For years, IT managers have been looking for support from IT outsourcing companies to help solve staffing shortages. Today IT managers expect more from their partners. To improve cooperation, modern IT Outsourcing firms introduced the Delivery Management model to make the IT manager’s job a lot easier.
Let’s face it, the IT outsourcing model as we know it is outdated. Companies that outsource IT projects need a technology partner that understands them well enough to lay down the foundation for outstanding performance. Here’s how to make it painless for your business.
For many, IT outsourcing is the fastest way to find someone that will take care of your project, however, what if you find an IT specialist who doesn’t have the right technological knowledge? What if we tell you that you can get much more benefits from the delivery management model that fully understands how your needs can evolve over time?
The Shift to an Employee Market
When demand exceeds supply, companies struggle with finding specialists with desired competencies. Due to the tight labor market, the shoe is now on the other foot. Companies now must compete for skilled employees by offering them higher wages, better benefit packages, to name a few, to make themselves more attractive.
This also can be seen in the body leasing model — companies that outsource not only experience turnover problems with their partner, but also the decrease of quality provided by people they hire.
Finding the right people that are committed to providing you with services tailored to your needs and ones that are willing to know your company inside and out takes more time and effort.
Delivery Management Solves Problem
A big concern for businesses that outsource IT projects is the fear that the contracted specialists won’t meet the needs and goals of the project. This could be because having to work with various service providers usually cause communication issues and differences in understanding common goals and objectives.
In a perfect world, the final project meets or even exceeds expectations, is delivered on time and under budget. This is why finding a vendor with an experienced delivery manager on board that will help you achieve the business vision is so important and might be your key to success.
The delivery manager handles the project’s delivery with Agile methods in mind, which ensures you that they will use available resources rationally and are ready for unexpected things that can happen on the way. They can locate any potential problems and keep the communication between all parties involved on a high level, which makes everyone engaged in the process. Developing a lasting relationship leads to a profound understanding of your company’s structures and goals, and results in a lower risk of staff rotation.
Delivery managers usually partner with the project managers to define the plan and focus on all engineering aspects of deliverables. They also work with other team members, as they need to keep the work on the right track, ensure priorities, and control every step of the process on your behalf.
Where Quality Comes First
What about another concern that IT outsourcing comes with a poor mutual understanding of the project and little or no IT support? Again — it’s a matter of choosing the right vendor with an established track record in delivering IT solutions and experienced delivery managers to whom you can entrust your project without hesitation.
The delivery management model is based on negotiating rates and the project scope, addressing issues and leading the team in the right direction. Moreover, delivery managers have the ability to remove blockers before they impact the project. As you may guess, it requires great communication skills and a broad knowledge of your company.
The external delivery manager participates in your project as a partner, so your business needs are fully identified. This results in awesome products delivery driven by the willingness to create superior IT solutions on time and within budget.
Make a Wise Decision
Whatever your project, a lot depends on the way you manage the technology, business process, and costs as well.
When searching for an outsourcing vendor, ask yourself whether you need just an external consultant or someone who will take care of successful project delivery from the very start.
Keep in mind that for vendors that run projects based on the delivery management model achieving IT management KPIs is one of the main goals. They know how to combine your expectations with customer needs and development team vision, proofing your technical strategy, architecture and delivery.
Artur Mika
Delivery Manager
