Outsourcing in the IT Service Management Sector
What image do you conjure up when you hear the word “Outsourced”? Perhaps, the first thought you have is some data entry work into a database. The workers are carefully reading some information off a piece of paper and typing this into a database system. The paper information is permanently recorded into the database. This kind of job requires the candidates to have some basic experiencing in computing like saving and emailing some files. Now those jobs can just go to anyone in the developing countries.
Maybe the word “Outsource” brings up an image of workers being packed in a call centre. A Call Centre Staff in Mumbai might be informing a British phone user the amount of balance he has left is his phone account. The Analyst is reminded that he is being monitored before every phone conversation to ensure that the Company’s script is recited and the Customer’s response is worked through a customer-management process that the company has already designed. Now those jobs are being lost to some microchips which have been programmed to advise the callers to press “1” for the balance… press “2” for account enquiries and press “0” for the operators.
Now we think of the word “Outsource” and how a Thai IT company could benefit from this. Maybe we think of some UNIX administrators monitoring that the CPU is not over-utilized, some certified Database Administrators ensuring that the databases are not full and Application Analysts debugging through the code trying to find out why the program has crashed. The Network Revolution has allowed this work to take place anywhere in the world. The skills required that the candidate has some IT-related education and top-notch work ethics, which makes it acceptable for that person to work all through the nights to fix a problem. What work is retained in the developed world? It is the work which requires strategic and tactical acumen to drive a business value to some tangible results. In the digital world, this world requires the orchestration of several teams dotted around the world. Electronics make up a huge part of our modern lifestyle. We love the latest Nintendo Wii, the flattest plasma screen or the smallest mobile phone. These gadgets’ heartbeats are essentially made up of microchips. These microchips have to be designed in the Silicon Valley, made in Taiwan, tested in Thailand and delivered to several wholesale stores in Germany. To make that supply chain work will require global orchestration of those teams. Now the people who drive this chain of command are essentially the CTO’s in the Headquarter who can adapt the CEO’s company’s strategy into realistic IT directions. These directions are then made into good value-for-money IT solutions.
To support the supply chain above would require a global IT infrastructure typically consisting of data centers residing near the major Electronics plants. These data centers would house and run the core applications that handle the core business and operational data of the organization. The organization would have to be connected by global network with optical fibres laid around the world. The complete spectrum of IT service has to be provided by multiple vendors specializing different areas. Essentially the client has to outsource these IT services to a multiple set of vendors. These IT Operations have to be up 24 X 7 to keep the supply chain ticking around the globe. However, issues will inevitably arise. An email application crash could stem from the application failure, database corruption or network loss. Since this issue can be fixed through the collaboration of the service vendors, a team is required to integrate these services together to deliver one seamless service for the business units within the organization. This service is sometimes called “Managed Service Integration” (MSI). This is just one of the services that we offer at Accellence.
To ensure that the client is guaranteed with high-quality service operational support, the MSI service uses the Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL) Service Support framework as its guiding principle.
The MSI team performs its role of incident management when a business critical incident occurs. The team coordinates with all vendors on the resolutions within the agreed Service Level Agreement (SLA). The team also manages the expectations the client’s stakeholders, especially the IT Management Community, on the expected resolution time. The IT Community is continually informed of the incident updates. Some incidents involve the cooperation of more than one vendor. The MSI team is responsible to facilitate this cooperation and drive the vendors to work together until the incident is resolved.
After the incident is resolved, the MSI team then focuses on the problem management of this incident. The team requests for a Root Cause Analysis to be performed by the vendor. The vendor and the MSI team then agree on SMART improvement actions (SMART stands for Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic and Time-Bound). Improvement programs are then initiated so that the same mistakes are rarely repeated and the client benefits from past incidents.
During the operations of this IT infrastructure, there will be change requests coming from the vendor or the client. The operational business needs are changing on an everyday basis e.g. the IP address within a firewall needs to be updated to allow the users to view the content from a new URL. The MSI team is responsible for coordinating the change request process with the affected stakeholders, ensuring that the change information are assessed, approved and implemented in the timely manner.
To implement such operational processes across a multicultural organization would require the MSI team member to possess combination of hard and soft skills. The hard skill would be a good IT working knowledge. However, the soft skills become important factors for this coordinating role. The soft skills would include communications, negotiations and cross-cultural appreciations.
Can this type of service management be outsourced to Thai IT companies? First we need to understand why organizations outsource in the first place. The primary driver to outsource IT services is the continued pressure the multinational organizations face to cut costs with IT while maintaining and improving processes. The time difference between the client and the IT organization allows the IT services to be maintained, satisfying the growing demand for a 24 X 7 global support. In a typical IT outsource scenario, the detailed business specifications from a European business analyst would be delivered to a team of Asian program developers to work on. In this scenario, the management of IT Operations is essentially outsourced to a team with Thai team members who are on a shift system, being prepared to take on the next business critical incidents. The challenge with this business model lies in finding well-trained IT professionals with the right blend of technical knowledge and the management/communications skills.
How can Thailand get a piece of this action? The challenge ahead for Thailand is to identify the right candidates to train and take on this role. The right candidate has to have a good command of written and spoken English, be a quick learner, be flexible with their working hours and be confident enough to challenge points of contention with people from other cultures. The potential of this candidate has to be fostered within the organization. For details on how talents should be picked and fostered, the book called “Winning”, by Jack Welch (ex-CEO of General Electric) is highly recommended. However, Mr. Welch’s approach then has to be fine-tuned to fit the Thai culture.
Seneca, the Roman philosopher, quotes “Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity”. If the Thai IT companies are prepared to find the right candidates and to nurture their talents to meet the global outsourcing opportunity, then the Lady Luck might just turn into Baht for Thailand.
About The Author
Worayot Anuvatnujotikul is the Vice President of the Managed Operations – Consulting service line.
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