Should you Wash your Hands of It?

Let’s face it, a robust infrastructure can be extremely expensive and

complex. And while businesses usually understand their own organization and

market better than any consultant, they often lack the internal expertise,

dedicated resources and network access to plan and manage their own e-business

infrastructure successfully.

"Can you afford to outsource IT needs to an external vendor? Yes, you can..." Abraham Thomas

Now, outsourcing a company’s e-business infrastructure at a time when it is

an increasingly important part of the business process is not something to be

entered into lightly. An end-to-end e-biz infrastructure is no longer the

desktops at one end and the servers at the other–all within the same

enterprise. It is now a critical lifeline that stretches from that supplier you

have in Singapore to your corporate headquarters in New York to the Beijing

customer.

The implications? The impact of infrastructural failure will cause much

wider-ranging damage than ever before.

First thing to note is–there is no one solution. Very much will depend on

the company itself and its priorities, availability of in-house skills and

long-term business plans. A study by IDC provided some insight on which

companies did what. For example, those who chose to host internally had

simplified structure and linear, one-way processes, with predefined interactions

and little or no ambiguity. Such companies experience slow but controlled

business growth. Their products or services are easily understood.

Many who chose to outsource were usually more dynamic, often operating in

marketplaces that are highly competitive, extensive, where growth could rise or

drop dramatically. They had intuitive interactions with user-driven dialogues,

and market both simple and complex products and services. As a result, they

preferred to focus on core business, rather than dedicating personnel, resources

and activities to managing IT requirements.

Matches made in IT heaven



Assuming a decision has been taken to outsource e-biz infrastructure

management, finding the right hosting service provider can be a daunting task–not

from a lack of choice, but because there are too many choices. However, the

choice of service providers is likely to narrow as Darwin’s Law of

"survival of the fittest" applies here as well. Forrester predicts

that a number of outside hosting providers will abandon the business or focus on

a narrower speciality, leaving infrastructure, server farms and data centres for

those better equipped to address those challenges. Conversely, some of the most

committed outside hosting providers will make their services even more

comprehensive and inclusive.

It is important to ensure a good match between the company’s requirements

and the services the vendor can provide. For a long and happy partnership, go

through the following exercise.

• Self-evaluation. Determine the users’ IT/Internet protocol skills,
  
  integration requirements and e-commerce urgency.

• Good matchups. Once the requirements are known, match
  
  them with vendor skills/personality.

• Realistic reviews. Perform due diligence, including
  
  visiting the vendor data centre/server farm.

• Hands-on management. Give vendors the latitude to do
  
  their job, but stay actively involved.

A win-win situation



The multifaceted discipline of managing e-biz infrastructure is complex,

resource-intensive, specialized and dynamic. More and more companies will come

to the conclusion that their senior management’s time is better spent growing

their own business and leaving infrastructure management to experts. This, in

turn, will provide service providers with the economies of scale they need to

provide higher levels of service at lower costs to the customer.

By Abraham Thomas



The author is managing director of IBM India.