Why cross the IT services chasm?

I use the term chasm to demonstrate the gap between two broadly accepted ways of receiving IT Services. Before I discuss the IT scenario let me lead with an analogy that is closer to home.

You’re driving a 15-year-old car that creaks and groans but runs pretty well most of the time (except for the odd day it spends with the mechanics). You can’t justify driving a better or newer car. Suddenly, through a change in circumstances, you receive a three-year-old car. What do you do?

Do you sell the old car and keep the new one? Or do you sell the new one and keep the old one?

Clearly very few people choose to keep the old car even if funds are tight. They will in fact work hard to keep the newer car because it is more pleasant to drive, has cleaner emissions, uses less fuel, doesn’t break down and so forth. In short the driver has crossed a chasm in technology, quality and experience and does not choose to go back.

There is no doubt that the experience is better, which is why most owners of successful businesses drive newer cars not old beaters.

So what does crossing the IT services chasm look like and why do savvy business owners do it?

On the left we have a range of service models that typically generate poor results, on the right we have solutions that typically generate better results and in each case there are in house and outsourced variants.

On the left we have:

• Key people in the business roll up their sleeves and get into IT when they have to
• One of the staff works on the IT stuff when they can
• One dedicated IT person on the team
• Someone’s mate comes in to do the work
• A small IT company comes into fix stuff

These models all have some common traits, they are all reactive not proactive, they are typically about reducing the cost of IT services with a view to solving the problems the computers are having only when absolutely needed and the pool of IT talent is typically neither broad or deep.

On the right we have:

• Key people in the business working on business plans and ensuring the IT strategy is aligned
• A large IT department with a range of skills and capabilities from strategic to tactical
• People dedicated to specialisations within the broad technology mix
• Multiple people for the front line so absenteeism is less of an issue
• Service Level Agreements (SLAs) that set standards for delivery

These service models have been in place in large organisations for many years and today are very affordable to SMEs. The service model on the left will result in poor quality systems and lurch from critical event to critical event much as with the old car that is more prone to breaking down. On the right we have a streamlined solution that is proactively managed and does not break down.

Why cross the chasm?

On the left is inefficiency, high risk and lost productivity. In small businesses this is often overlooked as the impact is apparently trivial or not considered if there is no explicit cash cost.

As a business grows beyond 10 or 15 staff, any down time is instantly costing hundreds and eventually thousands of dollars in lost activity or trade.

As a business grows, reputation, staff retention, customer service, business continuity and many other risk factors become more important and the relatively small cost to the business 1% to 2% of revenue is not an impediment to maintaining the systems.

So what can small successful and savvy companies do to cross the IT services chasm?

The answer is outsourcing! A growing business will gain a time slice or timeshare of an equivalent IT department with equivalent Service Level Agreements.

Choosing the right services company to ensure the services delivered are truly on the better side of the chasm is the challenge.

The first step is finding a services provider that has the credentials to look at your business, assess where you are going, assess the systems you will need to get there and to ensure the right decisions are made today. This is the strategy piece offered by strategic consultants.

The next step is to find a capable support team that can implement the right solutions and then provide the ongoing support required in line with a quality standard such as a Service Level Agreement.

Today many Managed Service Providers (MSPs) can provide this service at a price point that makes hiring internal staff a luxury of convenience that is very hard to justify.

Which side of the IT services chasm are you on?

David Markus is the founder of Combo – the IT services company that ensures IT is never an impediment to growth.