New Orleans IT Companies
Top Problems & Fixes

What Are the Top Problems With New Orleans IT Companies?

Outsourcing IT support can bring a host of benefits to your business, but it also has its fair share of risks. Negotiating and managing a partnership with an IT Company can be challenging.

Nowadays, most of us couldn’t go a day without our mobile devices. Our modern world is very much technology-driven, and the same goes for your business. A robust IT infrastructure is arguably the cornerstone of any successful business.

Consequently, many companies, both large and small, are looking to bolster their IT support by outsourcing to a third party. Like anything else, however, managing a relationship with an IT Company presents several challenges.

After observing several organizations and their relationships with their New Orleans IT Companies, we noted some concerns. Most of the company representatives we spoke with had entered contracts with IT Companies before considering the pros and cons. Why is it crucial to examine the downsides of outsourced IT services? To realize the full benefits of outsourcing, you need to be on the lookout for any problems you may encounter down the road.

BIOS Technologies is a trusted IT services company for businesses all over New Orleans. Our IT experts assembled this article to help businesses leverage outsourced IT services as part of our mission to help businesses leverage outsourced IT services. We put together a list of the most commonly encountered challenges of outsourcing. Although the list isn’t exhaustive, we managed to highlight the top five obstacles to successful outsourced IT services.

Let’s break it down for you.

What Are Outsourced IT Services?

Outsourcing your IT services involves hiring a managed IT services provider (MSP) to take care of your IT needs. Unlike break/fix services, partnering with an MSP ensures your network enjoys round-the-clock monitoring at an affordable monthly fee.

But why do many outsourcing agreements fail to yield the expected benefits? It’s not because their goals weren’t well-thought-out. Instead, it’s often a result of poor execution. Gainful outsourcing is a marathon, not a sprint. Long term success hinges on your continued commitment.

So What Are the Top Five Problems of Outsourced IT Support?

Lack of Understanding Regarding Post-Contract Processes and Decision Rights

In a nutshell, after signing the agreement, both clients and vendors find that they aren’t ready to work together. The result? Implementation processes are delayed, the service provider’s staff and client shareholders become frustrated, and the expected benefits are put on hold. These issues arise from new processes that are poorly designed or not well socialized. You need to ask the following critical questions:

• Say an IT issue crops up, who in the client’s company should call for support?
• Does the request go directly to the IT Company? In either case, how does it work?
• What sort of documentation do you need to request for services?
• Do you need new systems?
• Do either your organization or your MSP need any additional approvals?
• Are the approvals reliant on the nature and/or cost of the request?
• How do you define an “emergency” change request? And how long should you expect to wait for a response?

Your outsourcing agreement is not a comprehensive operation manual. You need to strive to ask and answer these and other questions regarding your processes and decision rights. What’s more, you need to notify all the relevant stakeholders of your answers.

Lack of Support From Client Leaders

It’s also common for senior leaders in the client organization to either actively or passively resist implementing the outsourcing model. For various reasons, client leaders might not be receptive to the outsourcing model as a whole. Consequently, such leaders neither take part in the outsourcing assessment nor receive updates on their status. What does this mean for such businesses? There are two main implications:

• The client leader isn’t well-prepared for the coming changes.
• Lack of understanding by the evaluation and negotiation team regarding the specific services for a unit in the company

An MSP needs to be aware of this risk and do everything possible to prevent or mitigate it.

Poor Mutual Understanding of the Agreement

Once they’ve signed the agreement, both the client and MSP put in place groups of staff to handle the first stages of implementation and ongoing processes. On the client’s side, the team members are only becoming familiar with the contract’s stipulations. Also, they may not approve of the decision to outsource, or they may have individual opinions regarding what the IT Company’s role should be.

On the other hand, the MSP also has a team of staff who might transfer ideas from a previous agreement to the current one. But of course, no two contracts are the same. A large number of new people to the situation, coupled with a short implementation period, results in a mutual misunderstanding. The client and the service provider end up with different opinions of what the contract states.

Cultural Clashes Between Client and Service Provider

Cultural clashes between a company and IT can occur in two ways:

• Corporate Culture Clash: Outsourcing is a business relationship between two different organizations. As such, it could lead to avoidable tension between the two parties if they take up rigid, hardline positions. For instance, the client could argue that the customer is always right while the vendor could simply declare that they are acting as per the contract.
• National/Regional Culture Clash: For the most part, it’s a consequence of language barriers or varying nuances in written, verbal, and non-verbal communications.

Poor Transfer of Knowledge

It’s common for the existing client IT staff to look for work elsewhere during or even before the implementation phase. Furthermore, some of them will be involved in knowledge transfer to the MSP. This could lead to a sharp decline in IT support level if the MSP fails to carry out the knowledge transfer efficiently.

Ready to Outsource to a Reliable New Orleans IT Company?

BIOS Technologies is the leading provider of reliable IT solutions in New Orleans. Our experienced team is ready to help you avoid these challenges to optimize your business and achieve your goals.

Contact us now to get started.

David Williams

BIOS Technologies’ mission is to deliver superior IT support to the SMB market in the New Orleans Metro Area. We focus on companies that understand the business/security risks of unmanaged technology and want to maximize efficiency and profitability.