Making the right decisions for IT outsourcing

Here at Calsoft we understand that finding a dedicated, professional outsourcing supplier is important, especially in this economic climate; according to recent research from the Chartered Management Institute, levels of confidence in the IT sector for 2009 have plummeted, making cost cutting initiatives a leader on the global IT agenda. Finding an outsourcing company with the skills you need, with a clear understanding of the task at hand, is one of the first steps to saving money and making businesses work more efficiently.

Financial asset management giant Schroders is a case in point. Having just completed a IT overhaul, the company’s infrastructure has just won a Corporate IT Forum’s Real IT Award, and has set the firm on course to save money on integration whilst increasing profits. The overhaul project began in 2005 when Schroders ended its existing five-year contract with JPMorgan.

Matthew Oakeley, global head of IT at Schroders, said: “We realised that the five-year outsourcing period with JPMorgan had meant no investment in this platform and that it needed ripping out and replacing.”

Equally, reliable outsourcing is big business, and growing all the time, especially in countries just starting to spread their wings in the IT sector. HCL Technologies, the Indian outsourcing supplier, has just completed its successful £440m takeover of UK SAP specialist Axon. This is the largest overseas acquisition to date by an Indian IT firm.

Vineet Nayar, CEO of HCL, said: “Enterprise application services are one of the eight areas of growth at HCL. The merger of Axon with HCL's SAP practice is a transformational one that will make HCL significant in this chosen area of growth."

The expansion of outsourcing suppliers is not just limited to newcomers, however. Inatech announced this week its expansion into mainland Europe during this crucial business period as Eastern-Europe integrates into the continent and the Euro grows stronger. Inatech plans to support the growth of Oracle during this period of increased integration, by orchestrating the company’s new business links in mainland Europe.

Vedante Srihari, managing director, said: “Europe is a key region to develop Inatech as a leading provider of integrated systems solutions.

“Many of our customers are international businesses or have numerous offices across mainland Europe. Being at the heart of the EU community will assist companies with the ambition to provide business internationally.

“The recession is affecting every organisation worldwide; cost-reduction, data transparency, accessibility and streamlined integrated IT systems are essential to remain competitive and agile.

“We will see many more prominent mergers and acquisitions over the next 24 months and businesses need to ensure their investments are viable. We believe our ‘right shore’ approach delivered as a fixed-price package will benefit companies particularly in the current economic climate.”

Continuing in this vein of more and better integration, Inatech also launched its new concept of modular managed services to help businesses fight the recession. It’s iBIZ and iDBA modular programmes, debuted at OUG UK earlier this month, aim to help organisations achieve business goals with a service designed to support individual directors or IT managers.

Inatech believes some companies struggle with the traditional working practices of IT suppliers who ‘know best'. Instead they should be able to select flexible modular programmes in line with business requirements, allowing them to react more efficiently to change.

Vedante Srihari said: "If iTunes is entertainment made easy and iPhone is multi-media communications incarnate, then iDBA is access to a virtual army of IT experts.

“Our industry is plagued with clients who suffer outsourcing ‘mid-term blues’ and find themselves saddled with long-term contracts that have outlived their original purpose. With this new modular service the IT director has the flexibility they need to scale up or down without signing away their future.

“During an economic slow down, it’s unclear how the business might need to change to survive an increasingly competitive environment. Knowing you can access a reliable team on flexible terms will be a lifeline for many.”