It’s no secret that IT departments face dwindling budgets as organisations need to do more with less.
This is a never-ending goal, and one way to achieve this is to reduce the number of IT vendors the organisation uses, and seek out one main partner that offers full service capabilities. This can help to attain greater scale and efficiency across the organisation’s IT environment.
Many businesses will work with individual specialist vendors to manage each IT capability, and while this may deliver specialised outcomes, it can be an expensive path to take. Businesses that choose to work with a limited number of vendors, or just one full service partner, can manage IT costs far more effectively due to decreased complexity and improved visibility into the relationships and agreements. Having fewer partners may also strengthen and deepen your partner’s understanding of the specific elements of your business that are most critical to your success, thus enabling more tailored solutions best suited to your individual needs.
Four main emerging technologies are increasingly being used to consolidate and manage IT infrastructure more efficiently:
- multi-cloud management
- cloud hosting
- infrastructure and application development
- Software-as-a-Service (SaaS)
Businesses can outsource these capabilities to a trusted partner to help reduce the burden on IT departments and to minimise capital expenses. This helps to meet the business’ changing needs and fluctuating user demands for anytime, anywhere access to IT resources.
CEOs should consider outsourcing these capabilities to a single vendor that has expert experience across the range of IT technologies and services. Selecting a vendor with global experience and local reach is key. Having a partner that understands the nuances of the Australian and New Zealand market can help the business make connections with customers, and abide by all legal and regulatory requirements.
CEOs can determine the best vendor for the business’ needs by reviewing competencies in deployment of enterprise IT and services, network and account support, preventative maintenance, and professional services, like consulting.
A 2015 CIO Role and Influence research survey revealed that large enterprises are already reducing the number of vendors they consider strategic partners. Over the past four years, many of these organisations have dropped from six strategic partners to just three, on average.[1]
Organisations are becoming more aware of the range of offerings and added value that a vendor should bring to a partnership. The status of ‘strategic partner’ is only earned when a vendor demonstrates a clear understanding of the business’ goals and objectives, provides excellent customer service, and delivers significant post-sales support.
Choosing to work with a partner that has full service capabilities to handle an organisation’s IT requirements will help the business, and the IT team in particular, adapt to increasing user demands, shrinking budgets, and the need for modern, agile technologies.
[1] CIOs are cutting back on the number of ‘strategic’ vendors they use
