IT outsourcing for the segment of small and medium enterprises - why is it needed?

    IT outsourcing for the segment of small and medium enterprises - why is it needed?
    Introduction

    Dear readers, for a start we will analyze the very concept of “outsourcing”:
    Outsourcing (from the English outsourcing: an external source) is the transfer by an organization of certain business processes or production functions to serve another company specializing in the corresponding field.
    The definition is very large and capacious, but I want to note that we often use the benefits of outsourcing without knowing about it.
    Here is the most striking example of "IT outsourcing" - this is the hosting site of the company. Now that you understand that outsourcing is already firmly entrenched in our daily lives, let's take a closer look at the goals we pursue by turning to the services of “outsourcers”.

    Outsourcing goals.
    The first and most obvious goal is financial profit. How can it arise? Imagine for a second what would happen if there were no “hosters” companies? You would definitely have to lay a dedicated channel to the server one, purchase a WEB server (hardware), install the necessary software, take care of protection, backup and a lot of “related” factors (maintenance staff, traffic, etc.). How much would it cost to own such an infrastructure? In fact, transferring a WEB server to outsourcing gives us a significant reduction in financial costs, which means profit. Outsourcing results in a “second goal” of outsourcing: “Changing the cost structure itself.”
    The second goal of outsourcing is to change the cost structure. According to the current tax legislation, outsourcing expenses go before “taxation” (in order to exclude double payment of VAT and income tax). Depreciation costs and taxes on fixed assets will be reduced. the equipment belongs to the "outsourcer". In fact, we get a “service”, and we are not at all bothered by what and how the outsourcing company did this. From this statement we get the “third goal” - “Risk Reduction”.
    The third goal of outsourcing is to reduce risks. In fact, when outsourcing a business process, there is a separation and partial transfer to another company of the risks associated with the implementation of activities.

    Now that we have defined the goals of outsourcing, let's try to figure out what can be outsourced in the IT infrastructure.
    IT infrastructure is:
    • servers,
    • workstations,
    • networks (communication channels, switches, routers, cable networks),
    • automatic telephone exchanges and telephone systems,
    • storage systems (SAN, NAS, etc.),
    • systems backup and recovery of data,
    • software (system, application and integrated).

    In fact, the entire IT infrastructure can be divided into 3 groups: Iron, Networks, and Software. Each of these groups can be outsourced in full or in part. Assuming the maximum outsourcing of IT infrastructure, we get a company that does not have it: servers, “heavy” storage and backup systems are rented, jobs are replaced with thin clients, a complex network switching system is reduced to the level of 1-2 routers, telephone exchanges and the usual telephone the devices are replaced by IP-telephony, all software including the “notorious” licenses for “Office” and “Windows” are now a headache for an “outsourcer”, even an incoming “student-administrator” changing cartridges in printers can be replaced (by tech There are companies ready to take care of your fleet of printers / faxes and you will pay only for each print, however, the price will not differ much). Having outsourced IT infrastructure, you automatically become a "mobile user", ie You can get access to your data from anywhere in the world where there is a data channel of adequate bandwidth. In Russia, accounting outsourcing is very often practiced (we will not consider it), which easily takes root in this model.

    Let's try to structure all the "pros" and "cons" of outsourcing.
    “Pros”:
    • reduction in license fees, which are reduced to a moderate subscription fee
    • significant reduction in depreciation expenses, reduction of property tax
    • reduction in IT infrastructure staff and related expenses
    • significant reduction in initial hardware and software costs
    • reduction to support the work of server hardware cost
    • greater scalability
    • backup of all data stored in a remote location
    "Cons»:
    • bandwidth nce and reliability of communication channels
    • possible incompatibility of software and hardware solutions for terminal

    Why "IT outsourcing for the segment of small and medium enterprises"?
    Small and medium-sized enterprises are most often subject to the dynamics of change: they can grow (which means it will require increasing the capacity of IT infrastructure, which will entail significant costs), and they may be liquidated (which means an attempt to sell “acquired overwork”). In order to try and grow your own IT infrastructure does not lead to liquidation, it will be easy to use IT outsourcing. In addition, there is a multiple opinion that outsourcing at large enterprises is not practiced, because they have already created all the necessary infrastructure, debugged business processes and changing them is very unjustifiably expensive.

    Instead of an afterword.
    Currently, IT outsourcing is not much more expensive than using your own IT infrastructure, but if you take into account the risks and long-term cooperation, as well as the rapid development of “software as a SaaS service”, “cloud computing services”, we can say with confidence that in the future most of the emerging business will use outsourcing services.

    PS I would like to know from the habrasociety what kind of outsourcing we have encountered and, if possible, to briefly describe (+) and (-).

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