In the past few months’ two major issues have brought into question the relationship between in-house IT staff and external technology consultants. The WannCry attack, which impacted much of the NHS and the outage at BA, could both have been avoided with more effective partnerships, which set a clear division of labour and play to the respective strengths of external consultants and in-house staff.
Traditionally, many firms have taken one of two approaches to the provision of IT and technology. It has either been a ‘keep everything inside’ approach or ‘outsource the lot’ approach.
In the former, internal IT staff takes complete responsibility for the tech provision of a company and manages everything on their own. In the later, the firm completely outsources their IT provision to an external service provider, and in effect, forgets about it (until something goes wrong).
Both these approaches are inherently flawed.
Keeping everything in-house tends to isolate a firm’s tech staff from the latest thinking, developments and approached to technology. It is next to impossible for a modern company to keep at the cutting edge of technological development without external support. Keeping all provision in-house simply means your competitors will outstrip your tech offer.
Equally, the total outsource model will not deliver for a firm. Technology service providers and consultants are experts in their field; they bring together the best of new developments and cross sector expertise, with experience of developing solutions for firms in multiple sectors. However, what outside consultants are weaker at, is understanding the unique requirements and business strategy of a given firm. External tech consultants are experts in the world of technology, the kings of ‘planet tech’; they are not experts in a firm’s business strategy and only visitors to ‘planet company’.
So instead, the most efficient model, which provides the best results, is a partnership between a strong, but cost efficient, internal IT department and external consultants and service providers with best-in-the-business technological knowledge.
The role of an in-house IT department should be to bridge technology and business strategy, to integrate a company’s tech into the business objectives of that firm. It is here that a strong relationship between in-house IT and external contractors can provide the most value to a company. The cross-sector expertise and world leading staff that external technology consultancies can bring to bear on any given project will help ensure that the end result of a tech project is world class. At the same time, in-house IT professionals can provide the necessary oversight to ensure that the technology in development is provided has a real use-case for that company.
In the modern enterprise environment, technology needs to be agile and move quickly. Challenges appear and need to be solved with speed. To do so firms have to utilise the best available solutions and have deep expertise in multiple tech areas.
To scale up to face challenges is often not achievable with only in-house staff. Firm’s tech requirements fluctuate, it is next to impossible to garner the required expertise at a moments notice by hiring staff. Rather, the approach of choosing the best technology partner or partners from external companies allows for firm’s to ensure they have the best people from around the world working on their technology for as long as needed, and not a single day more.
External firms, often with offices in multiple global locations are able to scale a team up or down depending on a client’s requirements. It is even possible, though not desirable, for the external technology partner, for the relationship to start and stop as required.
An effective relationship between internal IT departments, that is well versed in modern technology, but totally focused on business objectives. And an external, reliable technology partner that brings to bear world-leading technology provision is the most effective model for a firm’s technology. Working in partnership, it allows a firm to have their tech focused completely on helping achieve business objectives, but does not sacrifice the deep and rich expertise in cutting edge tech that is necessary.
In-house tech leaders know what their company needs; external consultants know the tech to get there. Together, they can ensure that technology is successful for a firm.
Eugene Veselov
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Tags: IT Transformation, Security, Technology