The idea of using external resources to perform particular roles has been around for a long time. Accounting is one common area where using external resources has been very successful. At my last business, KnowledgeLake, we used external resources for accounting and legal expertise and it worked out very well. Granted, I was the self-proclaimed legal counsel for the business but I knew that I was in over my head. But we didn’t need a full time attorney.
As we got larger we started to use external IT resources as well. Sure, we had an IT team, including a CIO, but we still lacked the right types of resources to get certain jobs done. And we certainly didn’t want to add head count temporarily and let them go once we didn’t need their services any longer.
Now with Pearl, IT Outsourcing is a key component of what we offer our customers. Here is why I liked Outsourcing our IT needs at KnowledgeLake, and it matches up with what our clients are telling us.
Save Money
I found that we ended up saving money by using external resources. With IT resource being in high demand, we had a difficult time finding and attracting resources, in addition to all the additional training they needed and expected us to pay for. I was able to lower my overall costs by simply finding a IT business partner that I could rely on and that I knew had quality people.
Faster Access to Talent
If you have a new project you want to kick off and you are trying to use internal staff or hire someone, you will more than likely delay the project. Using external resources allows you to get the project started faster and with better resources than what you could have probably afforded.
Better Service
Definitely. External resources of companies know they must perform in order to stay around. Their expectation of performance goes up. The level of service goes up because the resources are paying attention to the value they are providing each time they talk with you on the phone or in the office.
More Services
This is where outsourcing becomes really valuable. You can get more talent than what you could find. You have one place to go, your IT business partner, to gain access to skill sets you could not get yourself. Need a web developer to work on your web site? We got’em. Need someone to write an application to automate a process? We can help. Need an executive to bounce your vision off of to make sure the technology exists, and isn’t outrageously expensive? We are available to help you grow.
Improved Productivity
Yes, I experience this all the time. Consultants tend to work with a sense of urgency. They have more on their plate. They know they are going to have other clients tugging on their shirts for help. So they better focus on your project and get it done. Which means your internal staff will have time to work on other tasks they are asked to complete.
At Pearl, we commit to not overbooking our consultants so they can focus on taking care of each one of our customers.
