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IT outsourcing To K&G: Step-By-Step Guide
IT software outsourcing is rapidly becoming one of the hottest industries offering business services to all small companies. Outsourcing your IT operations is a great way to cover your technology bases at a lower cost, and with less stress than trying to handle it yourself. But as any business owner knows, you can’t simply trust your IT needs to just anyone. Delegation is something that must be planned and deliberately carried out.
Choosing the right vendor is crucial to make sure your business doesn’t miss a beat today, or any time in the future. If you’re considering outsourcing your IT needs but don’t know how, here is a step-by-step guide to help you get started. Step 1 : Define your objectives and goals.
This step is the basis for all future outsourcing activities. Describe the process, service or product that you want outsourced clearly. You should also indicate what your goals are through outsourcing. Make sure that your objective formulation answers the following questions: What do you want to outsource? What type of an outsourcing agreement are you looking for? What are the offshore outsourcing fields that you are interested in? What are your goals in outsourcing? What services do you expect a vendor to provide? How much do you plan to spend? What are the risks associated with such an outsourcing agreement? Step 2: Develop Request For Information (RFI) document After defining your objectives and goals, you need to announce it to the vendors! This is achieved by the RFI or EOI document, which invites providers to respond to your outsourcing needs. Vendors respond with information about their company, their expertise as well as suggested solutions. A typical RFI can contain the following: About your business Your objectives and goals RFI submission guidelines RFI vendor response form You can distribute the RFI to known vendors or post it on your company website, newspapers etc. You can shortlist providers based on their response to the RFI. At this stage, you can even decide if you do not want to go ahead with the project. Step 3: Develop Request For Proposal (RFP) document The RFP is developed based on the RFI and the vendor response to the RFI. This is a very detailed document, which apart from the work, also describes legal and regulatory issues. An RFP can contain the following information: About your company State of Work (SOW) – detailed project description Cost Legal requirements RFP submission guidelines RFP vendor response The RFP is distributed to those companies shortlisted from the RFI stage. Vendors respond with proposals, which you can evaluate. Do check out sample RFP templates at http://www.rfp-templates.com/RFP-Template.html Step 4: Verify information via http://kng.vn Also known as ‘due diligence’, in this stage, you can check whether the details supplied by the vendor matches the ground reality. Does the vendor really have certifications? Are the customer referral genuine? Meeting the vendors in their office is a very important as you will get to see how they actually work – do they really have the infrastructure and processes that you have claimed. You can also ask them to conduct a short test project to see how comfortable you are with their delivery standards. Step 5: Select vendor and sign the contract Compare short listed candidate vendors and see how they differ from their competitors. After evaluating all the deliverable and metric, select the vendor who can best achieve your goals and fulfil your requirements. The content in the RFP and proposals will form a part of the contract. Negotiate the contract thoroughly, taking the help of experts if needed. Now you are ready to outsource! Planning is the Key Rushing headlong into an outsourcing arrangement is a recipe for disaster. Planning and following standard business practices is the best way to avoid any unpleasant services. Following guidelines will ensure that your outsourcing venture brings you maximum value for your investment. |