In this issue
Successful Network Outsourcing Begins and Ends with Your Business Goals
The High Rewards and Low Risks of Selective Outsourcing
CIO Update: Benchmarking Helps Outsourcing Deals Stay Competitive
Successful Network Outsourcing Begins and Ends with Your Business Goals (continued)
The Outsourcing Option
As Gartner says, "During 2002, despite budget restraints, operational IT infrastructure will still need to anticipate and fulfill critical IT initiatives."8 What will separate successful IT initiatives from those that fail to pay off – and help divide winning enterprises from losers – is the judgment managers use as they decide which technology initiatives to pursue, and who should do it.
"Companies need to consider the scale of outsourcing support they require, and then select a service provider who offers flexible and reliable services in those technology areas" says Richard Ray, director of out-tasking solutions at Avaya. "No company can provide every business function at the highest possible level of performance," says Ray. "So managers have some choices to make. They have to decide which capabilities they will 'build' and which they will buy from outside their operation."
Enterprises need to focus their resources on the unique core competencies that set them apart from their competitors and enable them to create real value for customers. In turn, they also need to identify those non-core functions that can be outsourced - so their precious in-house resources can be free to focus on the core competencies of the enterprise. As they analyze their business, managers are likely to discover that outsourcing certain IT activities – assigning the task to an organization that counts IT management as its own core competency – can generate positive ROI and help improve bottom line results.
Spending on outsourcing will grow as a result, according to Gartner. "Unlike the case with other areas of IT services, outsourcing expenditures will increase in 2002 over 2001 as businesses choose outsourcing as a way to transfer assets, forgo capital expenditures and reduce costs," Gartner says.9
Outsourcing for Results: Avaya's Analytical Approach and Relationship Management
Avaya's network management approach is based on such detailed analysis, conducted jointly with the customer. Avaya has developed a financial analysis tool to guide the process of analyzing the performance of the client's IT systems – identifying any weak areas, determining what's needed to fix the problem and nailing down the solution's cost and business plan impact. The analysis tool helps target and size a possible outsourcing investment and determine ROI.
Avaya works with the client by entering data about the client's business, including:
The flexibility of Avaya's ROI tool makes it easy to adjust the entered data and immediately see how the proposed solution can help the enterprise improve its bottom line. An increase in network management coverage, for instance, may increase costs, but could reduce the frequency and cost of network outages. Such increased reliability could be worth the cost for some firms. A company highly dependent on its network for customer contacts and sales, for example, might determine that such increased network availability could result in higher revenue.
Avaya's review of corporate strategy and needs are incorporated into an ROI analysis, giving managers a basis to understand where they can deploy outsourced IT services to achieve the greatest operational and financial impact. For some, a pinpoint approach will be adequate: Adding outsourced services to shore up specific areas of need, such as onsite support to handle endpoint moves, adds and changes (MACs), or remote system monitoring. Others may seek a comprehensive outsourcing solution and choose an outsourcing ally who can take over their entire voice and data infrastructure.
When a customer signs an outsourcing agreement, Avaya's Engagement Management Team goes to work. The team's job is to ensure that the customer receives the agreed-on level of service and support. The Engagement Manager and the customer establish a schedule of review meetings to ensure that commitments and metrics are being met. Service Level Agreements are put into place and managed through this team to help ensure customer satisfaction. The Engagement Management Team represents the Avaya Services organization as the customer's single point of accountability. This clear accountability for results is one of the reasons Avaya services customers frequently renew their contracts.
Multi-Vendor Service and Support on a Global Scale
Avaya has 18 years of experience managing voice, data and messaging systems. Today the majority of networking infrastructures the company is asked to support include products from multiple vendors. The Avaya Data Services Center in St. Petersburg, Florida supports more than 35 different vendors and more than 300 products and software applications. Ninety percent of the company's data services contracts provide support for non-Avaya equipment.
As a result, Avaya Data Services Center engineers and technicians have developed broad experience with multi-vendor networking. This experienced is backed up with education: 95 percent of team members hold multiple industry certifications, including CNE (Certified Novell Engineer), CCNA (Cisco Certified Network Administrator), MCSE (Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer), CCNP (Cisco Certified Network Professional), ACACN (Avaya Certified Associate Communication Networking), and ACS (Avaya Certified Associate).
The outsourcing service provider capable of supplying a technical service force experienced and trained in multi-vendor network management can provide its customers an extra measure of reassurance that their multi-vendor networks will be managed efficiently and effectively.
The search for business success draws many enterprises into international markets. Whether they operate through direct subsidiaries, foreign distributors or other arrangements, global businesses need to link their operations through high quality communications and information networks. If global enterprises choose to outsource these global IT services, the service provider must be prepared to deliver services wherever the business requires.
To support global business by helping enterprises to meet their multi-national requirements, Avaya operates a global network of 30 Network Operations Centers. The company supplements its own 10,000-strong Avaya Direct Team of engineers and technicians with support from more than 3,000 Avaya Authorized BusinessPartners, value added resellers, Avaya Certified Global Systems Integrators and Service Providers. As a result, a global enterprise can rely on support from the same outsourcing partner no matter where the enterprise opportunity leads.
Even in difficult economic times, businesses cannot ignore the imperative to keep their technology up to date. Today's tough competition, changing customer behavior and fast-changing technologies require an ongoing effort to update networks and support systems, and refresh people skills.
Today's challenging mix of rapid business change, evolving technology and tight financials demands that enterprises plan carefully and thoroughly for outsourcing. Planning should begin with a review of the company's strategy, goals and performance, then narrow its focus to determine how its communications and IT capabilities can help the company's progress.
Using these customer inputs, the tool produces a report detailing the savings possible over several years through network management outsourcing. The tool specifies benefits in multiple areas, such as:
As enterprises have added new applications and communication channels, IT infrastructures have grown more complex and expanded beyond the product line of any single hardware or software vendor. Today's network is based on industry standard protocols, but made up of equipment sourced from multiple vendors. Customers are choosing "best of breed" products and counting on the disparate manufacturers to deliver the interoperability they have promised. The predominance of multi-vendor networks makes it important to find an outsourcing firm experienced with multiple platforms.
8 Ibid
9 Ibid
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Continued
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