The network's down. E-mail's dead. And Windows just crashed again. Don't worry, you can solve your IT problems by outsourcing.?
IT professionals are in great demand. But in the flourishing IT environment they also have the autonomy to act selectively and to change whenever more attractive opportunities present themselves. This often leaves businesses up the proverbial creek without a paddle.
According to an IDC report on "IT staffing dynamics and challenges in Australia", 82 percent of respondents surveyed acknowledged a level of IT staff shortage in Australia. Without qualified and accessible IT staff, minor problems such as hobbled PCs, broken print servers, and strangled Internet connections can cripple your business. That's why the IT labour market is so brutally tight, every company competes for qualified IT professionals.
This is where outsourcing comes in. By offering economies of scale, outsourcing companies can afford to pay IT professionals what they demand, and provide companies with the support services they need. Outsourcing in Australia is on the increase according to IDC findings, and is becoming a viable option to alleviate staffing pressures, training expenses and high staff turnover.
There are multiple benefits in outsourcing your IT dilemmas. Small businesses don't have to worry relentlessly about the day to day working of IT departments and can get on with the job at hand. For companies who can't afford an in-house IT consultant, problems can be solved on location, and more often than not, outsourcers' resources are infinitely more specialised.
Even larger companies can benefit from outsourcing. The Craig Mostyn Group, an import/export company that specialises in foods, industrial products, and storage, is a large Australian company with an annual turnover of over AU$200 million. The Group enjoyed the benefits of outsourcing when they used SynergyIT's IT outsourcing services to implement Citrix WinFrame thin-client/server technology. This new system saved Craig Mostyn half a million dollars and reduced the time required for its monthly account reporting from fifteen days to three.
"Before, we had our financial and accounting people maintaining our IT infrastructure," says David Lock, the Craig Mostyn Group's general manager of finance. "Now these people can focus on the real business issues."
SynergyIT (www.synergyit.com.au) provides managed network solutions and IT solutions to small- to medium-sized businesses, offering outsourcing and facilities, managed IT products and services, and full service ASP offerings. SynergyIT operates a call centre helpdesk for its customers across Australia. By calling a single number, the helpdesk is able to resolve and assist with any issue from desktop application support to more complex infrastructure and network monitoring issues. One helpful aspect of the service is that customers can have sessions "shadowed" or watched remotely by the helpdesk staff who can demonstrate the solution while the user is talked through the process on their own monitor. SynergyIT provide other IT solutions such as consulting, project and facilities management, and Internet and hosting services.
