website has more info. Check with your financials system vendor to understand its compliance initiatives.

Feel free to forward this to others who may find this newsletter helpful.

Sincerely,

Laura Pettit Rusick
OPT Solutions, Inc.
www.optsolutionsinc.com

Did you outsource your IT department so you don’t have to think about technology? Relegate IT and you could very well be losing out on opportunities to improve efficiency and enable growth in your company. Worst case, it could mean business disruption.

Follow these 5 steps to get the most from your outsourcer:

1. Have regular meetings with your outsourcer. Discuss their performance, and discuss your business strategy. Talk about potential acquisitions. The outsourcer may need to hire additional people and increase storage space; they will likely be impacted by the integration strategy. Regularly check to make sure the IT strategy is aligned with and supports your business strategy.
2. Don’t expect CIO level input from your outsourcer. It’s possible, but not common. Most outsourcers are focused on providing a level of service to keep your users and servers up and running. They are often not used to researching new technologies, helping with software selections or working with you on business process improvements. In addition, they usually partner with specific vendors. Understand their bias.
   
   Consider hiring a CIO or IT Director. For small to mid-size companies, consider contracting with a retained CIO. This level of resource provides management of the outsourcer and other vendors and participates on the executive team to point out potential risks, impacts and ways to use IT to facilitate the business plan.
3. If the outsourcer is not providing regular reports, ask them to. Reporting should include the number of issue tickets received, relevant dates, resolution time and status. If servers or networks are being managed, expect to see availability statistics (with downtime explanations), storage and network capacity graphs and plans for upgrading or refreshing servers.

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Copyright © 2009 by Laura Pettit Rusick.

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