Anyone who knows anything about project management knows how tricky budgeting can be. Not least of the problems is IT Support costing, particularly because projects, by definition, are highly individualized and may have special needs. The problem is that IT costs can blow out, and trying to work with an in-house IT setup effectively nails the project to the IT budget. It’s far better to have these costs locked down before the project even starts.
IT and projects - Establishing costs and parameters
The fact is that most projects sabotage their own budgets when allocating resources. IT, which is usually not the area of expertise of the people creating the project budgets, starts with a guesstimate. All that’s required is a few extra costs, and the budget can be shot to pieces before the project begins. Even having reserve funds may not be enough, if the project is running any major hardware, has system problems or needs extra capacity.
Most financial managers and CEOs can tell you at least one horror story of a project budget that disappeared into extra IT costs. Setting up IT from scratch is hard enough without having the additional problem of creating a customized, project-specific IT support function within a finite project budget. The best IT people in the world would have a hard time with the multiple issues project IT creates.
The better way to handle the situation is to outsource all IT functions on a contract basis. The parameters of IT functions and costs can be locked in at the budgeting stage. IT outsourcers are professionals, and you can also get a very good bandwidth of realistic quotes to work with when preparing the budget.
Many project managers will be surprised to hear that in nearly all cases, IT outsourcers can do the same job cheaper than an in-house operation. They have huge capacity, and they also use the most modern, cost-effective equipment.
IT outsourcing services
The simplest way to show the benefits of IT outsourcing is to list the services:
Training
The best IT outsourcers provide training for staff. This is an extremely valuable function, saving the project a lot of money, and drastically improving productivity across the board.
Real-time support
Business IT Support is critical, particularly for projects that are based on timelines and milestones. This type of support includes help desk, system, technical and hardware support, and IT outsourcers build all these roles into their contracts.
Backup
IT outsourcers provide full backups, usually at secure remote locations. This is another potentially costly function that would have to be delegated in-house.
Dedicated servers and hardware
Extremely important, these basic elements of IT are all laid on by the IT outsourcing.
Consultation
Perhaps the most valuable service of all, IT outsourcers can provide a full analysis of project IT support requirements, and usually find a few savings in the process.