How should enterprises avoid the risks of IT outsourcing services
What is the risk coefficient of IT outsourcing services? There is no detailed data in China for the time being. However, the success rate of IT services can be used as a reference. Rolf Jester, chief analyst of Gartner IT services, said at the Asia Pacific IT Services Advanced Seminar: "China's IT service market is still immature, and about 50% of IT service contracts are submitted in a way that does not satisfy users."
How to eliminate risks
Risk migration is not equal to risk disappearance. In front of us, we mainly focus on theoretical analysis. Here we also need to know some commonly used rules in reality to try to make risk "trivial" - reduce the harm of risk:
Fully understand your project
Many enterprises do not thoroughly analyze their IT needs, and they outsource services only to get immediate results. When choosing outsourcing, enterprises must have a good understanding of the whole project, including project requirements, implementation methods and sources of expected economic benefits. It is very important to have a reasonable evaluation method for the completed part. Fully understanding the objectives of the project will help you reduce risks, which will greatly help the company maintain its competitive position in the future.
Before signing the contract and starting the project, both parties shall reach a clear agreement on the scope of work of the project. This includes the project requirements, all tasks to be completed and the basic conditions for completing the tasks, which should be clear to both parties. Otherwise, there will be many unclear areas during the project implementation, and there will be a lot of trouble due to inconsistent understanding of the project scope during the acceptance.
divide and rule
If you choose the same service provider, you will save some administrative expenses. However, there is a saying: Don't put all your eggs in one basket. If this service provider has problems, it will bring huge trouble. Just as a family banquet can invite multiple chefs at the same time, sometimes IT outsourcing can also consider assigning projects to several manufacturers.
Risk can be reduced by dividing large projects into smaller plans that can be better managed. In this way, each piece has a specific goal and can operate independently. Each piece can be developed by different service providers. In this way, there can be more than one outsourcing manufacturer.
The risk of IT outsourcing is caused by many uncertain factors. Sometimes, the company needs to carry out some additional work to meet the needs of outsourcing service providers. The coordination cost may be very expensive. In addition, the signing fee and the expenditure for monitoring the progress of outsourcing manufacturers may also be much higher than expected.
If the software developed by the outsourcing service provider is not good enough, the enterprise has to entrust another manufacturer to complete it again, which is similar to finding another chef to cook again. In addition, there are some contract risks -- when signing a contract with an outsourcing service provider, you must be careful to see the contract clearly, otherwise a blank sheet of paper may cause great losses to the company. Fortunately, all the above are assumptions and "possibilities". However, if these risks really happen, it will cause great damage to the company's finance.
